Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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XEMIORY OF ROBERT E. LEE IS HONORED IN NEWBERRY (Continued from page one). his title to our reverence any surer than it is. We are not accustomed to exalt a pedigree. Some one has said that "the man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrous ancestors is like a potato-the only good belong ing to him is under ground." We be lieve in the nobility of descent, but all the more in the nobility of ascent-in character and in the royalty of virtue. We 'believe in the struggle upwards, in something of the spirit of the Frenchman who declared when asked about his ancestors: "I know nothing of it-I am my own ancestor." In the Odyssey Homer tells us that "few sons attain the praise of their great sires, and most their sires d-isgrace." Gen. Lee is among Homers "few" who measure up to the promise of their! fathers, and add new lustre to the line of their descent. But proud he was not. No patrician haughtiness ever curled his lip. He never flaunted his family three in the face of his countrymen. Deeds of valor and gentle thought, not pedigrees, are Lee's passports to cm during fame. When one day they came to him to sibscribe a su mof-money to publish the story of his proud decent he courteously said: "No," and sug gested that the take cost of it and give it to the poor. "Modesty was the andle to his merit." I find this note of gentleness run ning through all his early youth and manhood. As a child he was absolute ly clean and tree, and his father who was the intrepid "Light Horse Harry" Lee of the Revolution, said of him: "Robert was always good." From a child he loved the great refreshing "out of doors," of God, loved the trees and grass and gurglYng stream, and loving nature, nature loved him in return and gave him a splendid phy aical endowment. His frame became as solid as an oak and a marvel of en durance. And all the hard campaigns of after yea;xs, with their thirst and hunger, and heat and cold, could not break his fine physique. In that tough red-blooded, handsome body he car ried a tender heart. He carried his conscience with him when he went to coHlege, and put himself to work with such a deligeneel as to win the praise and admiration of all wth whom he came in contact. During all the years of his cadetship he never got a demerit or reprimiand. Coarsenese was for e&gn to his manhood. As a studen~t he was distinguished for his politeness and precision in the little and the larger tasks that fell to him to do. Nobody who has studied the life of Washington and the life of Lee can fail to note the strange agreement in tone and spirit of these great heroes of the ~nation. In the great prefierences of life, in The larger matters of con science sand behavior, the two men seem to stand together, the double flower of democracy. Both of them Leg Well" "I wish to osay that I have used Sloan's Lini - *m e nt on a lame leg that has given me much trouble for six months. It was so bad that I couldn't walk sometimes for a week. I tried doctors' medicine and had a rubber bandage for my leg, and bought everything that I heard of, but they all did me no good, until at last I was persuaded to try Sloan's Liniment. The first application helped it, and in two weeks my leg was well."--A. L. HUNTER, of Hunter, Ala. Good for Athletes. Mr. K. GrLAnN, instructor of athletics, 417 Warren St., Rox bury, Mass., says :-" I have used with great success in cases of ex treme fatigue after physical exer tion, when an ordinary rub-down would not make any impression." Sloan's Liniment has no equal as a remedy for Rheu matism, Neural gia or any pain or stiffness in the muscles or jomnts. Sloan's book on horses, cattle, sheep -- and poultr y sent U f-ree. Address -- Boston. ~ " '~ A. r unsheathed their sword at the com. mand of conscience, both of them mor al giants, rallying posts for the thou sands of their countrymen who be, lieved in the justness of their cause And this may be ther theory to explai the likeness of Washington and Lee I believe that when young Lee wen off to West Point he took counsel 0: the Father of his county how to be man. As a student he seemed to asl the question: "What would Washing ton do?" at every juncture. And sc communing with his ideal of a states man, a soldier, and a citizen, Lee wa fashioned into the image of his illus trious ideal. And I know of nothing better that could happen to the young man and woman in our schools than that they should look back into that past. That past which the poet says is now like an Artic sea: Where the living currents have