The record-union., 1898-03-10

of medium stature, and of late years
quite portly. He has a fine head aid
face, with frank steel blue eyes and a
ruddy complexion. set eff by his now
| almost white hair. mustache and I'M
| perial. His bearing is alert and mill
! tary. Altogether he does not look, ana
probably does not feel. his 62 years.
| The day after his Inauguration Gen
eral Lee called upon President Cleve-
| land by special invitation The friend
| ship then formed ripened to an init
macy which from that day to this has
remained unbroken. That same year
General Lee was elected Governor of
| Virginia. Eight years afterward, when
| Mr.. Cleveland was again President, he
| appointed the General Collector of In
ternal Revenue at Lynchburg, Va.
| General Lee married at Alexandria.
Va, in 1871, Ellen Bernard. who also
comes of one Of the first families of
the Old Dominion. They have five chill
dren Ellen. Fitzhugh. George, Nan
| ME, and Virginia Lee. Their home at
| Lynchburg is on the main residence
street of that quantity terraced ola
town, rising high above the south bank
of the James River. 1t is a pleasan;
and hospitable house. in the old Vir-
| ginia style full of history and per-
| sonal reniniscence in furniture, pic
lures and relics of various kinds
| IL the spring OF 1896 President Cleve-
! land had projected sending special
| Commissioner to Cuba Instead of that.
he finally decided to appoint Lee Con-
sul-General, combining with the usual
duties of the office the extra require
ment that he should inform himself,
| as military man, of the real status
| of affairs in the island, for the guidance
Of the President.
THE MAN OF LETTERS.
| After the war General Lee went back
| to his desolated farm in Stafford Coua
| ty and set doggedly to work
Il had been accustomed all my life,
| he says. ito draw corn from the Quar-
termaster, and found 1t rather hard
| now 10 draw it from an obstinate soil;
but I did it,"
| General Fitzhugh Lees chief title 10
| literary fame is his brilliant Life OF
/ General Lee" the best of all biogra-
phies of the great Confederate COM
mander, dedicated ''to the memory of
the soldiers VINO fought and fell under
the wave of Robert +. Lees sword, and
are sleeping in unbroken ranks, with
| the dew ON their brows and rust or.
! their mail"
"Fitz" Lee is of nature ever out
| spoken, generous and loyal to friend
and foe, through good or evil report.
Nothing perhaps is more expressive OF.
his trait than the following passage
from his book, discussing Abraham
Lincoln, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson
| Davis:
When the red curtain of war rolled
up from the American stage to the
world We're revealed two Presidential
chairs. In one was seated Mr. Abrt-
ham Lincoln, in the other Mr.. Jeffer-
son Davis. These two Chief Magls-
| trates We're both born in Kentucky.
One when a small child was carried Dy
| his parents to Mississippi, the other
| when about $ years old was taken TO
| Indiana. and afterward TO Illinois
Each absorbed the political theories or
his respective State. Had Davis been
| carried to Illinois and Lincoln to Mis-
| issippi in the war between the States
| Lincoln might have been carrying a
Mississippi rife while Davis held aloft
| the Star Spangled Banner.
| The deeds of brave soldier. even
though unsuccessful, excite the ad-
miration of mankind. The civil ruler
| of the yanquished is not so fortunate
| when the power to sustain his gov
| ernment departs. Mr. Davis was not
/ the demon of hate his enemies have
painted. He did not thirst for the
blood of his coutnrymen. His whole
| character has been misunderstood by
the mass of the people who opposed his
puolc views. His heart was Tender as
a woman's; he was brave as lion and
true as the needle to the pole to mis-
convictions; in disposition generous; in
| character courteous and chivalric =
Henry Tyrrell, in New York Herald.