The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1899-11-05
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8. 1899
DREAM INTERPRETED.

Reaacrs of The Times will recail 'n''
snrne months back THIS paper diIecleu @'-
,ention 70 an article in the A"dn'i0
nfo,,blv by John $. Wise. Esd
Of New York. in which he told OF mis-
sim mon Which he was sent by Presiue"l
Davis 70 General Lee while the Army Oh
Northern Virginia was falling back 10 APP
pomattox Courthouse Mr.. Wise toIo III
that article that be was a Lieutenant oi
eighteen years and that General Lee had
no knowledge Of who be was further IMAM
that he was "a lad bringing him "a message
from Mr.. Davis. Mr. Wise proceeded then
IN detail a conversation he had with Cen
eral Lee IN which ne described statements
nv General Lee that were simply asiound-
ing 10 aH Confederate soldiers Amongst
other things. he showed that General LIE
had made a conhdant of him in respect 10
his plans. and had told him, i'm substance
that he had always known tine Conied-
eracv could not succeed. ana this in such
a way as to indicate Enthusiastically that
General Lee had never had any heart IN
the cause
The Times took the liberty OF expressing
It's amazement at these statements ana
of questioning the accuracy Of Mr.. Wise.s
recollections. il did not intimate that MT.
Wise had wilflly misrepresented any
thing. but it suggested that he must have
.dreamed'' the interview and, through
time and many repetitions. he had come
70 believe that what was originally a
dream had really become reality.
Mr. Wise took sharp exception 10 our
exclamation Of the case and protested, all
most violently. against it,
The whole thing IS made perfectly clear
now.
Mr.. Wise has published a book called
..The End Of an Era. which deals with
social conditions before the civil war IN
Virginia and gives his own personal recol-
lections Of the events of the war that came
under his own observ atoms. lie tells us in
his preface that he tried to write in the
third person but found he was making
miserable failure and was therefore COM
PEELED. from the artistic standpoint. 10
write in the FIRST person singular But he
found himself embarrassed by the diff
Guilty that some Of the things ne wanted to
tell about happened to his brother Dick
while others happended TO himself and
as he could not make out which was the
quota Of Dick and which was his own, he
appropriated all TO himself ard told them
all as happening to himself We quote the
following from his preface:
when first conclgocd % print this book
] made an honest effort 90 construct il I'm
the third person. IL was a iamentabie
failure and made it aDIsar even more
cgotlstlcal than in is present form. Hav-
ing returned TO the narrative in the first
person singular. I found myself a partici-
pant in several scenes in which 1 was not
actually present How % eliminate these
and at the same time preserve the con-
tinuity Of the narrative was serious
problem. : solved 10 at last by the con-
cent OF my only living brother. that ho
lyOald stand FOR me $50 several episodes,
having told nae az ] knew "a note at
this point names Hon Richard \. Wise,
Of WILLIAMSBURG IL will not mar the
narrative by pointing out the places ia
which my brother r. myself. This confess
sion redeems the book from being classed
either as an autobiography or a romance
and whenever anybody shall say TO me-
why YOU were not there? i viii answer
like the Israelite gentleman. Yes.
know. Dot vas mine brudder.'
That explains the whole q ing The inter
view was between General Lee and Dick,
and II was 70 Dick General Lee made
these astonishing statements. Johns part
went no further than recording it, Dick
Cid the dreaming.