Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1901-05-04
r,.n n;.s,les Of deatruction we're fiying

when missiles OF OBSTRUCTION were nyinS
thick and fast about him and his
charges, the hospital tents white
flag being often fred Oh. The war
having ended he returned to bis home
and We'd with his father and brothers
in endeavoring to place the old Gazette
once more on its feet. Instead OF the
large paper be had known since infancy
be found o dimunitivs sheet pear
ing the name "Alexandris Gazstte,"
and heap of ruins on the spot wnere
the old Office had formerly stood, the
building having been destroyed oy
federal soldiers. 1t was to him az SAD
q sight as the new temple of Jerusalem
was to those who had remembered the
splendor of that OF Solomon's. lie,
however. shed no tesrs--he had learned
too we'll lessons from the sad fate OF
war during his four years. experience,
a nd went to work with will 10 help
ing to place the Gazette in the posi-
ton he left 1t. His hope was
re Allied in the following year,
new office having been erected
and the paper enlarged to Its former
proportions. He from 1855 to 1876 had
exclusive charge of the local depart
ment, during which time be was up'
firing In his labors and made that
department of the Gazette an interest
Ing feature. From 1870 to 1877 he was
Clerk of the City Council, but transact
ed the duties OF the position without
reliuquishing his labors on the paper.
la 1876 This father having died the pre-
ceding year, he became the virtual
editor of the paper, his brother, Edgar
Snowden, IT,, having been appointed
assistant postmaster of the House OF
Representatives, and from that period to
the time he was stricken, he wrote the
bulk of editorials which appeared In its
columns, in the meantime furnishing
the Washington correspondence, which
for nearly aquarter OF a century has
baen an interesting feature OF the
Gszstte. His observations at the ma
tional capital all these years have been
read with interest and his structures,
which were sometimes keen, have in
the main been just. Quick to see the
hypocrisy and bollowness of many who
BY accident or otherwise become politi-
cal leaders, he was unspsrlng in bis
expositions and hewed to the line, un-
concerned as to where the chips fell.
His acquaintance with public men was
extensive, and his daily intercourse
with them enabled him to present to
the readers of the Gazette the fresh
est news from the national capital.
He wsrred long against Mahoueism and
lived to see the State torn from Its
embrace and the party completely
eliminated from the Old Dominion.
The doctor was confirmed In his deduc-
tions and his opinions when once formed
were seldom abandoned. The transition
of the great republic under which he
was born and reared into grasping,
| unmerclful and rapscious empire was
the cause of much Of his criti-
cism, and though he was ever on
this issue pessimistic, he voiced the
principles of honesty and right which
none could gainssy nor resist, and
which time may yet prove correct.
Thoroughly Southern in all bis In
stincts, be could never reconcile him.
self to the gradual dlminution OF the
ideas and customs of the old-time South
land, and while new generations APP
peared who were inclined to fit them.
selves to the modern evoluiions, many
OF which were exotic and savored Of
northern climes, he olung with ten.
aoity to the scenes of by-gone days
when the sunny South was at Its zenith
and old Virginia manners and customs
prevailed. The doctors soul ever wan
dered amid the recollections OF those
by.gone days and was never weaned
from them by modern thoughts or
fashions, His convictions formed by
intelligent thought, were never chang
ed, and to him the principles which he
believed sacred 10 1861 were the same
at Appomattox and we're treasured
throughout the thirty-six years which
have followed. He succeeded DR..
Brown as surgeon OF Lee Camp, Confed-
crate Veterans. DR.. Snowden In the
fall OF 1876 married Miss Leila Lackey,
who survives him.
And now we come to the last
scene OF all which ends the
"strange eventful history" He Is
the third one Of the family
who has controlled the Gazette for
the past hundred years, who has pass.
ed into the spirit world in little over
a quarter of a century. The venerable
editor under whose management the
paper became a Virginia institution,
was gathered to his fathers in 1875, his
oldest son Edgar in 1892 and the SUBJ
ject of this notice this morning.
Exz2E za5[1eS'
From WASHINGTON.