Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-06-29

i must leave you now, ana am uneasy
lest you will be unduly fatigued.'
L then told him my name and of my
earlier days in Washington-forty years
ago-and that was a Georgian-near'y
eighty-two years old. He bowed most
chivalrously and said, II. too, am a
southerner; I belong to Louisiana"
"Now tell me your name" said 1. ANY
body who has been so graciously atten-
tive TO an old lady like me should also
like to remember by name!" Bowling
again, he smilingly left me, when it
flashed over me that 1 had seen him sit
ting on the supreme court bench. and
my cavalier was no other than Chief
Justice White. of the supreme court of
the United States.
GENERAL La FAYETTE.
The revival of American admiration
and enthusiasm regarding General La
fayette who came to America when the
colonies were making a bitter and
bloody struggle for liberty. induces me
to recall for readers of The Semi-Week-
ly Journal some data and recorded
facts in regard TO him.
He was one of the ancient French
nobility. His accepted title was mar
quis, and he was married at sixteen to
the daughter of one of the proudest
houses of France. His wifes age at
one of the charmed circle around Marie
Antoinette before the terrible French
revolution. Lafayette FASTENED across
the Atlantic ocean to become the COM
rade in arms of General Washington.
He was the head of his family and the
last of his race to hold the family title
His only son was not born until after
the Revolutionary war and he named
him George Washington Lafayette
When Lafayette first came to the Uni
ted States he was only seventeen years
old
During the French revolution Madame
Lafayette suffered more keenly. per-
haps. than any one. There were long
hopeless days when she was in prison,
alone. in absolute ignorance of her
husbands fate. with the knife of the
guillotine above her head. There was
the. supreme agony of the time when
she learned her beloved mother her sis
ter and grandmother had been guillotin-
ed-sacrificed because of the name La
fayette. But for the heroic effort of
the wife of Ambassador James Monroe
afterwards president of the United
States) Madame de Lafayette would
also have been guillotined simply be-
cause she was a member of a noble
French family.
Lafayette had been in the hands of
the Austrians in the dungeon at Olmeta
for two years, when James Monroe first
arrived in France. He sent his wife
TO La Force prison in the official car
riage of the legation. Mrs. Monroe
acted her part with charming and win
ming audacity." When Madame La
fayette was asked for, the wretched
lady thought she was being summoned
for the guillotine, but was finally told
erican minister. Mrs. Monroe's anx-
iety was intense while she waited on
the prison, but within few moments
Madame Lafayette glided into her pres
ence She told the sentinels she would
call again the next day, but it was I'M
necessary, for the prisoner was re-
leased, and she hurried to the official
residence of Ambassador Monroe for
shelter.
General Washington conveyed TO
Madame Lafayette, through a banker
in Amsterdam, currency that amounted
to $1,000 of American money to re-
lieve her actual necessities.
AS soon as possible, Madame La
fayette sent her son George to General
Washington for safe keeping. After the
son was provided for, Madame Lafay-
cite, in disguise, sought the Austrian
emperor, and plead for permission to
share her husbands captivity. The Aus
trian emperor received with courtesy.
allowed her to share the prison life, but
declined to give Lafayette his liberty.
Those who witnessed the meeting of
husband and wife thus relate the Incl
dent: For eighteen months he had
seen no human face but the face of his
jailor and had heard no word of what
was taking place in the outer world.
ha had
TO member of his family" The daughter
of Lafayette, who remained with her
parents in prison, relates: There was
no question asked by my father. their
happiness was so profound. Not until
night, after they had been locked in an
adjoining room, did my mother tell my
father that her mother, her sister and
her grandmother had all persisted on
the scaffold'' Governor Morris, then
American ambassador. placed 1000
llvres (French COIN at their disposal
Madame Lafayette survived her i'm
prisonment ten years. dying in her
seventy-seventh year
Lafayette was released from Aus
trian prison September 10, 1897, and at
his own request was delivered to the
American consul at Hamburg.
The boy in America grieved intensely
over the suffering of his parents. La
fayette's last visit to this country was
in the second term of President Mon
roe's administration.
No doubt but Lafayette's visit to
America, where he met his friends. Mon
roe and jefferson, was an inspiration to
all of them, more than ever identifying
liberty and union with permanent ma
tional fame In Monroe's old age It was
reported to Lafayette that his friend
was in straitened circumstances and
Lafayette having recovered his French