University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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1906 CORKS AND CURLS 7 anlntwl Ehnmaa '13. 01mm hapless readers misguided as to a Virginia type, but widely loved by hearty men and women, admirers of the real type; not the arbitrary creation of a facile writer of fiction but the true handiwork of the great Creator of Facueour Colonel Carter is the subject of this sketch. Fortunately he still Wives and therefore no summary of his life as a tale that is told is in place. When the noble old soldier, true to every relation in life and recreant to no trust, shall on tfame's eternal camping groundi answer the roll call of the Great Commander with the modest but unfaltering adsum, some worthy biographer may gather his deeds and thoughts, his life and its significance, for full record and across the face of his report write posterityis fixed acclaim of his faithfulness, but it is our pleasure and true privilege to pay a tribute to a living friend and give to him the evidence of the love in which he is held. I am commanded by my young friends, who edit this Annual, to write, but I am cautioned that no sketch that does not breathe affection will represent them. No more would it rightly represent me, and, therefore, in accepting the com- mand I can discard the caution. Our personal knowledge of Col. Carter began when he entered upon his duties as Proctor of the University of Virginia, but this was rather the Closing than the opening act of his life's drama, of which his patient waiting for the curtains fall is but the peaceful epilogue. He came among us with nothing to learn of the lessons Virginiais University teaches of manly bearing, sensitive, honor, and self-sacrihcing service, for these were the flower and fruitage of his own rich experience; but everything to learn of the petty details of an office assumed after he had passed the years of ready acquisition of new duties. Yet, as he illustrated continually his loyalty to a past of potent privilege and enriched experience, so he evidenced anew his devotion to his present task and his un- swerving purpose to prove worthy of this new trust. C OL. CARTER, not of Cartersville but of Pampati'ke; not widely known to :FBy a strange and suggestive coincidence, as I write these words tMarch 23, 1906i about Col. Carter, the re- mains of his dear old friend, and ours, Col. Wm E. Peters, lie in the death chamber awaiting final sepulture. How they loved each other, these brave old soldiers of a cause, that history records as lost, but that lives with the per- ennial freshness of discovery and disclosure in the intimate talk of these old Comrades.

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f. 8 ' , CORKS AND CURLS VOL.X1X M He brought with him, too, an efficient helpmeet in his wife, once, as Sue Roy, the very type of a Virginia belle, whose suitors, though unsuccessful, counted knighthood for her as a sort of sacred ceremony giving a new and hallowed mean- ing to all life. As the matron, with the ripening touch of falling age on her brow, she retained her beauty'and easy grace that diffused around her the aroma of purity and refinement. Wherever these two, the Colonel and his charming wife came, and under whatever roof domiciled they found, for they brought, the Chief conditions of a home, in their own happiness and the hospitality they extended. It is obvious that the picture given by John S. Wise in iiDiomedl, with slightly Changed touches, such as any deft artist by a few slight strokes might supply, would represent the home on West Lawn. Here session after session the very space of the hospitable home was taxed by students admitted because fathers and mothers counted of as much value as University instruction the benefieent influence of this gentle pair, whose memory is a perpetual benediction. When in the rapid course of time, the home was without a mistress, ilCol. Carterls Coltsii were so true to him and the traditions of his household, that until last session, when physical failings reminded him that the activities of his life must close, the house was still alive with energetic and buoyant youth. Now the dear old Colonel is no longer with us in our University community. He has well earned the right to all the rest peaceful retirement can bring, but we miss him, and where loving hands now minister to every want, our best wishes and our constant prayers camp round about him, like the faithful troops he once commanded. And the University has no more loyal friend or supporter than the gallant Colonel. As in the old days of war he would lead his followers with no thought of self, so in these later days he would always gladly summon the cohorts to the University,s support, and seeking no honor, shirk no responsibility and avoid no work. Unable now to lend her active aid he loves to talk of her ambitions and her future, which he follows with unbroken prayers and unfading hope. In his sickness his uttered complaint has not been of personal discomfort or distress but of his inability to help as fully as he intended in the larger plans for the Universityls welfare. I ' How did he come to love her so? Well, he is a Virginian of long descent from noble ancestors, and does not every true Virginian love the old University? Her founder links her life to the making of this Nation and her fortunes have mirrored every phase of the States later history. She is part and parcel of the l