ceased to run, But over that past the fame of Lee Shines out as the Midnight Sun, should look back, and as he chose Washington, they should choose Lee this "Midnight Sun" to point them on the path of gentle manliness and honor. For 20 years Lee was busy with the appointments of -the government. As expert engineer he was detailetl to several difficult and important posts. He did his work with characteristic vigor and precision. Nothing is finei than his letters to his home during these periods of absence. He had mar ried young, and it is one of the pathe tic elements of the story of this gen tle soul, that would have reveled in the joys of home and fireside, that he was forced by duty to the spending of so much of his time from home that when he met his youngest son he did not know him. The world knows the. career of Lee in Mexico. Indeed that war With Mexico trained the great co-nmanders North and South, for the conflict of the gixties. On the pampas and upon the mountains of Mexico they learned the science which was so signalize the fierciest battles of the Civil war. There is no time to sketch his services as an engineer and lieutenant, except to note that fine .encomnium of praise bestow 'ed upon him by (his chief, Gen. Winfield Scott. He said of Dee: "I never saw a finer soldier on the battlefield." He said: "If I were on my death-bed to morrow, and 'the president of the Unit ed'States should tell mie that a great battle were to be fough't 'for the liber ty or slavery of the country, and ask~ ed iny judgment as to the a.bility of a conmander, I would say with my dy ig breath: 'Let it be Robernt E. Lee!' Yet the -man who won that confidence and high (honor was not a blusterer oT a braggart, nor an iron man with the feelings of humanlity shrivieled up in the heat of butchery and battle. No, his heart was 'at home with kindness everywhere. He was not as busy with the 'stern details of war that he could not think to his lioys. It was Christmas, and he said: "I hops good Santa Claus will fill my Robert's stocking tonight with good things.3 do not know what he may have for you 'and Mary, but if he only leaves for you one-half 'of what I wish you~ will want for nothing." The very mare he rode seemed to catch 'his spi1g it He writes to 'his wife and describes most graphically how -the mare he rodie frefullp "picked her way among thre dead upon the battlefield, as if she was araid of 'hurting the poor fellows who had been killed." War did noi carnalize his soul. While on othier war wrought its metamiorphis of hu man beings into brutes, on the Grey Commander it wrought in vain excep1 to open wider the fountain of his ma ly pity. Everywhere he wore the linea ment of a gentleman, "never h'aughty to the humble and never 'humble to the hauhty" And so T 'believe you can take that thought of 'the gentleness of Lee, and follow him all through the civil war al through his great career fromr Stratford to Lexington, and you will find him proving his title clear to the grand old name of gentleman. One of the noblest chapters in all history is the resignation of Robert . Lee of his command in the army~ of the United States to take the part and share the fate of old Virginia( and the South. We talk 0f sacrifice, when will you find a nobl'ei page of sacrifice than his sacrifice of personal 'emolument for 'the claims of conscience and the claimns of duty. He came back from Mexico the idol of the army, the hero of a nation. Pssesde of highest moral character, descended from a great disti'nguished family, born of one of the finest of the heroes of the reohItion, blessed with ample fortune and estate, it was be yond all doubt or peradventure that Lee should wear the uniformi of the chief commander of the armies of the Republic. But it was the year '60 and there was fever in the blood of men. The age long stre of sections had cme tont aet hour The open clasi - of arms was imminent and near. The; - States Right war of words in con - gress had waged in bitterness.and fury, - and now at last the hour was about . to strike. Senatcrs were to give their place to soldiers, and the argument was'to be transferred from the halls of congress to tl e battlefield of blood and carnage. One by one the South-' ern Commonwealths seceded and at last came old Virginia the State of Lee, and she cast in her lot with the Confederacvy of :he South. Nobody but a soldier can un6terstand the struggles of that hour. raging hot and fierce in the noble heart of Lee. No mere civilan can understand the soldier's love for the flag beneathi whose folds he has marched and fought, -and prayed and dreamed and spent his blood. For