The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-07-24


y respirations had reached sixty, and
Z between and 6 o'clock the finger nails
q had become blue and the hand further
evidenced the progress of numbness at
s the extremities and at every breath the
s mucus clogging in the throat was grow
ing NOR noticeable.
8 a few minutes before 8 o'clock Doc
Il tors Douglas, Shrady and Sands stood
4 on the cottage veranda COMPRISING on
a the condition of General Grant and dis
cussing the probabilities of his death
: and the limit of life left to the sick man.
4 Mrs. Sartoris and Stenographer Daw-
son were conversing a little distance
I away when Henry, the nurse, stepped
s hastily upon the piazza and spoke
& quietly to the physicians. He told them
4 he thought the General was very near
q to death. The medical men hastily
j entered the room where the sick man
was lying and approached his side. In
!! SANITY upon scanning the patients
& face, DR.. Douglas ordered that the fam
Sily be summoned to the bedside. Haste
s was made, and Mrs. Grant, Mr.. Jesse
{ and wife, U. S. Grant, Jr., and
ewife, and Mrs Col. Grant were
quickly beside the doctors at the sick
Z mai IS cot. Mrs. Sartoris and Mr.. Daw
Z son had followed the doctors in from the
q piazza, and the entire family was pres
: ent except Col. Fred Grant. A hasty
Z summons was sent for him, but he en-
Z tered the sick room while the messen-
ger was searching for him. The colonel
! seated himself at the head of the bed,
with his left arm resting upon the pill
4 low above the head of the General, who
4 was breathing rapidly and with slightly
q gasping respirations. Mrs. Grant.
calm, but with intense agitation
bravely suppressed, took seat close by
the bedside. She leaned slightly upon
the cot, resting upon her right elbow,
) and gazed with tear-blinded eyes into.
the Generals face. She found there,
3 however. no token of recognition, for
(. the sick man was peacefully and
fife. Mrs. Sartoris came behind
: her mother, and leaning over
) her shoulder, so witnessed the.
close of a life inwhich she had censti-.
! tuted strong element of pride. Di-
& rectly behind Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Sar-,
toris, and at little distance removed.
stood Drs. Douglas, Shrady and Sands.
: spectators of the closing of the life their
forts and counsel had so prolonged.
! On the opposite side of the bed from his
I mother, and directly before her stood
Jesse Grant and U. S. Grant, Jr., and
near the corner of the cot, on the same
side as Jesse, and near to each, was Mr..
IN. E. Dawson, the Generals steno-
sgrapher and confidential secretary. AT
the fo& of the bed, and gazing directly
down into the Generals face was Mrs.
Colonel Fred Grant, Mrs. U. S. Grant,
Jr., and Mrs. Jesse Grant, while some
what removed from the family circle,
Henry, the nurse, and Harrison Tyn-
nell, the Generals body servant, were
respectfully watching the closing life of
4 the patient, their master. DIR. New
\ man had repaired to the hotel for break
fast, and was not present. The Generals
! little grandchildren, .. S. Grant, Jr..
and Nellie were sleeping in the nursery
s room above; otherwise the entire family
and household were gathered at the
q bedside Of the dying man. Members
4 of the group had been summoned not
3 moment sooner than was prudent.
q The doctors noted, on entering the room
a and proceeding to the bedside, that al
s ready the purplish tinge which is one
s of natures Signals of final dissolution,
81 had settled beneath the finger nails;
81 the hand that Doctor Douglas lifted
q was fast growing colder than it had
g been through the night; the pulse had
a fiuttered beyond the point where the
q physician could distinguish 1t from the
j pulse beats in his own finger tips;
q respiration was very rapid and was a
4 succession of shallow painting inhala,
q tons, but happily the approaching end
was becoming clear of the rattling full
ness of the throat and lungs; as
: the respirations grew quicker and
more rapid at the close they also
z became less labored and almost noise
3 less. This fact was, in its results,
comfort to the watchers by the bedside,
a to whom was spared a scene of other
& than a peaceful death. AT times
passionate longing to prevent the event
q so near would rise within Mrs. Grant,
s who pressed both his hands and leaning
9 forward tenderly kissed the face of the
& sinking man.
8 Colonel Fred Grant sat silently but
8 with evident feeling, though his bearing
was that of the soldierly son at the
4 death bed of his hero father. U. 5.
. Grant, Jr. was deeply moved, but Jesse
q bore the scene steadily and the ladies,
! while watching with wet cheeks were
8 silent. The morning had passed five
q minutes beyond s O'Clock and there was
q not enc of the strained and waiting
q watchers but who could mark the near
ness of the life tide to its final ebbing.
! DR.. Douglas noted the nearaess of the
= supreme moment and quietly ap-
8 preached the bedside and bent above it,
4 and while he did so the sorrow of the
3 gray-haired physician seemed closely
B allied with that of the family. DR..
g Shgady also drew near: 1t was seven
. minutes after o'clock and the eyes OF
q the General were closing. His breathing
& grew more hushed as the last functions
y of the heart and lungs were FASTENED to
81 the closin gof the ex-Presldent's life.
) A peaceful expression seemed to be
q deepening in the firm and strong-lined
4 face, and it was reflected as closing
a comfort in the sad hearts that beat
5 quickly under the stress of loving
Z suspense. A minute more passed and
8 it was the closing. As the General drew a
q deeper breath there was an exhalation
8 like that of one relieved of long and
8 anxious tension. Members of the group
4 were impelled, each step nearer the
9 bed. and each wanted to note the next
respiration, but it did not come. Then
y it never came. There was absolute
8 stiffness in the room and a flush OF
q expectancy, so that no sound broke the
s silence save the singing OF birds In the
a pines outside the cottage and the
q measured throbbing of the engine that