Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/87

 \ IRCIXJA JJlCXjRAl'HY

6i

Thus penniless, yet undismayed by the res anynsta duini. young Bryant, bent on completing his interrupted education, cast about for the means to secure that cherished object. Scarce six weeks after Lee's sur- render, his chance came, and, as always, he was swift to seize it. It was well known to his companions that he was not only a superb rider (as all Virginia boys were in those days), but a fine judge of horse-flesh, not excluding "the humble, but useful, mule." Captain William Glassell (who had proved himself a daring officer in the con- federate naval operations in Charleston harbor) now approached him with a scheme for purchasing "government mules," that were being sold for a song by the thousand in Washington, on the disbandment of the vast union armies. "Joe" instantly saw the great possibilities of the proposal and jumped at it. The government no longer wanted the mules, and there was nothing that the Virginia and Carolina farmer needed more. Glassell was to furnish the money (obtained from a brother in Califor- nia), and "Joe," the experience. The scheme proved a brilliant stroke of business from the start. They went back again and again for "more mules." They grew rich and in- cautious. Some envious rival whispered the government officials that the shrewd mule- buyer was "one of Mosby's men," and they were ordered to leave town at once. That night they slipped away, but the mules (branded "U. S.") went along too. They had "turned the trick" — the profits were divided — and that autumn young Bryan en- tered again the academic department of the University of Virginia. Little did the strug- gling young undergraduate of twenty dream then that in the coming years he was to be- come a member of the governing body, and a munificent benefactor, of that great foundation of learning.

For two years he pursued his academic studies, attending the "schools" of Latin, Greek, Mathematics, Modern Languages, History and Literature, Physics, Chemistry, and Moral Philosophy. The catalogues of those years do not state the "schools" in which he graduated. In 1907, Mr. Bryan received the degree of LL. D. from Wash- ington and Lee University. In October, 1867, he entered the law school. At the end of the session, his money was exhausted, and he was unable to return another vear

for his degree. But he had compassed more than he had hoped for — the foundation had been laid deep and strong, and, like Shake- speare's "puissant prince," he was "in the very May-morn of his youth, ripe for mighty enterprises." During the summer (i868j he went before the judges of the Virginia court of appeals, passed satisfactorily the "bar examination," and at once began the prac- tice of law at Palmyra, in Fluvanna county,, within easy riding distance of "Carysbrook," where his father was still living. Here he remained but two years, moving in 1870 to Richmond, which seemed to ofli^er a more promising field for substantial success in his profession. Allied by blood to many of the most prominent families of the capital, a young man of fine presence and engaging manners, with the surest passport to his people's heart of honorable wounds, he speedily . became one of the most popular men in the community, and his foot was now firmly set on "the first round of the lad- der." It has been deemed not impertinent to set down here these personal details of his "years of preparation," because, outside his family and the circle of his intimates, few people know little, if anything, about them.

In 1871, he married Isobel L. Stewart, daughter of John Stewart, of "Brook Hill," and within a few years, so many large finan- cial interests were confided to his manage- ment, that gradually he relinquished the active practice of his profession and entered upon his memorable career as a man of affairs.

The story of his phenomenal success in that career, which death cut short in the fulness of beneficent fruition — his intuitive sagacity, quick, decisive action, when once his mind was made up — his indomitable pluck and imperturbable "nerve," when financial storm burst over the country — his prodigious industry and intelligent alertness — his inflexible integrity — his absolute ob- servance of "the golden rule" — his large- hearted generosity — his happy secret of win- ning the confidence and affection of his men, who were proud to take his wage, and of im- buing them to a unique degree with his own enthusiasm for the prosperous issue of the work in hand — his munificent unselfishness in furthering every scheme for the moral and material advancement not only of his city and his county, but of the whole common- wealth — all this has been told by his civic