The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1897-01-13
GRANTS GRATITUDE.
He Gave His Check Open For ANY Amount
VI to $4,000.

He Gave His Check Open For ANY amount
Up to $4,000.
az think / 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 pooketbook and drew out
two worn and creased papers. One,
a blank check signed Ulysses ).
Grant, " the other a few lines scraWl-
ed on a torn bit from q memorandum
book to the effect that ''the within
is good up to $50, 600" and signed
Grant. $40
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 n
of his wife's relatives or family con-
n%ections to loan him the amount. AS
he afterward expressed it when talk
ing over the affair with Colonel Bill,
who had been one of his best friends
from the time he courted Miss Julia,
he was Sin a devil of q fix"
Without knowing very much
about the complications, but receiv-
ing an intimation 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 Ia
beled and filed away the little debt
of gratitude he was to owe for many
q 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, q chance was given
him to recoup, and without becom-
ing wealthy he kept lin comfort
able circumstances.
Parties knowing the intimate re-
lations existing between the success
full general and the colonel besought
him time and again to 60 with them
into certain gigantic schemes that
needed only the tacit consent and
protection of Grant to make every
man among them a multimillion.
aire. Once the colonel hunted up
Grant down in the i%ungles' 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 be swore a few O.
the mighty, righteous oaths kept fol
choice occasions.
"Bill, do you want to go into tina
thing? If you do, I cant say a word
but
sit would have done your hear
good to have seen his face softer
and heard his voice tremble, when
assured him that, though l didn'
consider myself a saint by an.
means, | did consider myself a gen
tleman, and that, though a million
or two would como in right handy
! had nc thought of making it in
way that would certainly reflec
upon his honor. We talked of othe
things after that, as Grant SCENE
to want to dismiss the subject or
tirely. In answer to his inquiries
told him l was doing fairly we
financially, and then we drifted I
home talk, and l soon after let
him and wentworth and later abroad
When ! next saw Grant, he was i
Washington. and upon bidding bill
good night after one of our Ion
talks he handed me an envelop
saying oarelessly, Here is somethir
may fit in some time When l wei
to my rooms, l broke the seal ar
found the check, just as you SEQ j
and this characteristic note"
Washington Post.