The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1895-12-18
THE LITTLE GIANT.
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS AS HIS lNTl-
MATE FRIENDS KNEW HIM.
His Narrow Escape When an Infant-Re-
turn to Hls Devoted Mother After His
Election to Congress-The Changers, Fa-
Their and Son, and Their Wives.


Election to Congress-The Changers, Fa-
Their and Son, and Their Wives.
1t is not strange that people gaze at
the shaft surmounted by the bronze fig
ure of Stephen A. Douglas, overlooking
the lake, as they pass by the spot where
! the remains of the electric statesman
are at rest.
1t was Oliver Wendell Holmes who
said that it is the incidental part of a
mans life which interests the people.
There was a good deal of this sort Of
thing in the Douglas family. There
runs through the story Of that family q
thread Of the uncommon. The country
knows all about the political career Of
the man who faced Lincoln in debate,
and who became the idolized leader of
his party in the north. There was some
thing in the disappointment of the man
| that touched the sensibilities of his OPP
ponents, as there is always and ever
will be something pathetic in the fail
ure of one who expires when within
grasp Of q long cherished hope.
A picture of the house in which Doug
las was born was recently taken at the
suggestion Of his only living sister, Mrs.
Sarah Granger, now 81 years old, and
| still living on the old farm near Clifton
Springs, N. Y, on which she was mar
ried, and which was opened up by her
husbands father, Hezekiah Granger,
in 1899.
The father Of Douglas, whose name
was also Stephen A-tho Little Giant
being the fourth Stephen A. in direct
line--was standing before the big fire.
place in his home at Brandon, VT, with
his SOD, then two months old, in his
arms. The fathers heart was affected,
and he let the child fall from his grasp.
The father fell dead The child fell in
to the ashes, and but for instantaneous
rescue would have met "a horrible death.
The mother Of Douglas was Sarah Fisk,
and she was the second cousin Of Jim
Fisk Of picturesque career aud tragic
| ond.
Referring to the incidentals of
mans career, here is another Of more
than passing Interest, inasmuch as it
furnishes the key to the coming Of
young Douglas into the west.
| There was man who lived on q
farm with his father near Clifton
! Springs, N. Y, whose name was Gran
ger. His fnther was Hezekiah Granger.
The son was in the habit of visiting
Brandon, VT, to do his counting. He
married Miss Sarah Douglns. She was
the sister of Stephen A. Douglas, a, |
followed him in all his career, even I'M
| to his death, and then came Oh here to
Chicago to watch the building Of the
monument to the memory Of one whom
she still refers to as the ''best man that
ever lived Young Granger returned
to the old homestead near the Springs
with his bride. His father, Hezekiah,
at once declared that his boy g wife was
mighty fine wOman," and asked if
there was any Of the stock left, for Heze
| kiah was III his weeds. The boy told his
father that his brides mother was liy-
ing, aud was likewise i'll her weeds.
Hezekiah hitched mp his team and made
a pilgrimage TO Brandon, VT, where he
made up an acquaintance with the
Widow Douglas, and soon after they
were married. Thus the boy had a
mother-in- Law and stepmother in one,
! and the old g;ntitran became the step
father to his daughter-in- law. To the
old farm in New York came Stephen A.
Douglas, aud while there he heard
about the chances for young men in the
west, and concluded to come out. The
story of the penziless young man who
reached Illinois, and aftarward became
one Of its senator's, is as familiar in IL
lin lis as is the life of Washington in
Virginia.
The morning young Douglas left the
house On the old Granger farm his
mother walked with him down to the
gate that opened out into the lane and
into the United States senate, and put
her arms around her boy's neck and
kissed him goodby.
when are you coming back to gee
your old mother!" she asked him.
ION my way to congress, was tho
prophetic reply. There is nPatmos that
rises across the way of some mortals.
A good many years went by, and the
faithful mother used to go down to the
gate OF the lawn and look along the
lane and go back again unconsoled.
One day she saw man coming, and,
though he had grown and had some of
that tired 'ook in his face which til,
west imprinted on its young men, the
woman knew this was her boy. He held
in his hand his certificate Of election to
the lower house of the national congress
from the district in which he lived in
Illinois. He was on his way to congress.
Long years after this, when the young
man had scars upon his political armor,
made i'll contest with the giants Of those
days, and when he was in the race for
the White House wreath and the press
OF the opposition was vindictive in its
attack upon him, Douglas stopped on
his return from Washington to visit his
mother, who had in the meantime NOV
ed up near the Canadian border. The
wagon roads were filled with the plain
people of that section who assembled at
the station to meet the presidential can.
didate. The old woman threw her arms
about the neck of her boy in the pres
ence of the multitude, and cried out,
All, they do not know my boy as do
Or they would not say what they do
about him '--referring to the attacks of
the opposition. And the son, forgetting
for the moment that he was in a presi.
dental contest, embraced the old lacy