Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-02-12
1ov 49, ,<dIl z r

How line Is
General tsri q .tur >. 20
Is Grant q suc ~ 81 ueht With them
the usual numb loulies and
81 r.iivalries. olitical = q had their
advocates III Washing ION 20 plead
their ause, while Grsnt tood without
friends sc 4, q. n 1is detractors
gathered az times grant deal Of
strength IA their efforts to supplant
him with a general of their own choos-
ing, and Lincoln WIS beset BY many 4
delegat ion who insisted that othing
would harmonic matters IA the West
but Grants removal. This naggine
continued even aft his great triumph
1T Vicksburg. ssl ..32 s..5s =
Lincoln always enjoyed telling the
General, after the two had becomeper.
sonally intimate, how the crossroads
wiseacress had crit nBed his campaigns.
One day, after dwelling for some tins
on this subject he said to Grant: After
Vicksburg / thought Is asabout time
to shut Town on this sort Of thing. So
one day, when q delegat ion canleto see
me and had spent hall an hour trying
to show me the fatal mistake you had
made in paroling Pelnbert on's army,
and insisting that the rebles would
violate their paroles and in less than
month confront you again in the
ranks, and have to be whipped all
over again, I thought / should get
rid OF them best by telling them a
story about Sykes dog, Have you
ever heard; about Sykes yellow dog?"
said / to the spokesman of the dele
CATION. He said he hadn't. "Well, ]
must tell you about him." said /.
Sykes had ayellow dog he set great
store by, but there were lot of small
boys around the village, and that's
always a bad thing for. dogs, you
know. These boys didn't share Sykes
views, and they were not disposed to
let the dog have a fair show. Even
Sykes had to admit that the dog
was getting unpopular; in fact
it was soon seen that a prejudice was
growing up against that dog that
threatened to wreck all his future pros.
poets in LIE. The boys, after meditat-
ing how they could get the best ofhim,
finally fixed up a cartridge with a long
fuse put the cartridgein a piece ofmeat,
dropped the meat in the road in front
of Sykes door, and then perched
themselves On fence good distance
off with the end of the fuse in thei1
hands. Then they whist}ed for thu
log. When he came out he scented
the bait, and bolted the meat, car
fridge and all. The boys touched of
the fuse with a cigar, and in about
second report came from that dos
that sounded like a small clap Of
thunder. Sykes came bouncing out
OF the house, and yelled:
What's up! Anything basted?
There was no reply except snick.
er from the small boys roosting on the
fence, but as Sykes looked up he saw
the whole air filled with pieces Of yellow
dog. He picked up the biggest piece he
could find, a portion OF the back with
a part Of the tail still hanging to it,
and after turning it around and look
ing it all over he said, We'll, guess
he'll never be much account again-as
q dog And I guess Pemberton's
forces will never be much account
again--as an army"'
"The delegation began looking
around for their hats before had
quite got to the end OF the story, and
was never bothered any more after
that about supersedlng the command
en- OF the Army OF the Tennessee !,