Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-20
rerres vedras and steady in the squares at

| Waterloo.
But in contrast with any of them all the
| not pale in Intellectual light" None great
| er? None great, as Lee and his in
comparable infantry of northern Virginia.
There are those yet who will doubt that
he was greater than either of the greatest
two Union generals-Sherman. the strate-
! gist, or Grant, the sledge hammer-but the
number of the doubters is decreasing, We
get further from war fesling and the halo
of success and more into the region of calm,
dfspassionate, historical judgment.
When All Was Lost.
But 1t was afterward. when all that
a, war could gain or maintain was lost, that
he was greater yet. Then he was no longer
the citizen-soldier; but simply the citizen.
In war he had shown his willingness to
live and die for Dixie In peace he
proved more difficult willingness to live
and die in Dixie desolate as were her
fields, shattered as was her social system,
hopeless as were her people. He was
Lea Nirginan-a southerncr-a gentle
man!
The Gentleman in Lee.
mo man who does not know the people
of the south and their ways of thinking
and feeling can realize how much it was
the gentleman in Lee which attached to
him devotion and blind confidence of the
soldiery of the confederacy and of the
women at home who We're holding their
hearts up higher for those who were fight
ing afar'-those incompatible women,
whose present love and dreaded SCorn
kept the men fighting for six months after
the cause was. except to woman's hope
and faith, irretrievably lost. The women
knew what the cause was.
The ideal of the southerner, before the
war absolutely. and now predominantly, is
that character which we express by the
word gentleman
Il may be provincial and foolish, but to
my poor sense of what man was made
to live and die for, | think the striving
for, or even the far-off admiration of this
old-time ideal is more ennobling than the
getting before ones self of either riches
or power or popularity, as a goal.
After all. there was not even one gen
GRAFTON between Lee and the man of the
revolution. He was the son of revou
tionary father and born hundred
years ago. Perhaps that was one reason
why he was simple. plain. nCbtrusive.
lnassu:nng. old ashioned'-a man recog-
nizing duty the MODEST word in the
English language.
Crosses of Honor Presented.
The interesting annual ceremony of pre-
senting crosses of honor to confederate
veterans of distinguished military record
and to their descendants followed. Those
called to receive the emblems were:
Veterans-Ignatius Francis Ahern, Vernon
w. Ashby, J. Dallas Evans. George l..
Holland, George T. Merrick. James T Pow
ell, George Carter Tanner, George l.. Rey
nods.
Descendants - Margaret Hill Benton.
daughter of Thomas Carter Hill: William
Deakins Cassin. son of William D. Cassn:
Nena Jackson Knoch, daughter of Joseph
H. Jackson; Oden II. Lake, son of Thomas
w. S. Lake; Mrs. Indiana Milburn Langley,
sister of James r. Milburn; Fontaine w.
Mahood. son of Fontane w Mahood Eu
gene Mudd. son of Edward NJ. Mudd;-
Joseph Roberts, son of Lieut.. Joseph X
Roberts; William w. Skinner, brother of
Daniel T. Skinner; Mrs. n. b. Washington,
sister of Thomas Ely Buchanan; Miss Nan
ME Bird Washington, daughter of Burrell
Bassett Washington; Mrs. Lula NJ. Weeks,
daughter of James T. Stocks. w. w. Went
eel, brother of Frank A Vented; Mrs
Isadore Triplett Young, daughter of Thorn
ton Triplett; Joseph A. Young, brother of
Washington A Young.
The exercises were brought to a close
with singing of America" by the audience.
The benediction was pronounced by the
Rt Rev Henry Y. Satterlee, DID, bishop
of Washington.