Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-09-11
GEN. GRANTS OLD DESK.


Ante War Time Re ic in Attic of a
Cleveland uifice funding.
Packed away in the attic of a big OF
fee building here is a heavy old cherry
wood desk at which Captain Ulysses
5. Grant, afterward commander of the
Union armies and President of the
United States. once sas and made a not
very fat living in the real estate bust
ness in ST. Louis.
The desk is big and old-fashioned
now for modern use, and it is covered
with dust and almost forgotten 1t be-
longs 10 A. z PreMer, Cleveland law
yer, who got it in part payment for
rent, and he told reporter few days
ago how it Travelled from Grants Of
flee to this Cleveland attic.
in 1870" he said, Il was young
lawyer just starting and rented part
of my office to life insurance man
named Avery. who came from ST.
Louis. He brought with him this old
desk, ana when ne left the office he
owed me some rent and he left the desk
in payment, with the understanding
that he was to have the right to redeem
it at any time. That was thirty years
ago, and | guess he's dead now.
He told me all about the desk. Cap
tain Grant, when he dabbed in real
estate in st. Louis before the war. had
desk room in Ayery's office, and this
was his desk Avery got it when Grant
went to the war in part payment for
rent, as | did later from Avery. He
told me a great deal that was interest
ing about Grant.
when he was in the real estate
business the Crimean war was on and
Grant was much more interested in
that than lie was in real estate. He
made large maps of the battlefelds in
the Crimea, with the positions of the
fighting amies marked on them. and he
used to spend hours over these maps.
which he spread out ON the top of this
desk. The blunders in the allies cam
paign annoyed him greatly, and he used
to tell his friends what the command
ers should have done.
Here is the English position, he
would say, according to Avery, and
here are the French. The Turks are
here. Over here are the Russians. The
allies should not have attacked here;
shat was a mistake. 1t was just what
the Russians wanted them to do, for it
gave them an opening What the allies
s. ould have done was to feint here to
distract the attention of the Russians
to their flank, and then concentrate
their forces and attack here. In that
way they would have been able to
break through the Russian lines and
crimple them back
THE groups of Grants fellow citi-
zens who listened to these criticisms,
Avery said, used to laugh at tine
Captains criticisms Of the European
generals. Probably they remembered
that later The more in earnest Grant
grew the more amused they were. Then
Grant would see that they reren't fol-
lowing him and he would stop.
HE was neither silent nor taciturn
in those days, though, and he paid lot
more attention to his war maps than
he did to the real estate business. He
seemed wholly absorbed in the prob
lens in generalship the Crimean war
afforded"
For many years, Mr. Brewer says.
he used the old desk himself. and he
still keeps it for the sake of its assoca-
tions: but he has no room for it in the
office he now occupies. and that's why
it is relegated to the attic among the
discarded and useless furniture DilPd
under the roof.--New York Sun.