The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-09-27
HE "DRIv GENERAL GRANT"
Story of Negroes Qualifications For
the Ministry.

When Judge Sterling B. Toney of the
chancery court of Louisville returned
to the Brown Palace hotel last Wednes-
day from a visit to the mountains and
on his way home, says the Denver
Times, several men, who knew his rep
utation as a raconteur, surrounded him
and begged for d niger" story. In
his fter-dinner speeches in Louisville,
as we'll as in Alabama, where he has
one of the largest plantations in the
south, Judge Toney includes numerous
capital negro stories. The judge par
ried the attacks upon him for while.
but when one of his assaiIants sug-
gested that he tell the story with
which he captivated some banqueters
recently. he began:
when General Grant paid his last
visit to Louisville, KY, some months
before his death, the city awarded to
him a Pharsalian triumph. Over 100,-
600 people flocked to the city to pay
honor to the great captain. In the
parade were the Kentucky state guard,
the Orphans brigade, commanded by
General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Cen
eral Grants classmate at West Point
and lifelong friend, who surrendered to
General Grant at Fort Donelson; the
Louisville legion, and all the civic pa
geantry of mounted police, some 500
strong, and the fire department.
THE committee on reception, of
which General Eli Murray was chair
man, called on me to request the use
of my wife's high open park carriage
for General Grant, the governor, the
mayor and General Eli to ride in at
the head of the procession. Of course
I told them that carriage and horses
were at their disposal, with one pro-
viso or request, however. and that was
that my coachman, a darby that ! had
imported from my plantation in Ala
bama, Wyatt Ryan, should occupy the
box They said it made no difference,
as they were to have eight white horses
hooked to it with a white man in uni
form at the bit of each horse.
The procession was formed with
the park carriage at the front and
Wyatt on the box, with General Grant
and other officials within; over 300 car
riages were in line.
after several hours driving through
the principal streets, the head of the
procession halted at the Gait house. A
guard was at once formed as an es-
cort to General Grant, between whose
glittering lines he was to be escorted
into the hotel The coachman, Wyatt
Ryan, and the footman, in full livery,
dismounted. General Grant, with true
democratic principles, shook hands
with Wyatt Ryan and went into the
hotel
Several days afterward my darby
coachman seemed in a rather reflective
mood and said to me:
'Marse Sterlin', l wants to go back
to de plantation in Alabama my
fathers plantation on the Chattahoo-
chic river. which 1 own.
Il said to him: Wyatt. 1 am pay
ing you good wages, three times as
much as you will get on the planta-
ton. Don't you think YOU had better
keep a good job? Don't I treat you
right
=" Oh. yes, Marse Sterlin', you treats
me as right as right kin be, and gives
me good wages, but ] is dissatisfi to
live up here in Kentucky and wants
to go back down on de plantation
Il at once procured transportation
and shipped Wyatt, according to his
request, back to Alabama. About two
weeks afterward l received a letter
signed by half dozen colored dea-
cons, officials of Zion church, darby
church about half a mile from the
plantation, in which they stated, among
other things, that 'Brer Ryan was APP
plyin' for de ministry and had stated
to them that he had driv General
Grant and shook hands with him., and
they wanted to know if it was true.
promptly wrote them that it was
fact, that he had driven General Grant
about fifteen miles in Louisville, and
that 1 had seen the general shake
hands with him. On the receipt of
this letter they Immediately ordained
Wyatt a minister of Zion church. an
ecclesiastical position which ne has oc-
cupied with distinction ever since. Last
summer, just before coming to Colo
RADIO, I was on the plantation and Wy
att said to me on Saturday afternoon:
'Marse Sterlin', would like for you
to come out to Zion church tomorrow
and hear me preach
81 told him it would give me pleasure
and asked him what was to be his text.
He said:
I'm swine to preach on "crea-
ton"
II said to him: That's big subject,
Wyatt; do you think you have mas
tered it sufficiently to make it the sub
ject of a sermons?
oh, yes, said he, I've done studied
it from Genesis to Revelations
II suggested to him that / thought il
would be we'll for him not to offer any
apologies TO the congregation. either
touching his ability to handle the sub