The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-09-25
MRS. GRANTS LITTLE JAP.
An Incident of 1s79-A wife's Watchful.
ness and a Servants PromDtness.
Inter Ocean "Curbstone Crayons.l

Inter Ocean "Curbstone Crayonsl
ut was my fortune. " said an OLD
newspaper man, ito be one of the few
people who were with the Grant party il
their tour through the United States IL
1919. The general had then Just returned
from abroad, and. with keener apprecia
ZION OF his character, the people were
more eager than ever before to manifest
tner admiration and their affection. In
the steaming across from San Francisco
TO the east there were hundreds
OF little incidents that illustrated
the softer side Of the generals char
acter. Nothing could be finer
than his attitude toward Mrs. Grart, and
nothing so touched the newspaper men,
cyn1cs as good many of. them were, as
Mrs. Grants attitude toward the general.
Her womanly anxiety to have him appear
at the best. her wOman's watchfulness in
looking after little details that he seemed
inclined to ignore, and her strategy in
having him do what she wanted him to
do were subjects of frequent comment.
AT that time the little Jap was Grants
close body servant, and a gesture or a
look from Mrs. Grant was acted on with
a promptness that caused one of the re-
porters to say that the little Jap was built
upon telegraph principles. In passing
through the country frequent stops were
made, ard at every little town or station
there would be crowd of people. AS
the train rolled into place Mrs. Grant
measured the crowd, or the little Jap did
IL for her, and they managed to have the
general appear in hat that to their mind
suited the occasion and the crowd.
When the japanese boy heard the
whistle for down breaks he would put his
head out of the window, take a quick
glance at the crowd and the place, and,
at hint from Mrs Grant, would take off
the generals travelling hat. give his hair
and whiskers brush, and if the train was
going into city would put on his silk
hat. If, when the train stopped, it ap-
peared that there was good many sol
diers present, without a word from the
general the Jap would take off the silk hat
and put on his military hat 1t the train
stopped at country town an easy soft
hat would be on the generals head. 1t
often happened that the general had three
or four hats on in the space of an hour.
He paid no more attention to this than if
he had not been concerned in the change
at all Whenever it suited Mrs. Grant to
have the hat changed it was changed, and
he apparently did not know when the
changes took place.
This hat business was source of great
amusement to the newspaper men, and
they laughed a good deal with Mrs.
Grant about it, and occasionally the gen
eral himself joked her about this nice dis
tinction in the matter of hats, but she and
the little Jap kept up the enthusiasm about
it until the last Many a reception com
mittee in the midst of their high flown
words of welcome We're startled little by
the sudden appearance of the sprightly
% foreigner with a hat and whisk broom
who. without hesitation or explanation,
gave the general a quick brushing, removed
one hat and put on another, giving it
the proper tilt and position, and slipping
away without word but with look to
Mrs. Grant as to whether it was just right
or not If it did not appear to strike that
lady just right there was another sudden
appearance of the foreigner with another
hat and then the general would be deliv-
cred to the committee. He would go out
not knowing whether he had soldier hat
on or a silk hat on, because he paid no at
tention to the changes made. He trusted
the whole matter to Mrs Grant, and he
evidently took a good deal of pride in her
pride of his appearance.