The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-10-16
THE GRANT MONUMENT FUND
The Editor of the Greenvil1e News Contrib.
utes the Twenty-Five Cents, and
Writes Col. Sheperd.
[Greenville News.1

AA4ouSu VIC OIIleO SlatSS Q1all yes
terday there came to this Office a COM
mon looking envelope in the similitude
Of those which enclose "Part of Con-
gressional Record' of Lydia Pinkham
almanacs and it narrowly escaped con-
signment to the place on the floor es-
pecially reserved for that variety Of lit
erature. Brief inspection, however,
showed that the arrival was one for
which we have waited long and with
painful and fast gathering doubts.
The public-or part of it-may re-
member that in the early part of the
month of June last past the editor OF
Shis newspaper did himself the honor
to forward by express to Col. Elliott T.
Sheperd, Of the New York Mail and
Express, Confederate flag as a sample
of the kind being displayed at the un-
yelling of the Lee monument at Rich
mond. The gift was accompanied by
letter expressing (very feebly) the
deep contempt which Col. Sheperd's
course had won for him among the
people of this section. It was sent
"collect" for the purpose of startling the
Colonel's soul but half a dollar was en-
closed for the purpose of restoring his
circulation. In the course of an edito-
rial response to the letter and flag the
Colonel remarked that the expressage
was but quarter and that the surplus
quarter would be invested in the Grant
monument fund. In this arrangement
we cheerfully acquiesced, as the Grant
monument fund appeared at that time
to be in a somewhat languid, torpid,
sickly, bilious, puny, miserable and
perlshing condition, and we were will
ing to help New York and Col. Sheperd,
Mr.. Vanderbilt, Mr.. Gould and our
other brother patriots and millionaires
out with job which appears to be
rather heavy for them to handle. At
the same time we gently but firmly re-
quested a receipt. We stated at the
time that business was business, and
that while Colonel Sheperd might be-
lie his reputation, countenance and
Journalistic methods and be plumb
honest we wanted some comfortable,
visible written evidence of the fact with
a responsible signature, to prevent the
gnawing eanker of distrust from eating
into our pure and guileless soul.
Through the smiling days of June
we waited and wondered, through the
fervid heats of July and August we
doubted and perspired. With the com
ing of the Autumn weather in Septem.
ber a dismal darkness of unWelcome
conclusion settled over US and with the
soughing Of the equinoctial gale went
from this Office the woeful signing OF
that familiar newspaper head line
another Good man Gone wrong" It
looked like q clear case of breach OF
trust, larceny after trust and embezzle-
ment. Mournfully did we reach the
conclusion that the Colonel had yielded
to temptation, that he had fallen from
his accustomed heights of soaring and
wholesale prevarication to the igno-
nominy Of petty picking, that he had
temporarily turned aside from the glo-
rious work of conquering the Confed-
crate States to pilfer an individual
rebel and charge the crime to the Grant
Monument Association--that he had
buncoed our quarter.
Yesterday, however, with wobbling
wave of gladness we recognized in the
nearly lost enclosure above referred to
the long missing receipt and the Colo
mel stands vindicated as the solemn
and elaborate ass we have always
taken him to be and as man who will
honestly handle trust fund of twenty.
five cents when the owners have him
dead to rights.
The receipt is an elaborate document.
It is ten inches by ten, Autographed
by the American Bank Note Company
1t contains portrait of General Grant,
a photograph of somebody's sword,
some miscellaneous vegetation and a
likeness Of the American eagle appa-
rently in the act of stealing more tim
Der and bric-a-brac than he can carry
away, his attitude being expression Of
painful effort and much painful anx-
iety. In each Of the two lower corners
there is a very evidently female person
and Colonel Sheperd should have them
both draped before John Wanamaker
catches him. The voluptuousness OF
these persons is of the most aggressive
kind and they have nothing on but a
wing apiece-they are in profile-more
decollete than we believe wings are in
a state of nature or should be in good
society.
The receipt is numbered s79 in black
ink and certifes that the editor of the
News, "of Greenville, State Of South
Carolina" has contributed through the
Weekly Mail and Express, twenty-five
cents for the monument to General
Ulysis S. Grantin Riverside Park, city
of New York. Charles H. T. Coils
and W. R. Grace sign the receipt,
which was originally a two dollar re-
ceipt, but has been althred with red
ink. 1t has been pasted on the walls
of the editorial room along with a
comic valentine Of the vintage of 1887,
a classic bust of Marie Prescott with
bangs, specimen proof sheet from an
amateur tramp printer, the Charleston
Worlds portrait Of Ben Tillman, and
other freaks and curiosities, literary,
theatric and miscellaneous.
Now We want Colonel Sheperd to do