The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-07-24
IN THE TWILIGHT OF LIFE.
General Grants Widow In Her Home
In New York City.

| A Woman Who Has Indirectly Known the
Horrors of Warfare, in the Calm After
the Storm Awaits the Time to Join the
! Great Soldier Gone Before.
| In the twilight of life, surrounded by
loving children and grandchildren and
troops of friends, Mrs. Julia Dent Grant,
! the widow of General U S. Grant, recalls
in her personality many stirring histori-
cal events 1t is impossible to see her
| and not associate her with the hero of
Appomattox. Caesar had his Calphurnia,
Napoleon his Josephine, Washington his
Martha Custis and Grant his Julia
Dent These names will live in history
nd ages hence be recited by school
children to patriotic pedagogues who be-
lieye in perpetuating noble deeds.
| There is nothing of the stern Roman
matrun, the proud mother CT the
Grachii, in the appearance of Mrs. Grant.
| met her at the Fifth Avenue HoUel re-
Gently in a parlor overlooking Madison
| Square, says Homer Fort i i the Cleve-
| land Plain Dealer. She sat near the
window ana beyond l could see the
pastoral beauty of the square. green with
leaves on low hanging boughs, and lulled
rest by the slow running fountain.
IN the picture that met my gaze 1
thought it was peaceful background to
the life of one who had known indirectly
widowhood. 1T was like the apotheosis
of calm after tine storm. 1t was the
serene, peaceful setting of the sun after
a day OF heavy clouds.
Tue central figure in this ,idyllic scene
perhaps lived only in the past, and had
40 JOY in the present except that of re-
membranes. Her gentle greeting and
pleasant demeanor made me lose sight
OF the background altogether, and my
imagination returned from its historical
excursion. Mrs. Grant is not tall, but is
below the medium height Her head
would scarcely reach to the shoulder of
her late husband, even when he was
West Point cadet and stood more erect
than he did when disease had begun to
drag him down. In the days following
the war she was much stouter than she
is now, but much more active. Her
outlines are generous enough now, how
ever, to indicate health and an old age
free from invalidism. She calls herself
a septuagenarian, although she lacks two
years of having reached that Biblical
age. Her hair, which was thick and
brushed back from her forehead, was
gray, and was arranged in becoming
fashion. Her eyes were clear. and now
and then in talking she would gaze ont
of them in a way that indicated intro
spection, mental peep at the past SO
filled with big events and people who
are no more
AT these moments wondered what
/ hon. IL cel,<.
| ing of the day she parted from her hus-
| band and saw him go forth to the war
| almost unknown? Perhaps she was recall
| ing the painful first days of the battle
for the Union, when he was first beginn-
| ing to show those qualities that event.
ually placed him at the head of the
| army. Her eyes beamed and l fancied
| she saw him after his return to Washing
! ton, the hero of "a grateful nation, and
| yet to her the same husband who loved
her in his more obscure days. Her hair
was not white then, nor her step uncer-
tain. They were both in their prime and
he in the zenith of his great career. The
head of a great army. and ali was
changed for the quiet couple who had
lived in St. Louis
II think that the generals of the war
have all gone too soon," she said in sad
tone. The remark seemed to echo some
QuGbGlOu IutouuCo W dSks buOQg0D
! she said it in tone which implied re-
greet that she had survived them all and
| had seen so little of them. There came
| pause, and noticed the look on Mrs.
| Grants face. 1t was one of sadness.
also saw the determination in the lines
of her mounth. which was one of the
chief characteristics of General Grant.
Hersface has lost something. of it's round
ness, ard the piowshare of time has made
| wrinkles here and there. The roses of
youth have faded, but something of
their fragrance evidently fingers in her
memory At times the easy vivacity and
cheerful nature of her daughter, Mrs.
Nellie Sartoris, cropped out. They are
not unlike physically, either. both being
short and well rounded. Mrs. Sartoris
has, or had, a gay, sparkling air, which
she inherited from her mother. The
| sedate widow, attired in a dark and not
| over-expensive dress, in her girlhood and
young wifehood DAYS, it is said was full
| of life and animation which appealed
| to Lieutenant Grant whose disnosition