all his life this man had marched beneath the Stars and Stripes. As he paced the broad verandas )f his .home at Arling ton, on that memorablc 1Sth o[ April, 1861, when the offer of the com-umand. of all the Union forces was t.end.ered him, these were the questions he had to settle-shall I turn my sword against the flag? Shall I turn my back upon the army and my comrades of other days? Shall I put aside the prize and prestige that will be: mine, if I espouse th- cause of the union against my Sta..e? Oh, the gentle soul is not less strong because so gentle. It is written, "The bravest are .the ten-! der, the loving .are the daring." In twp days, he couched his resignation in the terms of courtesy and sent it to the government. I:1 five days he was com mander of the forces o[ Virginia. Your. common, worldly, wise, and prudent man would say "Lee was a fool." Men said of him he was an idi6t for chasing 4 after the will-o'-the-wisp of a Confed-! eracy. I say God give us more of the idiocy of such men-men whose com manding voice is conscience, men; whose motto is, "When duty calls or danger, be never wanting there." Lee resigned his office in the army of the union, and consigned his promo tion to the winds. He chose rather to suffer affliction' with his/, southern neighbors, than enjoy the pleasures of Washington fcr a season. Long and bitter was that war. The' northern papers at the time described it as a "little local insurrection." They, said it would only, take "a week or two" to crush the hiostille states. They didn't know the stuff the southern man was made of! They didn't know the 'type of courage .that composed our Southern womnen! The "little local -in isurrection" became a bloody ugly war. The "little week or so" of subjugation grew to months, and months to years until it took die mailed fist of the en tir'e country to beat and break the matchless courage of the veteran bands of Lee! We little realize the bloodiness of that war. In the battles of Spottsyl1 vania 'and tie Wilderness the killed' and wounded of the army of the North, by the army of the South, was greater than the aggregate killed an'd wound ed in all the battles of all the wars fought hby the English speaking peopie on this condinent since the discovery of America. I mean if you take the killed and wounded of all the battles of the .Indian wars, take the killed ein'd wounded in the war of the Revolution, take t'he aggregate killed and wounded in the war with Mexico, take the aggregate killed and wounded in all oui' Indian wars since the begin ning , the total does not 'equal the total killed anad wounded in 'the single army of Gen. Granit at the 'two battles awt Spottsylvanaia and the Wilderness. I have no mind to gloat in the blocdy~ horrors of a.ny war, but take these a'n nals as theystandi and thety proclaim the cla.sh of men, neal men, men who fought 'like men and didn't flinch. These battles serve a notice to the wo'rld that there grows up 'upon this soil 'a type of man, a tyspe of woman, that would a thousand times rather die than yield an inch of principle. That is the meaining of Spottsylvania and the Wilderness and Ghancellorsville, and all the battlefields on which your fathers fought or bled and died. 4Against this bloody hackgroundl stands our immortal Lee. -Learn today the reco-rd of his martial skill. Im partial his:ory will do him justice, and I expect to see the day when no voice' in all this land North or South, East or~ West sdiall lift itself against the prop er fame of Lee. 'That which SpenseYr strove to portray in 'the Fairy Queen through the veil of allegory is em bodied in the life and nature of our hero, with a perfection of detail, and a comprehensiomnness of aim, that fa>r otgoes the purest dreams and rev eries which marked the dhivalric im-, aination. Spenser tried to body forth the figure of a perfect gentleman. And it took all his poet's craftsmanship to paint him, against the crudeness and the coarseness that had descended on his age from medieval times. Spen ser's gen:leman was a novelty of the I hour, a something rich and strange. We of the South little realize our her-I itage in Lee. He is the expan din gi symbol of the 'graces that blend to' (Continued on page three). ec $425.00 First Grand Pr News Coni Offe Absol A Little Work I IT WILL__S_ON_BE_ ~A RIE W0 IT WILSON BED Gilder & Mi Try It, Then Y THIS ICote Piano IS -%_____ ~e in The Herald 'and est, and is Bein red to You itely Free ~ach Day Will Win It. S....*........ .... i i I' ~.. .. . . - 1 . . . . . . . . - ~ P BD...Y.N.T..Y.U? IS H M t a Piano OMEODYLA Y OT YOU eek' Drug Store. ou Will Sinig Its Praise.