St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-04
FRED GRANT TALKS.
de Relates Number of Interesting In
cidents Concerning the Deceased
General.
A Hopeful Scion Who Was Won't to Laugh
at the Mistakes of His Occasional
Father.
The New Book Which is Being Pre-
pared by Him as Loving
Tribute.
Possibility That it will Contain n
History of the Late Business
Troubles.
Col. Fred Talks.
Special to the Globe.

| opeclaI TO the GLOBE.
! Mt. McGREGoR, N. Y, Aug. S.-Col.
Fred Grant related a number of things
about his father today, which, though
trlf1lng In themselves, have an interest lust
| now. Fathers interest in his children
was always one of wonder and curiosity.
never of direction" said the colonel.
when was sent to the Point he sat down
and tcld me what he had done,
and with an appreciation of nv
| capacity, told me not to try to dis
tlngulSh myself in any particular line
of study. If you do he said. LET If ba
mathematics After 1 had been there a
year l wrote him that certainly could not
do anything in mathematics as compared
with some of my class. He did not replv
TO that, but when saw him he said: Fred,
the mathematics are too much for you?'
eS, SIR replied. Then get fair aver
age III everything and you will come
through all right. There is no necessity
for you to distinguish yourself in eyery-
thing. The man who is reasonably up
in every branch of the course here
Is better off than an engineer who
can't ride or an artilleryman who cannot
lay out line of fOrtihcation. Do that and
you are all right And was that all the
interest he took in your course at the point?D
was asked. well, all that took the form
of advice. He came there to see me gradr-
ate. He took
MORE PERSONAL INTEREST
IN my brothers than in me. When he went
INTO business he was very much interested
in that, and he used to read the papers'
market report every morning. But we told
him he did not understand them and we had
many laugh at his mistakes. Personally.
he refused to discuss the market
with any one, except those about him in
business, and he never intended to enter
into its detail. He really knew nothing
about II" did he ever suspect that his
name was being used for capital for the
tirm?" Certainly not. He believed. as
we all did, that the firm was making money
very rapidly, and in the most legitimate
way. We had no reason to have thought
of anything else." ''HOw will you deal
with this part of your fathers history inthe
book you are about to write, colonel? I
mean, will you go into details of the story
limited at by your father in the introduc-
tiOn he has written to his own will" .sI
have not given that topic any consideration
at ali. There Is so much to write about,
my fathers papers are so voluminous, and
he has left so much Of detail untold, that
while I'm gathering
THE GREAT FACTS
in concise form, / will have enough to do
to put them in shape. If some of the ugly
scandals that have been put afloat take q
certain form 1 should tell the full story of
my fathers business career without any
reservation, and it would be a complete
vindicatiOn. But, as L say, 1t is
subject not entered into. I shall prepare
my work as a loving tribute to my father,
and try to make it what he Would have
wished it to be with reference to his own
work" Are you perfectly satisfied with
the arrangements for the funeral, colonel?"
1T would be most ungrateful of me to say
otherwise. We have yielded many per-
sOnal wishes to the influences of those who
were about US. wish it could be under
stood that any pride we cou Id
have as family in a national
funeral was very trifling as compared with
the natural wish, but we had to have our
dead to ourselves; because he was our
father, you know, and-you understand,
don't you?" One could scarcely fail TO, as
the tears came flooding the eyes Of the man
who looks so much like his father Gen.
Hancock came up here this afternoon. He
will sleep at Saratoga, and return here in
the morning, and the program as originally
planned will be carried out.