Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-15


the conversation turned upon Gen. Robert
E. Lee. whose birthday anniversary will
be celebrated throughout the south next
week.
Not only do / maintain that Gen. Lee
was the greatest master of the art of war
of his age, but that he was one of the
most benign of all historic characters"
said Judge Mackey of South Carolina. Il
tell this anecdote, which has lever been
printed. as illustrating his fine sense of
justice and his generous consideration for
the rights of others:
ION August 16. 1864, Gen. Lees army
attacked Grants left at point few miles
above Petersburg. The attack made with
considerable force, was at first successful,
and We captured about 400 prisoners. As
the prisoners were brought into our lines
Lee was standing ly the side of his horse
writing an order, with the paper resting
upon the saddle Just then one of the
federal prisoners rushed up in a state Of
great excitement al said to Lee:
General. one of your soldiers has stolen
my hat
Gen. Lee turned to the prisoner, who
was a youth of eighteen or nineteen, and
said:
Where is the man who took your hat?'
H. is enc of the guard; that man with
red whisSers over there, the federal re-
piled
Lee tLereupon ordered Col. Marshall of
his staff, one of the knightliest of soldiers
himself. to recover the hat, which was
done. and he delivered it to the soldier
rs it not remarkable that general,
watching the progress of battle, and franz
ing an order 10 direct it, should turn away
to do justice to prisoner under such cir
cumstanceS? Especially when the soldier
who tock the nat needed it far more than
the man from whom il taken; for
tie average confederate soldier was in one
sense plumed knight. He had no crown,
and his uplifted hair was a plume of nat
ural growth.
1T is a remarkable fact that Gen. Lee
never wore a sword during the war, ~
any weapon. and he never buckled on Il
sword until the DAY cf his surrender. and
then as an act of courtesy to Gen. Grant.
and as proper for the occasion. when terms
of surrender were being agreed upon.
Gen. Lee did not expect to surrender his
sword to Grant. because. by the terms CT
surrender. all officers We're to retain their
side arms: but he did expeCt, as / have
heard him state, that Grant would go
through the form Of touching the ht of
his sword. according 10 the custom of war
But Grant. nagnamious of soldiers, did not
even 10 that
* * =
There is Il misccnception as to the eX-
tent of the influence of heat and cold up
on the perpenGicularity of the Washington
monument remarked n well-known engi-
neer to a Star reporter, "and the idea
that the monument sways far out of plumb
is wrong. The pendulum apparatus which
is in use in the monument shows occasional
divergencieS. but even with the most exact
observations made by most competent men,
these Emergencies are very slight. The
apparatus is graduated so fine that it
shows a leaning of one-tenth of an inch.
Now. l find that the idea very generally
prevails that the monument leans away
from the several feet. There is far
from being correct. The heat from the
sun affects the monument, as 1t does the
dome of the Capitol, but by no means to
the extent that is generally believed In
winter time this is much less marked than
1t is during the Summer, for by the time
the sun warns the structure to any APP
preciapie extent it passes around, first
to the south and then on to the west Sc
that 1t equaliZeS Its influence. The effect
as marked by the pendulum Is, therefore
on many days more imaginary than real
though, as l have stated, in very warm
weather the pendulum shows variance OF
an inch at times from plumb The
same thing occurs in very high brick
houses. the twenty to thirty-story build
lngs in New York and Chicago, for in
stance, but it is so slight and SO difficult
TO measure that no attention is ever given
TO 1t. a daily record is kept of the pendu-
lum At the monument, but the matter has
Deeh regarded as so unimportant that there
mas never been any record published. The
dome of the Capitol being of iron is much
more influenced by the sun than the monu-
ment, but even this is unimportant ana
so slight that it has never been accurately
asc"rtdlncd or measured The word pic
ture of tine Goddess of Liberty going out
every morning to receive the kiss of the
sun god Is. therefore, to very great
extent. a fiction. though no doubt a very
beautiful one"
y = =
Until l came to this country" said an
attache of a European legation to Star
reporter. Il never knew or had never
heard of the custom which prevails in this
country of dressing the dead in the ord-
nary clothing. The custom therefore
srikts foreigner as very peculiar.
Throughout Europe the custom is to dress
the dead in what is called the dead gown
loose gown. or habit, as it is called in
some places. This is generally inexpen-
sive, though. Of course. there are some
exceptions and in these the gowns are
often very costly The comparatively in
expensive gown. however. prevails Marie
Teresa. the wife of the King of Austria
according 10 the legends. made with her
own hands the gown in which The king was
bLrled- She also off her hair with
her own hands to show to the world that
she was widow In many instances
Old Ladies have their dead gowns made
up for years before they are called
upon TO use them. l found the same Gus
tom prevails in Ireland and elsewhere. 1t
from the nature and sacredness of It. but
am SURF the ordinary European will never
make any change in this respect and the
dead gown will always remain in use
X
an furnishing the supplies for the relief
OF the miners up in the KIondike." said
an officer of the commissary corps to
Star reporter. Captain Brainerd proposes
TO adopt the ordinary army ration as far
as 1t is possible 10 do so. and by this I
mean the full-sized ration. which is given
every soldier in the army. There may
be something. indeed a number Of
tEirgs. which will interfere with this but
If the plan can be carried out success
fully many of the klondikers will fare bet
ter after they once get into the Brainerd
mess than they ever did before. The ra-
ton is an extremely liberal one CAPTAIN
Brainerd will take quantity of pork and
bacon. somewhat out of the usual propor-
Hons, for his experience in the arctic has
shown him that pig meat. the fatter the
better. is the hest bar iS