Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-04-29
GEN. GRANT AND THE CRANKs.
People Who Think They Can Cure
Him-COnditiOn of His Throat.

From the Baltimore american.
NEW YORK, April 25.-Durlng the
stress of anxiety when Gen. Grants
death was matter of hourly expectancy,
neither his physicians, the family nor the
reporters paid attentiQn TO tho cranks who
infested the neighborhood of his resi-
dence, seeking admission, or who sent
letters by the score, in the vain hope that
some reply would be given. Now that a
favorable turn has come in the disease,
and weeks or months of life seem TO be
assured, the doings Of the wild
men and women are worth men,
tiOning. These persons may be
divided into two general classes-religi-
Gus and medical. The former endeavOred
to make the General and those who have
him in charge rely upon miracle to cure
him. The mails which are delivered at
the Grant house fall into the hands of one
or another of the sons. Scarcely a de-
livery within the past six weeks has been
free of communications from monOmani-
acs, who counsel the patient to abjure the
doctors and place his faith in direct
divine Intervention. A letter purpOrting
to come from Milton Morgan, who de-
scribed himself as a Free Methodist
evangelist, declared that on a certain
day, at precisely 10 O'Clock in the morn
n
den and complete relief from pain,
and that thereafter his recovery
would be rapid-all because the
congregation OF Free MethOdists at Lam
singburg, N. Y, would at that instant
unite in prayer for his miraculous cure.
An equally positive assurance came from
Chicago. signed Amelia COngd0n, that a
band Of five prevailing Christians would
by their united petitions cause a faith
.tss. 90 .lsa .N
ton is now considerably agitated by the
so-called mind cure, and not less than
twenty letters have come from the dis
cipIes of that doctrine. These have been
destroyed carelessly, but the best recol-
lection OF them is that they all agreed
pretty well In cOunsellng the General TO
recover by means Of an exercise Of his
reputed doggedness of determination.
The letters prOfiering nostrums were
numbered by the hundred, and in large
proportion Of cases the medicine was sent
along ready for trial. Some came from
maniiestly honest persons, and their pro-
posed doses consisted OF the catnip sort
Of materials, compounded In accordance
with the recipes OF old women, Proprie-
tors OF patent medicines, too, took the re-
mote chances Of getting an advertise
ment through an offer OF their mixtures.
Few Of the current preparations for dis
IeA1G vi AhH UANtA iaAAtA ~ put III an bU-
pearance. OF course, none OF the advice,
selfish or loving, was taken into a mo-
meuts consideration.
The most persistent Of the volunteers
were alleged miracle workers, who de-
sired 10 lay their hands on the General.
Some OF them were spiritualists, male
and female mediums, from the phenOme-
non imbued by nature with marvellous
electric powers 10 the mere human agent,
through whom medical spirits were accus.
toned to work cures. A fair percentage
were palpably insane, while others seemed
intent cnly on nOtoriety which might be
turned 70 valuable account In their busl-
ness. Not one OF the applicants for
n trial got 80 near the patient
as The inside Of the front door
way, where their errands were heard
by one Of the sons, usually Fred, who un-
tremendously sent them away "But
there was one exception" he says; "an
instance in which politeness was re-
quired, for the man was a clergyman
famous enough 10 have name we'll
known throughout the entire country.
He said that he believed In the efficacy
OF prayer, and wished 10 arrange for a
test. / told him that we were grateful,
profoundly, for the prayers Of oil Chris
tians, but that we did not feel like doing
anything that implied expectancy Of q
miracle In fathers case"