News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-04-23
GEN. GRANT AT HIS HOME.
A DISCOURSE THAT WILL INTEREST
HIS MANY FRIESDs.
Gen' Horace POrter's Sketch of the Suf.
ferer's Every Day Life.

HIS MANY FRIENDS.
Gen. Horace POrter's sketch of the Suf.
| ferer's Every Day Life.
! One OF the most frequent callers at
Gen. Grants is Gen. Horace Porter,
They were together in the war and have
been on terms of close and uninterrupted
intimacy ever since. Speaking in ad-
miratlon Of the heroism with which
Gen. Grant has borne his many ills, and
OF the nature of his sufferings, Gen.
Porter said: 81 presume no man in
this century has had the mental strain
that was put on Gen. Grant from 1861
to 1876. An important command de-
volved upon him soon after the war be-
gan, and he was always weighted with
heavy military responsibilities. For four
years he endured constant application in
climate to which he was unused and
which was highly malarious. After the
war he was given no rest. He had to
meet eight exciting and important years
of the Presidency. Few men could
have stood it.
"The effect of it on him did not ap-
pear, however, until his physical suffer
ings began with his fall year ago last
December. Since then he has suffered
terribly; no one knows how much, for he
never complains. After that fall, when
he injured his hip, pleurisy set in. 1t
was a severe attack. Then he began to
suffer from neuralgia, with intense pains
in the head. His system had been
shocked by the fall. The neuralgia
helped to reduce it. As a means of re-
lieving the neuralgia he had several
teeth drawn. He refused to take an
anesthetic, and had them drawn at one
sitting. That exercise of his wonderful
will, in his then debilitated condition,
gave the system another shock, from
which it could not rally. Then this ter
rible disease of the tongue appeared. 1t
has been steady drain upon him, re-
ducing his flesh rapidly and weakening
him beyond any former experience But
he has stood it all without murmur.
just as he has taken all the reverses and
trials of his life. To see him wasting
and sinking in this way is more touch
ing and excites deeper sympathy among
his friends than if he made some sign of
bis suffarings, as ordinary men do, by
grumbling and complaint.
Fro,,,
fered most of late is insomnia. When I
was with him on Sunday I said it
seemed strange that he should suffer
from that, as he had always been re-
markably good sleeper. 1 reminded
him that on the field, no matter what the
weather or how heavily charged he
might be with responsibilities, some
times with battle On his hands for the
next day. 1 had seen him drop down
in the mud and rain and be sound asleep
IN two minutes. He meant always to
get eight hours sleep. He said it was
. strange thing to him that he could not
sleep, and that he regretted nothing so
much. During my calls L have seen
than elsewhere. He usually sits in an
easy chair. Another is rolled up to it,
facing it. On the second chair he
stretches his legs. As the neuralgia
pains still trouble him, he wears knit
cap nearly all the time. When the
pains are specially severe, very hot
cloths are applied to the head. They
bring relief quicker than anything else.
In talking he tries to speak without
moving the tongue. This interferes
with enuncia:ion, but it saves him pain.
He could enunciate well enough were it
not for this effort to keep the tongue
motionless. OF course talking is tire
some. He tries to do good deal of it,
but is discouraged by his family and the
physicians. The trouble ON this ac-
count makes it impracticable for him to
proceed with his book by dictGtion. I
have seen him leave his chair and walk
about on the second floor. He cannot
walk without a cane. His crutches,
however, have not been brought into
use again.
"He has spoken to me, as he has to
others, about bis great desire to finish
his book. His work on the book, when
ever he can take it up, is performed with
the assistance of his son and sometimes
another. He has voluminous notes and
records which they have to look up for
him. But his memory is often as good
as his notes. 1 never knew SO faithful
and retentive memory. He can fix
his mind on march and describe Just
how the lines were formed and what
corners he turned in proceeding from
one point to another. Work on the
book has proceeded as far as the
Crossing of the James, in the Sum-
mer of 1864" It is the most import
ant period of the war, and Gen. Grant
is naturally anxious to cover it as it
should be treated. No treatise on the
war can possibly be so valuable as this,
and although his notes would enable
another to complete the volume, he feels
that no one can do it as he can.
81 have noticed the change in his ap-
pearance during these months Of con-
finement. His face is much as it was.
but he loooks weak and his frame has
lost its sturdy bearing. There has been
no attempt by him or any of his family
to hide the physical changes by allow.
ing his beard or hair to grow long. The
beard is kept closely trimmed and the
hair short In all his sickness he has
been careful, as he was in health, to
avoid giving trouble to any one. His
son and an attendant usually sleep in
the room with him. but when he
awakes at night, wanting anything, he
will rise and get it himself rather than
disturb them.
THE NORTH PoLE.-Tieut, Lockwood
reached 80 degr ees "a min. north iati-
tude, which is about 456 statute miles
from the pole. The chief object explor-
ers have i'll view who seek the pole is
the fame they expect to enjoy if they
succeed. An explorer may not get with
IN hundreds of miles of the pole, and vet
geographer5 applaud his work if he
pushes into the unknown area. adds
news facts to the maps, and collects in.
formation that meteoroIogists and other
sclentlhc men say is useful to them.