The Washington herald., 1907-07-14

been made since then in the manufacture
OF cabinets for the cards. although the
card index never was and could not be
patented, and any one Is at liberty 10 put
cards alphabetically arranged into a box
and create his own card index system.
Services as Comptroller.
In 1883 Mr.. Grant became one of the best
known men in the country through his
simple method of stopping certain big
frauds upon the city of New York. Frank
lin Edison, a Democrat, and mayor al the
time. appointed Grant. a Republican. to
the office Of comptroller. and he discOv-
cred that some one or more OF the en-
ployes in the Office had cashed certain
coupons the second time. The fraud was
possible only because the coupon slips
were placed in numerical order in boxes
after redemption;
Arranged in that way the abstraction
Of the redeemed slips could not be dlscov-
cred without going through the entire
boxful, and for this reason the fraud was
unnoticed a long time. With the help Of
Inspector Byrnes. who was then In the
saddle. Grant discovered that three en-
eloyes-one OF whom had died-were the
guilty men, bat did not prosecute, because
he was assured that their political pull
would prevent conviction, He did dis.
charge the two living culprits, and they
had the audacity TO sue for reinstate-
ment, thus making the whole matter pub
lie
Grants method Of preventing future
frauds of the same sort was a sort Of
H.
stead Of storing the redeemed coupon slips
in boxes, he had the slips pasted in nu-
merical order on the pages of specially
prepared books, space being left for any
missing slips. Thus the absence of a sin
gle slip even would be detected instantly
As a matter of fact. this new method
stopped all attempts to steal coupon slips
and that particular forp of fraud has not
been worked upon the city OF New York
since 1888. Mr.. Grant is now only year
less than eighty He retired from active
life some years ago.
Proctor Knott as n HnmOrist.
James Proctor Knott, in his time law
yer. Representative in Congress. and
governor Of Kentucky, won more fame
IN an hour by delivering an address rldi-
culing Duluth, Mimi. one January day
in 1871, than ever has come to any one.
probably, from so short a performance
The speech is famous still. but Knott him
self is forgotten so completely that nine
IN ten Of those who remember the speech
viii tell you that he died long ago. But
he Is still living. at seyenty-seven. his
residence being at Lebanon. KY. where
he removed on giving up his law practice
a few years ago.
The famous address was made only thir-
ty-six years ago, but already there are
several stories concerning its delivery.
Every ones agreed that its purpose was
TO knock out proposed land grant to the
BAYFIELD, and st. CrOix Railroad. and that
in order to do this the speaker ridiculed
Duluth numerically. 1t is the general
opinion that he spoke Of Duluth as the
zenith City of the Unsalted Seas" in
the course Of his talk, and he certainly
did wax sarcastic over the place and its
somewhat ineipient claims TO greatness,
but the printed copies of the speech,
which are distributed to visitors in Du-
luth to-day, contain no such passage
Was Not Impressive.
According to one set of stories told
about the speech, It was read from
manuscript In mumbling tone, so low
that tie correspondents could not under
stand word of it. It Is declared also
that Knott wasn't the author Of the
speech at ali. but that It was written by
Col. P. Donan, who then was much in
Washington ION railroad business" Ger
tainly its style resenbled that of Donan,
who had remarkably famboyant way Of
putting things. It Is certain also that few