Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/111

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Boinhtii->liit>-iit of Fort huintcr. 101

town was thrown open to the party. And at Washington, Ga., where the bitter end was known to be reached, the welcome, though tearful, was full of love, warmth, and tenderness.

Dr. and Mrs. Robertson, who received in their hospitable home, the President and his immediate following, lavished every attention that thoughtful, loving, patriotic hearts could furnish, uncaring the consequences that might follow from an incoming Federal garrison, and speeded the going guest with prayer for his safety. This family proved the traditional elasticity of Southern homes in caring for guests.

AND THE END CAME.

And so the end came. History records the achievements of Jef- ferson Davis as soldier, statesman, and Chief Magistrate, but to those who saw him and knew him, in those gloomy days when the South- ern Confederacy was dying the death, will say that his grand spirit rose the highest and shone the brightest, and his Christian character was more fully exemplified during hours of adversity and defeat.

And those he blessed with his presence will hand down to their children's children in unrecorded traditions, the precious and tender memories he left with them. It is my great good fortune to share this gracious legacy.

MICAJAH H. CLARK.

Clarksville, Tenn. t June 22, 1896.

[From the Sunday News, Charleston, S. C., April 17, 1898.]

FORT SUMTER.

Report of the Bombardment of, as Given in the Charleston Courier,

April 13, 1861, With Some Account of the Beginning of the

News Association in the United States.

The first News Association formed in the United States grew out of the demand for news from the war in Mexico, in advance of the regular mails. Never had there been a finer opportunity for the dis- play of newspaper enterprise. It consumed seven days to transmit the mails from New Orleans to New York at the that time (near the of the year 1846), and Moses Y. Beach, of the New York Sun, conceived the idea of outstripping it and supplying his readers with