Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-11-07
COL. JOHN M. BROOKE.
The Man Who Designed the Ram
Merrimac.
He Was with Perry in Japan-Inventedt tho
Deep Sea Sounding apparatus Lees
Once at Lexington The Grave of Stone
wall Jackson.

In the basement of the chapel of
Washington and Lee University, at
Lexington, Va, the Office of the late
Robert e. Lee. formerly president of
that institution. is preserved exactly
as he left it on the morning that he oc-
cupied it for the last time. Not a book
a letter or n paper has ever been dis
turbed. Once or twice a year the room
is carefully busted, but at all times the
windows are kept closed and the shut
ters drawn in order to protect the
sacred place so far as possible Let
ters that he received the last morning
that he was able to do any work lie on
his writing table under a paper weight
The newspapers he read that day are
beside them precisely where he laid
them down. the morning reports of the
di1ferent members of the faculty lie
untouched. They were never exam
ined. Visitors are sometimes admitted
TO this hottest of HOLES. especially if
they served in the Confederate army
under the great chieftain. whose dust
Is enclosed in marble Sarcopha gus
across the hall from his study beneath
n beautiful recumbent statue. which is
said to be tire bCSt likeness mat cNists
Stonewall Jackson is buried in the
little public cemetery ut the other end
resenting him upon the battlefield with
field glass in his hands. Gen. Jack
sons house is now occupied as n tene-
ment by several families. The hall adj
joining the First Presbyterian Church,
in which he conducted his famous
niger sunday school. is still occu-
pied for that purpose. for it is no lon
ger considered cOntemptuouS for lesser
men than Stoncwall jackson TO teach
coiored people the truths of the Bible
Some years ago story was pub
lishcd widely throughout the country
about Gen Jackson's ghost haunting
the halls of the Virginia Military In
stitute. where he was a professor, but
1t turns out to have been fake" in
vented by two imaginative students
who were DESTROYS OF creating a SEN
sation.
Col. John NJ. Brooke. who designed
the ram Merrimac and thus revolu-
tionized marine warfare. is still living
at Lexington, professor emeritus of
physics in the Virginia Military Insti-
| tute. He was one of the early grad
yates OF the Naval Academy of An
napolis, served with honor and distinc-
ton in the navy, commanded one of
| the ships in Commodore Perry's squad
ron that opened Japan TO foreign COM
mercc. and invented the deep sea
| sounding apparatus now in use
tnTouSnout the world. Col. BROOKE mas
| patented several other important in
ventions and has received medals. di-
| plomas and other rewards from sew
era. nations. He left the navy to en-
| ter tho Confederate army at the be-
| ginning of the civil war. and at the
| close of the war was appointed to a
| professorshp in the Virginia Military
Institute, which he still holds.
Early in the war the Confederate
| military authorities found themselves
almost entirely without percussion caps
and President Davis sent for Governor
Letcher, Of Virginia. TO devise some
means of obtaining them. Governor
Letcher said that he knew man who
could build machinery 10 make them,
and summoned Col. Brooke. The emer-
gency was explained to him. and he
was asked if he could do anything to
relieve 1t. lie replied: Give me till
to- morrow morning to think 1t over"
and the next day brought In sketches
of machinery for making caps, which
was manufactured and used by the
Confederates through the war.
| Col. Brooke Is now 70 years DID, but
is still vigorous and walks from his