The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-25

Buffalo, N. Y, Sept. 25.-Mrs. Jeffer-
son Davis, widow of the president of
the southern confederacy. is seriously
ill at Castle Inn in this city.
Mrs. jefferson Davis was said to be
somewhat better this morning.
DR.. Charles G. Stockton was sum-
moned at noon Thursday when Mrs.
Davis condition alarmed those in at
tendance. Late in the afternoon an
other physician was called in for con-
sultation. DR. Stockton, when leaving
the hotel shortly before O'Clock. said:
Mrs. Davis is in serious condition.
but Eer illness is not of nature that
necessarily must prove fatal"
Mrs. Davis came to Castle Inn on
Monday from Port Colborne, Ont,
where she has been spending the sum-
mer party of friends accompanied
her. twenty in all. one of whom is her
granddaughter, Miss Lucy w. Hayes.
of Colorado Springs. 1t has been Mrs.
Davis custom to spend her summers in
Canada or at northern resort. living
in New York city during the winter
months. Her first visit to Canada was
made shortly after the close of the civil
war. when she and her husband spent
some time in Toronto. Since then the
soiourn in Canada has been a frequent
occurrence
Mrs Davis wept when she appeared
before the Mississippi legislature last
year at Jackson, Miss. She was escort
ed to the capitol and introduced to the
joint session by Senator Cayce, who
eulogized Jefferson Davis and spoke of
his distinguished service to his coun-
of Mississippi for the only president of
the confederate states Mrs. Davis
cried when she attempted to reply.
"Gehtlemen." she said, II shall all
ways tenderly love the people of Mis-
sissipDi. who have clung to the cause
of a defeated man. l can say no more .
year ago Mrs. Davis refused an
offer of 100000 for Beauvoir, the old
,e-f.@
sippi She offered the place to the state
for $4,000 to be used as a home for ex-
confederates.
In March, 1902, a general southern re-
ception was given to Mrs. Davis at New
Orleans. Thousands of men and women
shook her hand. It was with great
trepidation that the old veterans or the
Civil war approached the chair or Mrs.
Davis She made vivid for them the
memory of their old leader the man
who had distinguished himself in the
army and the congress of the United
States before he had become the chief
executive of the nation which made
such an impression upon the world dur
ing the four short years of its exist
ence. She had been at the side of the
Confederate president during the stormy
period, and she. after the death of that
leader, had become to the survivors of
the war the symbol of that struggle,
one of the last strong links that bound
them to the glorious past.
One mile below Algiers, La. facing the
river. is the hamlet of Tunisburg, now
designated as McLellanville, and two
blocks back from the river stand the
ruins of an old fashioned mansion. sur
rounded by a grove of cedar trees. a
mansion wherein w. B. Howell father
in-law of Jefferson Davis. resided with
his family for awhile. Mr. Howell was
at that time naval officer of the port of
New Orleans. In this residence Varina
Banks Howell. widow of Jefferson Davis,
passed many a day.
Mr. Davis bought the old home from
his relatives in 1853. and it continued in
his possession until seized by the United
States authorities and sold under the
confiscation act.