Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-30

however stern and painful 1t might be-
When I handed the letter back to
Miss Sands, she said:
"Mr. Randolph, let me tell you and
Mr. Brownley a little about my father
and our home, that you may see our
situation as it is. My father is one OF
the noblest men that ever lived. I am
not the only one who says that-if you
were to ask the people Of our state to
name the one man who had done most
for the state as state, most for her
progressive betterment, most for her
people high and low, white and black,
they would answer Judge Lee Sands.
He has been, and Is, the idol Of our
people. After he was graduated from
Harvard, he entered the law office of
my grandfather, Senator Robert Lee
Sands. Before he was 30 he was In
congress and was even then reputed
the greatest orator Of our state, where
orators are so plentiful. He married
my mother, his second cousin, Julia
Lee, Of Richmond, at 25, and from
then until the attack Of that ruthless
money shark, led a life such as true
man would map out for himself II his
Maker granted him the privilege. You
would have to visit at our home to ap-
preciate my fathers character and to
understand how terrible this sorrow Is
to him. Every morning Of his life he
spends an hour after breakfast with
my dear mother, who Is cripple fr)m
hip disease. He takes her in his arms
and brings her down from her room to
the library as II she were child. He
then reads to her-and he knows good
books as well as he knows his friends.
After he takes mother back to her
room, he gives an hour to our people,
the blacks Of the plantation and his
white tenants throughout the country.
He Is a father to them all. He settles
all their troubles, big and little. Then
for hours he and / go over his business
affairs. Every afternoon from four to
FIVE he devotes to his estates and the
men and women for whom he acts as
trustees. He has often said to me:
We have a clear million Of money and
property, and that is all any man
should ha in America. 1t Is all he
Is entitled to under our form Of gov
ernment. Any more than that an
honest man should in one way or an
other return to the people from whom
he has taken II. never want my
family to have more than a million
dollars When he went into the Sea-
board affair, he explained to me that
1t was to assist the Wilsons-they
were old friends, and he acted as their
solicitor for years-in building up the
south. He discussed with me the
right and advisability Of putting in the
trust funds. He said he considered 1t
his duty to employ them as he did his
own in enterprises that would aid the
whole people Of the south. instead Of
sending them to the north to be used
in Wall street, as betting for the Sys-
TENS grinder. These fortunes were
made in the south by men who loved
their section Of the country more than
they did wealth, and why should they
not be employed to benefit that part
of the country which their makers and
owners loved? remember vividly
how perplexed he was when, at the Be-
ginning, the Wilson's would show him
that the investments were returning
unusually large profits.
"It is not right, Beulah.' he said to
me one morning after receiving q let
ter from Baltimore to the effect that
Seaboard stock and bonds had ad-
vanced until this investment showed
over so per cent profit, 1t Is not right
for us to make this money. No man
in America should make over legal
rates Of interest and fair profit on
an investment, that Is, an investment
Of capital pure and simple, particu-
larly in a transportation company.
where every dollar Of profit comes
from the people who patronize the
lines. / have worked 1t out on every
side, and 1t Is not right; 1t would not
be legal II the people, who make the
laws for their own betterment, un-
derstood their affairs as they should
He was always writing to the Will
sons to conduct the affairs Of the Sea-
board so that there would be remain
ing each day only profits enough to
keep the road up and the wharves In
good condition and to pay the annual
interest and a fair dividend. And
when the Wilson's came to our house
to lay before him the offer of Rein
hart and his fellow plunderers to
pay enormous profits for the control
Of the Seaboard, he was indignant and
argued with them that the offer was
an insult to honest men. 1t was he
who advised the trusteeship control
of the Seaboard stock to prevent
Reinhart from securing control. I sat
in the library when he talked to the
elder Wilson and the directors.
He appealed directly to John Will
son to make an effort to stop the
growing tendency. to use the people
as pawns to enslave themselves and
their children. He said some man
Of undoubted probity, standing. and
wealth: some one whom the people
trusted, must start the fight against
these New York fiends, whose only
thought is to roll up wealth. And
he told John Wilson he was the man.
since he had great wealth, honestly
got by his father and grandfather;
no one would accuse him of being @
hypocrite. seeking notoriety. and his
standing in the financial world was
so old and solid that it would have tc
listen to him. / remember how en-
phatically father said: I tell you
John, even the discussion Of such
proposition as that scoundrel Rein
hart makes Is degrading to an Amer
leans honor He said 1t didn't make
the least difference II Reinhart count
ed his millions by the score, and was
director in 80 or 40 great institutions
\ and gave a fortune every year fol
charity to the church-that he was
a blackleg lust the same And so l!