The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-06-06
WHAT rzz GRANTS
Interview zhcg=:ss .se Causes OF the sad
Failure.

"What is your opinion of Mr.. James L. Fish's
statement regarding letters which passed be-
tween the general and himself relating to gov
eminent contracts?'" asked a reporter Of Col
Fred Grant
1neyer heard q such letters before I saw
Mr.. Fish's statement"
Has the general?"
Gas to that I cannot say. Iknow one thing.
however, and that is that father is almost
broken down by the assertions made by Mr..
Fish. This has come upon him like q thun-
derclap, and it finds him as much unprepared
as when the crash came. He was so stunned
by the statement printed that it has almost
brought him to his bed again.
els it not true then thGs'the general was in
terested in Wards colossal government con.
tracts and derived a colossal income from pro.
fits thus obtainedl"
"Eo, sir that is, father assures me that he
was never so interested"
me, SIR" chimed in jesse as he knocked
the ashes from a fragrant Havana and twirled
anifty bamboo. 81 guess the reputation of my
father for y~eracity will bear an exceedingly
favorable comparison with that of Mr.. Fish
among'an r~ight-minded and unprecedented peo-
pie. When he says that he was not interested
IN this government contract business / say he
wasn't His word is all / want, and I think it
enough to satisfy all. You remember, as it has
already been said, that when father ascertained
that Ward had been trading on his name in his
alleged government contracts, he became ex-
ceedinely enraged and threatened to have moth
ing further TO do with him. Ward assured him
that it was all a mistake, and father, / suppose.
took his word for it,"
''Why is itthat the general seems so unwill-
ing to make o statement as TO his side OF the
case?' asked the reporter of the colonel
Simply because he is not anxious to rush
into print until he Knows where he stands.
When Ward and Fish and the rest of them
have tired themselves with making afidavits
and statements for the newspapers then pos
sibly father may be induced to fire q boradside.
l am confident that the public believes general
/ II that father is innocent of all wrong, in this
matter, and that he would not permit his
name to be used to secure business for a firm
of which ne is a partner from this 'Oovern-
ment.'
APRoBABLE EXPLANATION.
An intimate friend of the Grant family said
that he had just spoken with Col. Fred Grant
He had in confidencei uniformed him that the few
dollars in his pocket was all he possessed in
the world.
'As to those photographed letters about
which there has been so much talk, / cannot
quite understand. The only solution / can SEQ
to the problem is that some time ago the gener-
ais correspondence assumed such large pro-
portions that he was compelled to employ q
young fellow as a private secretary, Whenin-
v~itations to soldiers reunions, balls, etc, etc,
were showered upon him he would simply tell
the secretary to mark upon the envelope two
or three words of acceptance, or more frequent
ly regret, and leave the rest
to his scribe's judgment. Trust
ing everything connected with his business to
his sons, Ward or Fish, he came to think that
he must leave everything to their Judgment
Therefore when letters were addressed to him
by either of the latter, he simply ordered his
clerk to reply to them, giving irlsubstance only
what he wished to say. The scribe would en-
large upon what he said at will, and an entire
ly different impression of what he had really
said could be conveyed by the letter when
posted Then, too, the general being 80 contid-
ing a man, could be induced by such q keen
trickster as Ward to put his name TO docu-
ments of the true import of which he had but
little idea. / blame both the general and his
sons severely for the carelessness they DIS
played in leaving everything to these two men
Ward and Fish. AS to where these auto
graph or Photographic letters are | am unable
to saw. [ never knew of their existence until
recently"