Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-04

ford. He went to Algiers TO Italy to France
trying to forget by working upon book about
Napoleons campaigns. He never saw Stratford
again.
Thus passed the direct succession in the
ownership Of Stratford, and something Of the
sadness of 1t hangs still about this place.
Today it Is In the possession Of Mr.. Charles
Edward Stuart, who is no kin TO the Lees but
who inherited 1t through ancestors who were
devoted friends and neighbors of the WASH
ingtons and Lees, to whom 1t had come by
will.
For Stratford, though 1t has passed out of
the possession of the Lee family, has never
been sold. Stratford has never been ION the
market"
In the founding of a great line Stratfords
glory began. 1t ended in the death of little
child.
Yet, because it sheltered another little child,
is glory will always remain and this house
will ever find the protection of the cOuntrys
admiration. Because Robert E. Lee was born
there, another century will see 1t reverenced
by millions Of devoted visitors.
And in this recently presaged event one sees
the new spirit Of Virginia herself This mother
Of Presidents. this Virginia no longer Is living
upon the romance of her paSt-thOugh she
has romance enough. Like that old England
which, more than any other part Of America,
Virginia resembles. she displays today both the
capacity to keep all that Is most glorious In
the old and to reach out for what is best in the
present.
To lose this tender flavor Of sadness in the
past of Stratford, to gain the glory Of a new
nobility in the greatness of StratfOrd's and
Virginia's great hero of the recent past, Gen.
Robert e. Lee, to sense the dawning Of the
new Virginia. which Lee himself presaged In
the letters Of his later years, ride on now,
through these rich fields and pause at Waver-
ley-next door neighbor to MarmiOn-and call
upon that Vrgnian who typifies the old and
new, Mr.. Thomas Lomax Hunter.
Here all Is young and gay as Stratford once
was gay and young. Twelve little girls are
having house party. In vain seeking seclu-
sion for his thoughts, Mr.. Hunter-phlosophe
poet, lawyer, humoriSt farmer and, above all,
Virginia gentleman-fnally takes you into his
study. where hang the portraits by Sully and
the still older painting of his earlier ancestor
over the fireplace.
Every one in Tidewater Virginia knows Mr..
Hunter, and so do many who are In other
counties Of Virginia. Mr.. Hunter is too full of
troubles over the bean-beetle to be, at first,
much concerned about the troubles Of the past.
But then he looSenS up. He remembers how
Booth had made his escape through those
woods over yonder and tells you the real story
of how Booth shot himself within the burning
barn. Many another tale he knows Of the four
years during which this very house was the
constant center Of Yankee raids.
It is hard to keep Mr.. Hunter going upon the
past Like I'LL Tie new VlB1nlhIlS, HIS muU
wanderS to the present Though he remains o
Cavalier he Is also booster for Virginia.
You cannot travel about in this section Of
Virginia today without becoming aware Of this
new Virginia. The danger Is not that the new
Virginia will remember her past too much but
that she may forget 1t too soon.
ONE figure pre-eminently holds back that
~ food-the noble and majestic figure Of
Robert E. Lee. the last great Lee OF Stratford,
Lee Of Virginia.
At Waverley, all day and many nights, they
heard the cannon Of Fredericksburg. BY CROSS
ings, creeks and fields but yesterday filed with
the troops in blue and gray who moved to
Manassas to Charlottesville, to SpOttSylvanias
who surged between the Potomac and the Rap
pahannock, our road skirts many battle-ground
of the armies Of Virginia as we drive from
Stratford and from Waverley toward Washing
ton.
Alexandria, again, whittier Lee was taken
from Stratford as q little boy, to 60 to school.
Then the high hill of Arlington, his home,
that home from which he drove across the river
for that momentous conference with Gen. Scott
in which he made his great decision.
Yet Lee, though he lived only his first few
years at Stratford is best shrined there. Writ
ing to his daughter in the very midst Of the
war, he said:
Il am much pleased with your description
of Stratford and your visit 1t IS endeared
to me by many recollectionS and it has always
been the great desire of my life to purchase it.
Now that we have no other home and the one
we so loved has been SO foully polluted, the
desire with me IS stronger than ever. The
horse-chestnut you mention was planted by
mother .
To me it seems that Fate had from the
first raised up this man to play the part he
did by keeping him, as 1t we're, free, from any
personal home. From his very YOUTH his was
the soldiers life, his the soldiers home In the
field. West Point, the Mexican campaigns,
West Point again. only for brief times and ut