The Red Cloud chief., 1896-05-22

OF General Grant. similar services. in
other countries. have been bestowed. as
special marks of favor, on men of mill
tary rank or distinction. who aave been
retired with decorations and with titles
OF honor. John is content with u small
pension, and with the recollection that
ne has met men of all ranks. and from
all nations. and has treated them all
on terms Of absolute and impartial
equa'i,y. while the highest among them
would not have dreamed of addressing
John other than as an equal. John IA
gan for ten years had all sorts and on
ditions of pilgrims to deal with. lie
met queen and prince, soldier. sailor,
tinker, tailor. poor man, rich man,
pillow boy and all the rest. lie is n
CHEEKY lrishman. and he lives with Il
CHEEKY little wife in a CHEEKY little
home.
Some Of the Worlds Fair visitors to
Riverside Park wondered why they
found only "A plain, gray-coated police
man at the tomb, instead of a gaudy
commander and II SNOWY guard from
the Regular Army. o.
The authorities did try the Regular
Army. o." at the tomb for awhile, but
when 1t was found that old John and his
comrades did as well, the regulars"
were withdrawn.
Mr.. Pagan sometimes talks about his
experience at the Grant tomb. and this
Is the rcCOrd of one conversation
Yes, sir: yes. sir. | was right by The
tomb AT all times Of the night and at
You see, there were three shifts of
duty, and ! had my turn at each and
all of them. They had a company of
soldiers there from Fort Hamilton for
the first ten or eleven months, but eve
while they were there, there were al
ways some Of us park policemen th"re
with them. | was there with the sol
dicrs from the beginning. The funeral
was the Sth Of August, 1885, and ON
June 80, 1856. the soldiers were with
drawn, and IL was on that day that
was regularly assigned to duty at tn,
tomb. ] will never forget the night o.
the funeral. There had been lots o.
excitement all day, with the bands ant
the marches, but by z or s o'clock III,
crowd thinned away. Then the Horl
of scaling-in the steel casket into tn,
inner place-far beyond the reach Of
rObbers-began. The workmcn wer,
hammering away in there until
o'clock i'm the morning. You could look
in and see their little FORCES blazing
and hear the bellows putting. There
were four or i've wOrkmen there and
they were sometimes smoking their
pipes as they worked. smoking and
blowing up fires. and hammering and
chatting. Well. well. ] suppose It was
all right, but j, made the watchers ont
side feel queer. ] don't mean only on
account of the smoking and talking, hut
on account of all the things that you
writing men would write about-,he
loneliness outside. and the river, and
the Iecollections of the day, and know
ing who the corpse had been. and the
glimmering of the fires, and the clanE
of the hammers, and the hour OF night,
| do not believe that ] ever felt as lone
some rs ! did n: midnight, and that,
mind you. with the wOrkmcn inside.
They made me feel more lonesome than
ever. They appeared 10 be 80 uncanny.
my" Continued John. what crowds
there were during that first year, For
the first month and more We park police
had to have extra men 10 help keep the
crowds in line, particularly on Sundays.
when the people would come by the-I
was going to say by the million. Well,
1t looked like that, anyway. Nobody,
either on the other side of the water or
on this, ever saw anything like it be-
fore, and possibly nobody yer will
again. The crowds used to keep pour
/.~ou@