OCR Text |
Show THE OLD LEE MANSION.<br><br> Standing on the steps of the Capitol looking south across the Potomac one can see on the breezy heights of Arlington the tall, snowy pillars of the open veranda which graces one of the famous homes of America. It is the old Lee mansion. Its lofty seat betokens the pride which once marked that princely line, but the said surroundings are eloquent of the melancholy fall of an estate of magnificent wealth. Around the deserted home of the proudest old dominion family sleep thousands of Union soldiers over whose graves the marble glitters white and cold in the winter's sunlight. As is well known, the place was confiscated during the war. It belonged to the Custis family and was bequeathed to General Robert E. Lee's wife, with an entail to her children, who are now trying to recover it. Miss Mildred Lee, daughter of the great chieftian [chieftain], has been in Washington several times this winter and has received great attention. She is a queenly woman, who looks as if the bright blood of her ancestors flowed in all its purity through her delicate veins. None of the daughters of General Lee have married, and President Custis Lee, who succeeded his illustrious father at Washington and Lee University, is a single man, though he has passed the meridian of life long ago. Cor. Atlanta Constitution. |