Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1905 — HO! FOR THE SOUTH [ARTICLE]

HO! FOR THE SOUTH

President Starts on a Tour of Dixie and I* Greeted at Richmond. WHOLE TOWN IS THERE TO SEE Speaks to a Big Crowd in Capitol Square and Is Banqueted—Reception to Mrs. Roosevelt. Richmond, Va., Oct. 19. President Roosevelt began his tour of the south at 8:30 a. m. yesterday. Tbe party included Mrs. Roosevelt, who will stop off in Georgia while the president proceeds farther south. The first stop was made at Fredericksburg, Va., where about 200 persons had gathered whom the president briefly addressed. At 12 noon, when the president’s train reached Richmond, practically the W'hole population was on the streets and at the station. The line of march of the president’s escort was packed with people on both sides of the streets and the windows of the houses were crowded with people, all giving the president a hearty welcome. Escorted to Capitol Square.

The president was received by a committee, including Governor Montague, and formally welcomed before he got off the train. Then the line of march was taken up for Capitol square, the escort being the Virginia military cadet corps, Seventeenth regiment Virginia volunteer Infantry, Richmond light infantry Blues, Citizens Mounted escort, and a special escort to tbe president, consisting of mounted howitzers. When the procession arrived at tbe Capitol square the president and party called at the executive mansion and paid their respects and then repaired to the speaker’s stand, which was faced by one of the greatest multitudes ever assembled in Richmond.

Reception to&Mrs. Roosevelt. Mayor McCaruiy introduced the president, who was thunderously cheered, and applause was frequent and hearty all through his speech, and rose to a whirlwind at the end. After the speech the president was escorted to Masonic Temple, the procession passing between thousands of school children, banked on either side of the street—whites on one side, negroes on the other—the first view of the “color line.” At Masonic Temple covers were laid for 400 and the hall was elaborately decorated. While the president was being entertained here Mrs. Roosevelt was at a reception In her honor at the governor’s mansion.

HIS KIN IN THE SOUTH

President Refers to Them in His Banquet Speech—lncidents of the Visit. In his speech at the banquet the president said in part: “Coining today by the statue of Stonewall Jackson, in the city of Lee, I felt what a privilege it is that I, as an American, have in claiming that you yourselves have no more right of kinship in Lee and Jackson than I have. There was an uncle of mine, now dead, my mother’s brother, who has always been among all the men I have ever met the man who it seemed to me came nearest to typifying in the flesh that most beautiful of all characters in fiction. Thackeray’s Colonel Newcome—my uncle, James Dunwoody Bulloch, an admiral in the Confederate navy. In short, gentlemen, 1 claim to be neither northerner or southerner, or easterner or westerner, nothing but a good American, pure and simple. Next only to a man's having worn the blue comes the fact of the man’s having worn the gray, as entitling him to honor in my sight.-” After the president had finished the party was posed for a flashlight photograph. Roosevelt having given his consent. and standing while the photographer took the picture. The president then hurried out and with his military guard and special mounted escort of citizens proceeded to visit points of interest about the city. The party first drew rein at the Lee monument, where the Confederate veterans from It. E. Lee camp soldiers' home were gathered to greet him. The president addressed the veterans and was heartily cheered by them. The party then drove to the old home of John Marshall, chief justice of the i United States, and to the Confederate' museum, where many of the ladies of the Confederate Memorial and Literary association were present to welcome him. He was presented here also by the ladles with a bunch of red andj white roses, tied with the Confederate' colors. Proceeding eastward the party visited St. John’s Episcopal church in which Patrick Henry made his famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech, and the president expressed great interest in the old church and the adjacent burying ground. Shortly after 6 o’clock the president joined Mrs. Roosevelt at the governor’s mansion, and a little later the dlstin-l gulsbed visitors were escorted to the' station, whence at 7 o’clock their ’ train departed for Raleigh and the far south.