The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-12
| AID TO REST
IN OLD VERONA
Final Honors to Ransom
the Peacemaker.
Man OF THE FARM
Brilliant and Successful as Soldier and
Statesman, He Loved Best the
Broad Acres and the HomeIy
Scenes Among Which, Fit
ting.y, He Rests in
Death.
BY r.. l.. GRAY.

Garysburg. N. c., oct. 10.-There
was a peculiar fitness in the place in
which the family of the late Senator
Matt w. Ransom had elected to
place his grave.
Saving the giant oaks that grace
the grounds of Verona the OLD
country place at which the dead SOL
der ana statesman had best liked
TO spend his days, the eve may sweep
for miles about the place and encount-
er only fiat fields of cotton and corn
and the Scrubbv brush that tells of
old fields" turned loose to recuperate
their virgin STRENGTH.
For General Ransom was first of
all farmer. Land was the passion
of his life. TO own his acres. to ride
over them by day, to plan for them
by night, to watch the cotton planted
in the spring, to hear the ringing
chorus of the choppers in the sultry
summer days, to catch the purple
pinkness of the blooms when first
the bolls were forming. and then to
supervise the picking in the fresh and
dewy mornings of the fall-these
things to General Ransom were as
the breath of the sea to a Wanderer
in inland ways. That such a man.
stuck as he was from boyhood to
the soil. charged with the traditions
| .,
have been thrown forward into the
noisy paths of life is a fact wonderful
in itself: that the farmer should have
given to this in-apt and not considered
chance a touch of brilliancy that in
his later years gave StrangeneSS to
his country calling. but only shows
power that touched the skirts of
genius.
Matt Whitaker Ransom Che was
named for an uncle, famous old DR..
Matt Whitaker of Halifax. and his
name was not Matthew" as error
has so widely had IT'D was also farm
er of men. That is he inclined them.
coaXed them, cultivated them with
the same care and attention to detail
which he gave his crops. Incidentally
in politics, he became at twenty-eight
Attorney General of the State-the
instrument by which a political coup
went through. When the great war
flashed it's menace athWart the land
he became lieutenant colonel of the
lThirty-fifth North Carolina. he
was promoted to colonel. then
to be brigadier general. His
war record was one of hard fighting.
of conspicuous bravery. of able hand
ling of his men. He was second in
command with Hoke at Plymouth. His
brigade stood guard the nine months
of the Petersburg siege-the 10Th
charging with Mahone's brigade and
| turning the scare OF the crater
into a union slaughter He fought
magnificently at Mayres Heights ar
! fredericksburg. at Five Forks-he
was carried from the field at NAL
vern's Hill. Yet in all this. he fol-
lowed too closely the line of his duty
to gain world notice as Captain OF
! War. 1t is the man whose initiative
| is something more than q necessary
iaudacity who either gains the plauiits
| or earns the contempt of the world.
Greatness is a desperate game. it's re-
ward oft times Whirling coin or
chance with heads success and
tails a failure"
| Matt Ransom never ran risks when
| they did not follow in the scheme OF
his philosophy. when the loss of the
stakes meant bankruptcy.
After the war, when in 1872 he
went to the Senate. he found his place.
| Even then the embers slumbered hot
| beneath the ashes. 1t often seemed
as though nothing but a breath were
needed to bring the flame; and. While
| good men from both sections blew
| hard upon the bellows of their vanity
and lost in self-centered ambitions
| the clearer vision of the mass. Matt
Ransom sat in the Senate, smiling.
affable, MISUNDERSTANDING the fires
| that his friends on either side made
| imminent.
And mark the similarity between
| his record in the war-brave. stead
| fast. true at times brilliant-and his
| record in the Senate, quiet. unobtru-
sive, influential. In both periods ii
seemed that he had taken UP his
burden with an eye single to it's best
accomplishment in the interests OF
| those he served.
| He knew men-did Ransom-so
said his enemies. even. with a smile.
| Is it not likely that he forecasted the
result?.
And, so. when the cry of those
whose eyes are trained for the rocket
went up to ask what is Ransom
doing in the Senate?" he did not
complain. With the courtly habit of
his life. he bowed and smiled and
went.
And there it was today. on the face
| that death had paled, looking up from
closed eyes and the long lashes that
brushed the waXen cheeks, the same
courtly gravity that held a smile al
ways ready to appear. 1t would have
done this old man good could he have
seen-and one felt the wish that is
common to the houses of the dead that
PERHAPS. after all, he might see,-the
reverent men who trooped past the
casket covered with it's red flowers
and white, with the battle flag of the
| Confederacy done in floral design
lnodding at his head. The face looked
up quietly, gravely through the glass,
it seemed with almost suggestion of
humour behind the sad tranquility of
its mein. Women were there in num-
bers. They seemed to love the face.
1t was not drawn. it did not repel. He
had known deo+'o was coming. he had
faced it calmly. Mercifully it had
come to him quickly Fate had grant
ed him the universal wish of brave
men to die old but not decrepit. before
y,
years. He was ready and the sad
ness was last MESA ge of his love
to those he left behind.
verona" is place that shows the
simple tastes of the Ransom family.
IT is an old house. one stored with a
basement. with two verandas. front
and back, and quaint. overhanging
caves of carved and fluted wood work
In it lived the father of Mrs. Ran