The Columbus commercial., 1910-03-10

They were my fathers friends and that made
them mine and it is pleasure to think OF them a:
among those who contributed to the upbuilding OF
the beautiful little city that has reputation al
over the south for intellectual culture. hospitality
the beauty of its women and the chlvalry or It
men. Judge Beckwith, good old soul, and sturdy
farmer, always think of his visits every week tt
the old Index office, when after the usual heart,
greeting and encouraging words, he would say
Jimmie, have you got any old papers you have
read over?''
The memory of the senior Billups is connected
with his resemblance to the great orator, Edward
Everett, his high character, his kindness to hi
slaves and his immense farming interests
The picture of James T. Harrison doesn't dc
him justice, for although nearsighted. he had {
brilliant dancing eye, and what lawyer he was
He possessed the sarcasm md invective of Voltair
without his vencm or infidelity.
Whenever l think of COL George H. Young
recall the fact that when we boys used to hunt abou
Wavery we looked on the great mansion with
sort of awe, with the feeling with which we woulC
gaze on baronia castle in England tn,
Rhine. 1t is said he would have made brillian
orator but for the fact that he was too emotional
His heart was ever bigger than his brain.
Major Blewett is always connected in my minC
with the palatial home and flower garden he owned
that he was an enthusiastic Wing of the old re
gime
James Sykes simple, plain and blunt a:
Cato. Once l roomed week with him at Green
wood Springs, and although rich enough to own
barber, every morning he would sit on his bedside
and shave himself.
DR.. John Brownrigg was brave as a lion and
progressive physician
Secretary of War Dickinson recall but once
as sckly boy cf Il Is. standing at his fathers
front gate. How strange are some of the memo
ries of boyhood! The father. Judge Henry Dick
in son I recall only as tall man, with the toes of
his boots turned up, and as a gentleman exceed
ngly fond of oysters the tradition being that upor
one occasion, upon a wager he sat down and ate
of the bivalves until the shells completely hid him
from view.
The oringinals of the last two portraits in the
volume. Bewett Lee and DR.. Charles Baskerville
remember only as little boys. They could not
help from rising, coming from such brilliant an.
cestry.
The portrait of the lamented Stephen D. Lee
is perfect. 1t is himself, and how worthy of his
great namesake he was! He was grand soldier
who was not ashamed of his religion of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Mr.. Editor it would be strange indeed if a
volume the size of this History of Columbus, -
with its thousands of names, dates and reminis-
cences, should contain no slips of memory or iudg-
ment | detected few. One matter of surprise
to me is that neither the features nor sketch OF
the brilliant Col. William S. Barry appears in its
pages. What thrilling orator he was, with his
beautiful language coming like a stream of silver
his burning hazel eyes his classical brow, his rich
baritone voice Then he had the manners of a
prince and true Southern gentleman. Did
you know he was the first child born in dear old
Columbus Q822) ?-that he was president of the
secession convention that took Mississippi out of
the Union, and that afterward as colonel of the
35th Mississippi the boys all loved himf How |
wish his picture could have been handed down in
this memorial volume
There was another man Of note living near
Columbus whose face and character would have
helped to illustrate the intellect and scholarship of
old Lowndes: that was Col. JOS. B. Cobb. He,
too, gifted orator and statesman. and the
author of several books read when young man,
Leisure Labors, political work; the Creole, +"
a novel; and Mississippi Scenes. after the order
of Georgia Scenes" but totally unworthy of it.
Before the war heard him pay tribute to Henry
Clay in front of the old Pope hotel that thrilled
me through and through. He died when only
about 80 years of age Col Barry died in his 10th
or 47th year, alas and alasi
In detailing the burial at Columbus of several
Confederate soldiers killed at the battle of Shiloh
DR.. Lpscomb says John Garvin was o1e of
them. 1t should have been Jimmie Garvin, a
cousin of Johns. We were boys together, and
Jimmie, clerk, left Cozaft & Mason's
store to enlist in Col. Blythe's regiment John
was a member of the 43rd which was raised in
1862 and died after the war. / remember he was
baptised in bath tub, being too low to go the
river.
In The Commercials "Old Folks at Home
discover one sin of the nen by Mai TAM Har-