The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-08-31
MIR. DELEON THE MOST STRIKING FIGURE
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH

mingles with his story Of the four years
conflict.
Chaudron. in a sketch of Mr.. De Leon.
wrote that he had sounded every nors
In the gamut of literature from philoso-
ply to burlesque. Were one not as
sured of the fact" wrote Chaudron. 1T
would be hard to believe that the au-
thor Of -Four Years IN Rebel Capitals
had evolved the well-known parody of
Amelie Rives, The Rock or the Rye
which ran to a twenty eighth edition
and won the laughing applause of the
fair young authoress whose story 1t car
icatured''
Those who have heard Mr.. De Icons
lecture In 1.-The Creole. His Habitat and
His Carnival, will recall that he design
ed the massing of scattered maskers into
a Mardi Gras carnival IN Mobile and made
it a success for many years. During that
time he was invited to other cities to
make carniyals, among them Pensacola,
Vicksburg and in 1881 the first Oriole pa
geant at Baltimore. He subsequently de-
signeu and managed at Albany, n. Y,
the two hundredth anniversary of the
Duke of York's charter to Peter Schuy-
Ter, and made the bi-centennary carnival
that was the first ever seen that far
north.
1t is interesting to know that Mr.. De
Leon managed the first interstate drill
and encampment at which the blue and
the gray tente,. together, post bellum-
that at Mobile in 1885, when General
Bentley of Iowa brought his Northwest
ern Brigade" wearing badges halved in
the two colors. Mr.. De Leon also de-
signed and managed the national drill
and encampment at Washington in 1881,
where 70, 500 of the flower of the National
Guard of the Union competed for the
largest prizes ever given. On that me-
morable occasion the Lomax Rifles, of
Mobile. won the championship of Amer
lea under Captain f. p. Davis.
In the social life of the south, Mr.. De
Leon has always been prominent. In
Washington, he Is a familiar figure at
the clubs and legations. To the bellies
and beauties of another day with whom
he trod a measure, 1t may be some conso-
laton to know that he is still a bachelor.
One of his biographers declares that In
days of yore Mr.. De Leon was a fair
athlete and that he had not forgotten
how to handle a foil with grace and
some danger to his antagonist.
Continuing the description, "he is fond
of good dinners, and is not a verse to a
supper at the hours when Dick Steele
used to think out. or drink out essays
for the Spectator"
friend, Mr.. De Leon thus speaks of his
present work:
81 am pretty sure I am growing old;
as my brother Edwin used to say-'grow-
ing gray inside Broken health and the
loss of my dexter optic make steady
work. such as / used to revel in, a labor
of anything but love. came up here
for rest and recuperation, with a little
lecturing to fill up the chinks; and 10!
I have plunged into many and divers
things that demand eyes-and legs. I
have Matched out one new lecture to add
to too much repertory already; and am
driving, all that eyes and time permit,
to finish the entire rewriting of my
mountain idyl, Out of the Rift. You
know I wrote 1t as a short story. on a
visit three years syne. Then held 1t to
make a more elaborate picture of the