The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1897-01-27
GRANTS GRATITUDE.
BE Gave His Check Open For Amy Amount
Up to $4,000.

he Gave His Check Open For Amy Amount
Up to $4,000.
II think 1 carry with me the finest
proof of Grants love and gratitude
of any man living" said Colonel
William Barnard of st. Louis. He
opened his pocketbook and drew out
two worn and creased papers. One,
a blank check signed Ulysses s.
Grant, the other a few lines scrawl.
ed on a torn bit from a memorandum
book to the effect that ''the within
Is good up to s5o, 0OO' and signed
Grant"
Then Colonel Bill told his story:
Years before he had been a rich
man, and there came a time when
the young infantryman got into
trouble through no great fault of
his own, but through that faculty
for trusting people which never left
him in all the after years. He needed
some money, and needed it badly,
yet he was too proud to ask any one
Of his wife's relatives or family con-
nections to loan him the amount. AS
he afterward expressed it when talk
ing owe the affair with Colonel Bill,
who had boon one of his best friends
from the ti,ne he courted Miss Julia,
he was lin a devil of q fix"
Without knowing very much
about the complications, but receiv-
ing an intimatton from an officer
stationed at the same fort, the colo
mel sent the subaltern an untitled
check, with intructions to use if he
needed 1t. Grant did use it and la
beled and filed away the little debt
of gratitude no was to owe for many
a long day. Colonel Bills fortunes
fell with those of hundreds of others
in the city on the banks of the big
river. but always, in some unob-
trusive way, a chance was given
him to recoup, and without becom-
ing wealthy he kept lin comfort
able circumstances"
Parties knowing the intimate re-
1ations existing between the success.
full general and the colonel besought
him time and again to go with them
into certain gigantic schemes that
needed only the taoit consent and
protection of Grant to make every
man among them a multimillion-
aire. Once the colonel hunted up
Grant down in. the ~jungles'' Of the
southwest and told him how he was
being "pestered to death" by those
enterprising blockade runners"
Grant listened quietly until the sto-
ry was done; then he swore q few of
the mighty, righteous oaths kept for
choice occasions.
"Bill, do you want to go into that
thing? If you do, / can't say a word,
but
ut would have done your heart
good to have seen his face soften
and heard his voice tremble, when /
assured him that, though I didn't
consider myself a saint by any
means, | did consider myself q gen.
tleman, and that, though a million
or two would come in right handy,
/ had no thought of making it in a
way that would certainly reflect
upon his honor. We talked of other
things after that, as Grant seemed
to want to dismiss the subject en-
tirely. In answer to his inquiries I
told him / was doing fairly well
financially, and then we drifted to
home talk and / soon after left
him and won't north and later abroad.
When ] next saw Grant, he was in
Washington, and upon bidding him
good night after one of cur long
talks he handed me an envelope,
saying o~arelessly, 'Hore is something
may fit in some time When | went
to my rooms, / broke tho seal and
found the check, just as you see it,
and this characteristic note" -
Washington Post.