The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-07
MRS. CLAY-cLoPT0N,

MRS. CLAY-CLorToN, ,.,. BELLE OF THE FIETlEs. Mrs. Virginia Clay-Clopton of Ala barna, one of the most interesting Southern women of the nineteenth cen- tury one of the most picturesque re- maining with us in the twentieth. has been a visitor in Atlanta the past few days with her kinswoman. Mrs. Robert Emory Park. As Is usual wherever 1 this dear lady goes. she has attracted to her group of admirers that sit and basla in her sunny presence, catching eagerly the flow of "reminiscences of the great scenes and events in which she played so prominent part during the vivid days of the fifties and six ties She remains almost alone to rep resent a type that has vanished-the belle of the fifties, friend of great men, | heroine of big happenings, social arbi- 1 ter, splendid wife, and sweet, gracious woman. When you come into her pres encs you feel instinctively the impress of big events--you catch an aroma of the romance of old days. Yet for all this spirit of the past that clings SO closely and lends such a charm to this lady of the silver locks, there Is so much geyety and vivacity, so much in | terest in passing events, so much spar l kle, dash and wit about her that you | feel her almost as much a part of the present as of the past. Though her y 1 into them have been crowded more events than make up the lives of three or four women usually, she is still vital force and in any company that | she graces is always the central figure. Her charm. her sweetness and her tact ! are such that she draws everybody to her. like a magnet. A child was once one of the group listening to Mrs. Clopton talk, when some one called to her to leave on an errand. The little girl put up her two hands eagerly to- ward the speaker and said. "Oh, please don't say word till l come back
 Mrs Ciopton agreed and kept her 1 promise saying to the others in the l company, That is the sweetest tribute I ever had paid me-
 Mrs. Clopton is known to many | through her book, "A Belle of the Eff | ties" which was published last fall l by Doubleday. Page & Co. It gives her | "reminiscences of social and political life as Mrs. Clement c. Clay, Jr., wife 1 of the United States Senator from Ala l bana. leader in the affairs of the Con- federacy, and for one year prisoner of 1 the United States, accused as co-con- gpirator with President Davis in the | death of Lincoln. They are among the most picturesque "reminiscences that have been given to the world in many long day. telling of many events that | have never before been recorded. and giving new lights on recorded events A charxning book it Is, brimming with the spirit and grace of the author. The memoirs were put into narrative form by Miss Ada Sterling. who spent eight months with Mrs. Clopton at her home 1 in Huntsville winter before last, trans cribing the "reminiscences of this won derfu1 lady. Mrs. Clopton's abilities as | a conversationalist and raconteur are marvelous--she has a remarkable viv- l idness in her choice of words. a pie | turesqueness that brings an event be- I fore one, and her mannerfsms, her l quick. expressive gestures greatly | laeighten the effect. She simply talked her "reminiscences to Miss Sterling, who l transcribed them. Though the ges- | lures and the tones of voice of the speaker are lost in the transcribing,
 the force and the vividness are there. making the book only less charming | than the lady herself.
 Referring to the way the book got its title, Mrs. Clopton apologies little for 1 what she thinks seems egotistical. T | had planned" she saids for 1t to be called Memoirs of Mrs. Clay of Ala | bama.' Miss Sterling came across among
 | my possessions a picture of me taken
 | in the costume of the fifties. She at
 | once chose 1t for the frontlspiece of the | book, and sent 1t on to the publishers, l writing beneath 1t, without my knowl- l edge. A Belle of the Fifties' As soon | as the publishers caught the phrase | they seized upon 1t for the title. All | my protests were vain. They wrote me
 very convincingly that this was the first book I had ever published and they had i brought out many and knew best what | would catch the eye of the public; so I | acknowledged my inexperience and gave in to their judgment" In speaking of some of the stirring AkAk ~hA NAa ytxgf1 fsa her book, Mrs. Clopton seems to be liv- ing again through those experiences l and carries one back to them with her. | Her descriptions of her interviews with l President Johnson in her attempts to save her husband from death leave her
 palpitating with excitement, the fine | old hands trembling, and the bright
 brown eyes flashing fire. One looks on | and listens with bated breath. She l tells of how she went to see General Grant to secure his intervention in be- | half of her husband, of letters secured from the highest officials in the land. l of a voluntary visit from the Vice-Pres- ident pleadging his aid; and, among the most dramatic of all her experi | ences, how she made the President swear to her that he would not deliver her husband and MT. Davis over to the military court In referring to this, Mrs. Clopton said, solemnly. T have aIWayS IeL that I WAS lHe th~ strument In the hand of God to keep | those two men from being hanged like dogs. If they had been given over to | that military court there could have
 been but one fate for them. After
 President Johnson gave me his oath, I went back to see him constantly. and
 asked him if he had kept his oath. Each time he told me solemnly that he had" talk with Mrs. Clopton is like com ing close to the spirit of those wonder ful days of the turbulent South.
 She embodies the best of those times the grace. the charm, the gentleness. l intellectually. the heroism and the TO- nance. One feels the pettiness of many l things in the present when she talks of that glowing past. Involuntarily we pay tribute to this lady with the soft, silvery hair, the pale pink cheeks, the | bright sympathetic eyes, and the heart of gold for her own sake. and for the sake of all she stands for that has slipped into the irrevocable past
 Katherine Glover, in The Atlanta Jour
 nal.