The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-04
THE HOMES HISTORY
Once the Abiding Place .of Jefferson
Davis. 1t is Now The Home OF
Gray Haired Veterans
of the Lost
Cause.
Cause.
Beauvoir, Miss, May 90, 1905.

immemorial, they are also sources OF
inspiration. What Virginian is not
proud of Mount Vernon and Month
cello, and who in the Carolinas does
not feel his patriotic ardor grow
WARMER as he approaches the places
where such men as Davie and Calhoun
have lived? For this, reason the resi-
dences of really great men ought 10 De
kept intact and open to the pubhc at
the expense of the State.
Mississippi has produced many men
Of power and infiuence-and she mas
such men now living within her Dor
ders-but she has one name that Will
live. on as long as the American union
exists and probably be loved and re-
spected the more as the years go BY
that name is Jefferson Davis. For
courage, strength of manly character
and devotion to his people and their
caus, through good as well as ill-re-
pute DAVIS will ever be justly admired.
And more than this, after the cause
for which he gave his very life failed
entirely from the earth, he was long
made the object of persecution by the
hosts of his enemies and at times his
own people seemed about to lay upon
his shoulders the responsibility for It's
failure.
IneSt CIRCUMSTANCES anu many
others cause the visitor to tread with
reverence the portals Of Beauvoir, the
home of his declining years. Beauvoir
is an estate of one thousand acres
fronting the Gulf of Mexico; it is sit
uated about half way between Mobile
and New Orleans. A more beautiful
place could not have been found along
the whole Southern coast. From its
front piazza one sees far out over the
roll ff1or a
breaking Of the waves against the
sloping shore goes on forever remind
ing one of the endless works of nature
and the brevity of all that man does
or can do: cool breeze from the
southwest renders the otherwise
ccorching climate as delightful as the
heart could desire in summer and in
winter its warm moist breath drives
away the chills Of the North.
Mr.. Davis was addicted all his life
to colds and neuralgia which made a
residence in Northern climates almost
unendura bIe-many times when the
weight Of the responsibility of the Con-
federate cause rested heavily upon
him he was racked with pain. He was
hardly free from acute suffering sim
gle day when he was organizing the
Confederate Government at Mont
gomery and in Richmond when the
Daily Examiner and the Charleston
Mercury were constantly laundering
their disapproyal of all his acts
against him he was suffering torture
from his seemingly incurable disease.
II was only when the war closed and
after his two years of shameless i'm
prisonment that he was able to retire
90 this friendly shore of Southern
Mississippi and find some bodily COM
fort. The world will not blame the ex-
President for selecting this far-off
spot after such a stormy life nor be-
grudge him the. ease and comfort
which he here for a short span of life
enjoyed.
Beauvoir house was given to Mr..
Davis by kind and admiring lady
friend and at time when his fortunes
were so broken as to make the gift
doubiy valuable though he never ac-
cepted the gift until after the lady s
death when his notes for purchase
price which he had insisted on were
returned. He improved the place
somewhat, built an office in the left
front corner of the yard-as every
old-fashioned Southern gentleman
would have done-and in the right
front corner he had summer house
erected for his oldest daughter whose
husband was afflicted with lung dis
ease and who was compelled TO speiu
mis- winters in the South. With the
remnants of his family gathering about
him he settled down mere ABOUT the
year 1876, and here he died in 1889.
The home is built high up on brick
pillars and is surrounded by broad
verandas after the fashion of ante
bellum days; it contains only four
rooms, two smaller ones and a base
ment. 1t is single stored house and
much smaller than the homes of
Washington or Jefferson in Virginia:
but il was large enough to be hospi-
table and it's only guest chamber and
wide halls were seldom empty. Here
Mrs. Davis entertained her company.
and the ex-President received the ad-
miring officers and friends of the Con-
federate cause who came to talk over
the stirring events of our great Civil
War.
In this office Mr.. Davis collected a
library of some thousand volumes
most of them treating of American
history; others We're the memoirs and
"reminiscences of the men who have
made America and those who had been
i'm the recent great fight which he led.
With these silent monitors about him
he wrote his famous Rise and Fall
of the Confederate Government" One
sees to-day the desk at which he
wrote, the plain pine book cases near
at hand. the very ink spots which he
threw off his pen when the sentences
did not run to suit him.
Like the study and bed-chamber of
the great German poet. Goethe, the
work-room of Mr.. Davis was scrupu-
lously plain, unadorned. except the
mantel on which his beloved Winnie
painted scenes from the rolling hills
and plains of Virginia-scenes which
could never fade from the minds of
the Davises. The simplicity of the
place makes the greatness of the
mental life of its owner. 1t is a re-
buke perhaps, to our own latter-day
love of the gay and gaudy character
izing so many of our homes
About the house In front as in rear
are large live oaks screening the
premises from too close view of the
curious passer-by. Above the water
some ffty PAGES from the front gate
of Beauyoir is the cool summer house