Huntsville gazette., 1885-03-21
AWAITING THE SUMMONS.

|
General Grant, Whose Days Are To Sure
| ty Numbered Within Marrow Limits,
| Awaiting the Grim Messenger With the
Same Stolidity With Which He Faced the
Foe In Battle-He Does Not Trouble Him
self About the Hereafter. t..re rass Y
New YORK, March 16.-A telegraphed
summons to come at once to her dying
father was not obeyed by Mrs. Nellie
Grant Sartoris with the expected alacrity,
and now draft for money enough to
cover the expenses Of the journey has
been sent by cable to England. The sur
mise was that she lacked the ready means
| to start hastily, or she W. id not have
failed to take the steamer from Liverpool
last Saturday; but the expectation is that
she embarked yesterday. Her English
husband has never been financially pros
porous, though socially deemed an orna
ment, and he is at present suffering
from last seasons bad guessing on
the turf All of General Grants
family, except Nellie, are with hirn. Fred
Grants wife, formerly Ida Honore,
beauty greatly admired in Kentucky and
Washington, has been devotedly attentive
to her father-in-law, by whom she was
| long ago nicknamed "Sunshine." He
dislikes the attendance of hired nurse,
and thus far none has been employed.
Upon Mrs. Grant and Ida has devolved
such service as he will permit be done
for him. He has kept calling for Nellie,
however, and insisting that she must
come to him, ever since the gravity of the
situation became manifest to him.
MEDICAL OPINION.
Being pressed to give his opinion as to
the further duration of Grants life, DR..
Fordyce Barker could only say that it
must be very brief; but DR.. Douglas
fixed the extreme limit at thirty days, and
added that he might not live another
week. If he could and would take suf-
fcient nourishment, as he does on ex-
ceptional davs, he might hold on for sew
eral months yet; but he is now wasting
away SO rapidly, in consequence of per-
sistence in light eating, and through in
ability to sleep, that his power of endur-
ance has become an unknown factor, and
it may leave him in state of collapse at
any moment. Like Garfield, he wastes
from day to day. He is weak and listles
much of the time, and during this week
his work on his book has been slight and
spasmodic, making very little progress.
At times he lapses into condition
bordering on stupor. But in his wakeful
and brighter periods he is the same
stolid, grim, silent man who faced death
on battle fields twenty years ago. This
view of him is given your correspondent
by frequent and familiar visitor.
"It has been Misrepresentation" he
added, "to say that the General does not
appreciate the fact that he soon must die.
The hero of Shiloh and the Wilderness
fully understands that he has few
weeks only, and to his intimate friends
he speaks of this with the same freedom,
and in the same matter-of-fact manner
that he discusses his intentions with res
pect to dinner or the condition of his di-
gestlon. 1t is indeed eminently charac-
teristic of the man that he faces death in
such an unmoved way If left to himself,
he would not live fou days. He is very
weak and indisposed to take any nourish-
ment whatever, because Of the pain pro-
duced by swallowing. He is
never hungry. Despite the earnest
solicitation of those who care for
him, he has refused to eat a morsel for
two days at time. Then the members
of his family gather around him, and beg
of him for their sakeS to take some nour-
ishment He then consents to the ordeal,
and rs invariably exhausted by the effort;
but in an hour or two he begins to mend,
and thereafter improves very rapidly until
his system calls out again for food. Then
he grows worse alarmlngly until persua.
sion once more prevails upon him to eat.
Ida is rather more successful in dealing
with his moods than anybody else, and IL
is usually from her hands that he finally
accepts food"
GENERAL GRANTS RELIGION.
h. Doty H., Nhy
sent for with view to his acting as a
spiritual advisor to Grant; but this was
not done at his own instance. If he were
q religious man he would be a Methodist
or Presbyterian, but he frankly says that
he had no special theological training in
his youth, and has not studied the sub
ject in later years sufficiently to form
any opinion as to what he does or does
not believe. He holds that there is a
God and hereafter, but he is not pre-
pared to accept the extreme position
taken by most Protestants that the un-
converted and the Indifferent will be
eternally tormented.
If Grants attitude with reference to re-
ligion could be exactly defined it might
be expressed as having all along been
one of unconcern, and there is no reason
to suppose that the nearness to death has
made any change, though his wife is very
solicitous that he should arouse to mental
activity on the subject. ''He does not
apparently bother himself in the least
about the life hereafter" says one trust
worthy informant, 'seemingly being will
ing to take his chance with the millions
who have gone before him in the same
frame of mind" The only clergyman with
whom he was ever intimate was DR.. New
man, and their relations were confined
mainly TO sociabilty.
When Newman undertook the ultimate
ly disastrous job of gathering popular
congregation in the big church in which
Wepworth had failed, Grant took pew,
made liberal subscription and attended
the services with considerable regularity;
but when offered a deaconate in the
church. which was Congregational,
though the pastor was Methodist, ne
abruptly declined When the slightly
less spiritual office of trustee was sug-
gested he refused that too, and avoided
his moderate degree of infdelity. 1t re-
mains to be seen whether Newman VIII
now be able to shake him in that position
Of indifference.