Huntsville gazette., 1885-08-29
THE HERO'S TOMB.

Scenes and Incidents at Riverside-The
Aged Go to Take One Last Look, the
Young to Gather Inspiration for Lives OF
Loyalty and Devotion to Their Country.
NEW YORK, August 24.-The men who
fought under General Grant and the
women who loved him because of these
men have been piling floral mementoes OF
affection on his tomb for days past.
Yesterday most of the fowers were
withered, except here and there a fresh
emblem of love, but the hillsides OF
Claremont all day re.echoed with the
tread of those who had come to see his
tomb. The guards pushed the dead
flowers aside and placed the bright, fresh
ones on the tomb.
II one could have stood all day at One
Hundred and Twenty-t1fth street, strange
scenes would have been witnessed. An
old man got off car, for instance, and
was trudging up the hill, when an old
woman went across his path. The
man wore the badge of Grand Army
veteran; the woman faded dress and
a worn bonnet OF demure pattern. The
veteran, as was said, was old, and this
was no doubt the reason of his i'll temper
when he said: "What do women want
here? Why are you in my path? |
fought under him and want to see how
they buried him. The old lady moved
aside and said: "Go on, you should 90
first. l never saw him when he was
alive, but 1 had a husband like you and
son, bigger and stronger, and they died
with him."
The old lady stood very still and the
rain fell on her and the veteran, but the
old man had some of the spirit of the
war days in him, and, taking her by the
arm, he led her up the hill, and when the
came in view he said: "You go first-you
was another woman who came up
driving through the trees. She
carried bunch of flowers. The woman
brought him to the barred gate of the
tomb and said: "Throw them in there,
my boy; he's the great General your
father used to tell you of just before he
died" All day long such men and such
women and children visited General
Grants tomb. They didn't mind the
rain, but stood looking at the barred
doors in silent awe.
Many people came up from the river
banks through the tangled greenery, and
one, the most conspicuous, was an old
man. He had short stout piece Of
wood in his hand. At the tomb he took
out a jack-knife and whitfield piece of
carefully and threw it on the grave.
h,f hat
asked.
"This," the stranger answered; "that
don't believe in putting flowers on a
soldiers Or sailors grave. Cannon
and flags are all believe in, and things
like that. That chip is just a snip off
the old Cumberland before she went
down, when the Merrimac ripped US.
! was on her, and know if | were lying
there l would rather have bit of the
old Cumberland than all the flowers this
side of Jericho"
The dignified United States soldier
who marched before the door TO the tomb
all day long, was asked in the evening
what he thought of the people he had
seen all day. "It reminds me-" he said,
"of twenty years ago, when l came home
from the war youngster, and saw all
the faces OF Inc people on Broad
way who cheered US, and in the
same cheer cried for the others
we had left behind. l left the ranks
then, and only joined short time ago,
but when l see these people looking
through the grating, can not but think
of how the men and the women used to
look in our old ranks-they were bully
ranks, too-when we were coming home,
hoping that the reports had lied and that
Jim or Bob, or some one else, would be
seen just as he went away"