Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-07-31
The Last of Earth.
THE DYING MOMENTS or GEN.
GRANT.

HIS LAST WORDS TO THE woRLD-HAPPY
TO SEE THE COUNTRY FRATERNAL
AGAIN.
SC, &C., sc.
We last week announced the death of
Gen. Grant. Next Tuesday he will be
| buried in Riverside Park in New York
| city. Messages of coincidence from Queen
Victoria, the Prince OF Wales and many
of the notabilities of the world, have been
received by Mrs. Gen. Grant. We give
| below an account of his last moments
| THROUGH THE LAST NIGHT
| All last night and until daybreak this morn
| ing the family were up and about the house.
In the parlor, at the head of the Generals bed
| which stood in the middle of the room, sat,
with hardly moments respite from twilight
to dawn, Mrs Grant and Col Fred It was
| known from o'clock last evening that the
| General was surely dying. Neither Mrs.
| Grant nor Col. Grant could be persuaded from
that moment to quit his side, though they
were frequently urged to take the rest they
| both sorely needed.
Mrs. Grant sat holding the Generals hand
|
ever slight tremer of the eyes or movement
of the muscles of the face indicated that the
| sufferer might be conscious Mrs Grant eager
| ly pressed his hand, saying:
'Do you want anything, Ulysses? Do you
know me? Oh, speak TO me''
| But the sick man gave no token of recogni-
tion and his eyes remained fast closed, while
the swift respiration, growing shorter and
shorter every moment, told of the rapidly ap-
preaching end.
Col. Grant sat on the opposite side of the
bed. every now and then passing his hand
gently across his fathers damp forehead At
long intervals Col. Grant left his chair and
paced for few turns out of the parlor across
the hall and into the room opposite and then
back into the parlor again. his head bent for
ward and his hands locked behind him.
Drs. Shrady and Douglas were in constant
attendance, also, both making frequent visits
to the sick room. The other members of the
family went often to the bedside, but for the
most part passed the night on the veranda
and i'll the drawing room opposite the parlor.
The house was brightly lighted all night, a
single electric burner blazing in the north
front, where doors and windows were closed.
The east front was Illuminated from the open
hallway door and from the windows of the
! drawing room and the sick room. Shafts of
| bright moonlight also shot down through the
openings in the dark hemlock foliage, and OBJ
jects could be plainly discerned for some dis =
lance about the cottage.
During part of yesterday there were hopes
outside of the household that the ebb of the
Generals strength might be checked, and that
he yet might hold his own. But the delusion
was not cherished by either the doctors or the
| family. No attempt was made to examine the
Generals throat, the patients utter collapse
putting the matter entirely out of the question.
At Z o'clock his respiration was thirty-double
| what it should be-and it was every moment
growing more rapid. His pulse was confused
tlutter of terrific rapidity, and could not be
counted except by taking it from the heart it.
self, the physicians bending their ears to the
patients chest At o'clock last night this
method showed the pulse to be going at the
rate of 100 beats to the minute. At every breath
the area of breathing surface of the lungs di-
minished, the limitations penetrating less and
| less into the chest as the weakness increased. A
| little after o'clock the General began moving
uneasily about in his chair, and finally pointed
with his right hand to the bed on which Dr.
Douglas has been in the habit of sleeping.
''Do you wish anything ?" said Col. Grant.
Again the thin finger pointed at the bed
| "Do you wish to lie DOWN." asked the Colon
ell, surprised, for it had been months since 60
ing to bed had been abandoned by the patient
as an impossbility.
Gen. Grant nodded his head and made an
| effort to get out of his chair, but could not.
| The Colonel and Henry then lifted him in
| their arms to the bad, and, having partly I'M
dressed him, stretched him at FULL length upon
it. He would have died in half an hour under
such treatment two weeks ago. Now his weak
ness was such that the muscles of the throat
could not contract and choke him under the
irritation of the mucus. slight rafting now
and then showed that the effort was still feebly
made, but it didn't seem to disturb the patti
ent. He lay almost on his back, little in
cllned to the right, and occasionally stroked,
as though it hurt him, the hip that was in
jured by the fall upon the sidewalk.
After the General, exceeding the hopes of
his physicians, had passed the critical hour of
one o'clock this morning, he lay on his back
propped by two pillows, His feeble pulse
beats had run into futtering throb that
could not be gagged beneath the finger of the
physician. Brandy was forced repeatedly be-
meath the skin of his arm, but despite its in
fuence the respirations quickened to a point
of labored breathing that was painful to all
who heard it,
Two o'clock passed, and the evidences of
approaching death was multiplying The res
piration was not alone more rapid, but shall
lower. The lungs and heart were failing. So
weak had Gen Grant grown at 3 O'Clock that,
though he frequently attempted to do so, he
was unable any longer to clear the gathering
mucous from his throat. 1t accumulated and
remained and from o'clock on there was in |
the throat the significant rattle of mucus that
was filling the lungs and clogging the throat
Earlier in the night Col. Grant had several
times asked the General if he was suffering,
and Gen. Grant in reply said ''No' in whis.
per- About o'clock Col. Fred asked if he
wanted anything
ssWater," said Gen. Grant, feebly.
This was the last word he spoke. His last |
unprompted words were spoken yesterday |
afternoon, when he said: 81 do not wish any
body to be distressed on my account"
Mrs Grant gave him water and then milk. |
He could swallow but little of either. There
after Mrs. Grant kept handkerchief in water
ready to put to the Generals lips, and he
closed his lips upon it when it was applied.
At o'clock the ladies of the family were
seated on the veranda with Drs. Douglas and
Shrady. DR.. Newman paced up and down the
paths about the cottage. The sun had risen
warm. Down at the mountain depot an en-
CINE disturbed the quiet by letting off the
steam that had been wasting all night while the
engineer set in the cab waiting to go to Sara
toga for an undertaken. The servants brought
coffee to those upon the piazza. Through the
open door and windows the quick breathing
of the General was distinctly audible. Dr.
Douglas came out but could give no sugges-
ton Of definite limit of the Generals life.
Ellis brain, his heart, and his lungs are alive
and that is all I can say of either or ALL" said
the doctor.
SUMMONED TO THE LAST SCENE.
With the coming of light the doctors urged
the family so strongly to take some rest, tell
inc them that they would be called in case of
a crisis, that they reluctantly complied DR..
Sands had gone to the hotel at o'clock the
evening before, and took no share in the vigil.
Drs. Shrady and Douglas were left on the
watch, with the assistance of Henry, the nurse.
At about o'clock DR.. Douglas walked up to