The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-15
Dr.. Barker Says the Generals Lease of Life
Is Brief, and DR.. Douglass Fixes It's
Extreme Limit at Thirty Days,
Though 1t Is Barely Possibly He May
Not Live Through the Coming Week.
The General Fully Aware of His Hopeless
Condition-Attitude of the Dying Sol
der as to Religious Matters.
THE DYING GENERAL.
His Physicians Fix the Limit of His Life at
Thirty Days.

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Thirty Days.
Special to the indianapolis journal.
NEW YORK. March IA telegraphc sum
mons 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 jour
ney has been sent by cable to England The
surmise was that she lacked the ready means to
start hastily, or she would not have failed to
take steamer from Liverpool last Saturday;
but the expectation is that she embarked to-day.
Her English husband has never been financially
prosperous, though socially deemed an orna-
ment, and he is at present suffering from last
seasons bad guessing on the turf. All of Gen.
Grants family, except Nellie, are with him.
Fred Grants wife, formerly Ida Honore, a
beauty greatly admired in Chicago and Wash
ington, has been devotedly attentive to her faith
er-in-law, by whom she was long ago nick-named
Sunshine" He dislikes the attendance of a
hired nurse, and thus far none has been en-
ployed. Upon Mrs. Grant and Ida have de-
volved such services as he will permit to be done
for him. He has kept calling for Nellie, how
ever, and insisting that she must come to him,
ever since the gravity of the situation became
manifest to him.
Being pressed to give his opinion as to the
further duration of Grants life, DR.. Fordyce
Barker would only say that it must be very
brief; but DR.. Douglass fixed the extreme. limit
at thirty days. and added that he might not live
through another week. If he could and would
take sufficient nourishment, as he does on ex-
ceptional days, he might hold on for several
months yet; but he is now wasting away so
rapidly. in consequence of persistency in light
eating, and through inability to sleep, that his
power of enduranA has become an unknown
factor and it may leave him in state of collapse
at any moment His robust and hardy constitu-
tlon is no more. Like Garfield, he wastes away
from day to day. He is weak and lstless most
Of the time, and during this week his work on
his book has been slight and spasrnodic, making
very little progress. At times he lapses into
condition bordering on stupor But in his wake
ful and brighter periods he is the same stolid,
grim, silent man, who'faced death on battle-felds
twenty years ago. This view of him is given to
your correspondent by frequent and familiar
visitor
ut has been Misrepresentation" he added,
ito say that the General does not appreciate the
fact that he soon must die. The hero of Shiloh
and the Wilderness fully understands thathe has
a few weeks only, and to his intimate friends he
speaks of this with the same freedom. and in the
same matter offact manner that he discusses
his intentions with respect to dinner or the con
dition of his digestion. 1t is indeed eminently
characteristic of the man that he faces death in
such an unmoved way. If left to himself, he
e.. IT
indisposed to take any nourishment whatever
because of the pain produced 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 the family gather around him, and
beg of him, for their sake, to take some nourish-
ment. He then consents to the ordeal, and is
invariably exhausted by the effort; but in an
hour or two he begins to mend, and there
after improves very rapidly until his system
calls out again for food. Then he grows worse
alarmingly, until pursuasion once more prevails
upon him to eat Ida is rather more successful
in dealing with his moods than anybody else,
and it is usually from her hands that he finally
accepts food"
: The Rev. DR.. John p. Newman was sent for,
with view to his acting as spiritual adviser to
Grant, but this was not done at his own instance.
If he were religious man he would be Meth
odist Presbyterian; but he frankly says that
he had no especial theological training in his
youth, and has not studied the subject in later
years sufficiently to form any opinion as to what
he does or does not believe He holds that there
is God and hereafter, but is not prepared to
ol. NV
Protestants that the unconverted and the ndif-
ferent will be eternally tormented. If Grants
attitude with reference to religion could be ex-
ac.ly defined it might be expressed as having all
along been one of unconcern, and there is no
reason to suppose that the nearness of death has
made any change, though his wife is very solici-
tous 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 trustworthy informant, seemingly being
willing 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 in
innate was Dr. Newman and their relations
were confined mainly to sociability. When
Newman undertook the ultimately disastrous
job of gathering popular congregation in the
big church in which Hepworth had failed, Grant
took pew, made liberal subscription and at
tended the services with considerable regularity;
but when offered a dcaconate in the church,
which was congregational though the pastor was
Methodist, he abruptly declined. When the
slightly less spiritual Office OF trustee was sug
gested, he refused that, too, and avowed his
moderate degree of infdelity. 1t remains to be
seen whether Newman will now be able to shake
him in that position Of Indifference. The trial
is bound to be made.
His Condition Last Night.