Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-05-05

DINA, is bereaved.
He belonged to a type peculiar
to the south-to the "old south
with it's dignity of bearing and
elevation OF character, and not to
the new south" with it's pertness
and smart commercialism.
He was from a noble stock, far
famed for patriotism and knight
illness from colonial times, and he
was worthy of his ancestry.
At the outbreak of the war be-
tween the states, it is said that he
was the wealthiest planter in the
world. But he died poor.
On the occasion of the funeral OF
the lamented Senator Alfred Holt
Colquitt, a man in many respects
very like General Hampton, I said:
HE has lived during a time when
vast fortunes have been easily ac-
quired. He has been placed where a
less scrupulous man would have
grasped large wealth. But he has
died poor. 1 think he was little
proud of his poverty The last time
1 saw him, with evident enjoyment
he told me of the jocose greeting OF
a western senator who, meeting him
a few years ago at Hot Springs,
Ark, grasped his hand cordially and
said: L love to shake the hands of
you old-fashioned southern sena-
tors. You are as poor as church
mice and as honest as the MONDAY
I trust it is not improper to say,
1 wish we may be always delivered
from too thrifty statesmen.
What a noble spectacle was
there. An aged man who had spent
upwards of 40 years in his coun-
try's service, now worn by disease
and Strengthened in circumstances,
hut radiant with cheerful smiling
honor, undisturbed by poverty, UNI
dismayed by disease, fearless in the
the face of DEATH"
Such also was General Wade
Hampton. He was one of those
Southern Senators whose poverty
and honesty evoked the admiration
of the western man who met Sen
ator Colquitt at Hot Springs. They
constituted type all to themselves,
and their influence is so potent and
persistent even yet that most of our
southern representatives exhibit
the monumental characteristics of
the old south. The civilization of
which the Hamptons, Lamars. Cor
dons and Colquitts were products
still gives form and color to the life
of our public servants. Our repre-
sentatives at Washington win their
way to power there not by pelf, but
by mental prowess. Most of them
are nobly poor and reverently re-
spected. Only enough change has
come to pass thus far to show by
sharp contrast how cheap is, mere
money alongside of genuine man
hood. The new type looks like a
shoddy addition stuck onto noble
specimen of Grecian architecture.
General Hampton did not die poor
because he was indolent or incapa-
BILE. The man who conducted so sue
cessfully before the war his large
planting interests could not have
been deficient in business sagacity
nor in, diligence. The commander Of
the famous legion was capable of
equal to the management of the
most complicated affairs. He who
carried wounds from the fields of
Bull Run, Seven Pines and Gettys-
burg was no dainty, inefficient ex-
quisite, but a man of toughest fiber.
His deliverance of South Carolina
from ruinous misrule and his re-
Mobilization of the commonwealth
afterwards marked him as a man of
practical wisdom and an official
given to painstaking absorption in
the details of administration. He
died poor not by any fault, but in
the unfaltering pursuit of virtue,
scorning mercenary methods to es-
cape want. He specialized in no
state secrets, voting in the senate
and hurrying to the stock exchange
to catch the fruit of his vote, as
the manner of some was and is. His
spirit was manifested when after
his home had been consumed in an
unfortunate fire, he forbade the
popular subscription proposed for
it's restoration. So enthroned was
he in the hearts of thousands, that
the lost home would have been
speedily restored by the glad gen
erosity of his fellow countrymen,
and the second house would have
been more glorious than the first.
But it did not comport with his
ideas of propriety and self-respect,
and he put aside with dignified re-
fusal the offer, agreeing with King
Solomon that ''he that is greedy of
gain troubleth his own house; but
he that hateth gifts shall live"
After the same manner Georgia's
best beloved son, John B. Gordon,
refused a similar offer, preferring to
rebuild his own house by the toll Of
his own hands and brain.
This was always the way of the
class of men to which they belonged
and how sharply it contrasts with
the ways of some others. For ex-
ample there was once an American
naval officer who with superior
ships and arms battered to pieces
some Spanish hulks in a remote
harbor, meantime at a safe distance
taking coffee between shots. Re-
turned home his over-enthusiastic
countrymen said: I'VE will give
him a fine home at the national cap
ital" to which he responded with
alacrity, Even so. good friends.
and furniture for it too, if you
please" And then when the house
and furniture were made over to
him he quickly passed the gift 20