Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-19

| quickly and laughingly replied: But L
| didn't burn it,!
I'm the audience We're well known
generals and high officials who en-
joyed the intimacy of the Grant family
Just imagine a younster getting up De
fore the president of the United States
and telling him to his face and before
other high officials the description OF
the different battles in which he had
directed the army, and closing by say
ing that he had burned Northumberland
all that in the White House!
"Then, ] remember, we thought we
were great financiers. Probably today
we would be called 'grafters.' We were
great on buying books, which, by the
way, were always boys books, ana
would rattle them, always being careful
to sell the tickets to the older people.
Now, of course, they wouldn't want
boys books, so they would give them
back to us and we had the books as
well as the money.
Doing Presidents Printing
But our greatest business enterprise,
and one that gave us much satisfaction,
was a small printing outfit that Jesse
owned. This was a little screw press
and one font of type, about all We
could handle We thought they We're
simply great We took orders for call
ing cards from President and Mrs
Grant, which we promptly executed,
sometimes emitting the time to dry
the cards, which is so necessary IN
printing. But our main object was TO
deliver the goods and collect, in which
we were always successful.
I'VE thought President and Mrs.
Grant were fine customers, and it was
not until many years afterWard that
we boys realized that the president OF
the United States and the first lady
r,f+ 1,,, t,r,5 ,DfF ~
our thinking a few finger marks and
the like made no difference, and the
quantities both ordered were proof
conclusive to US that the cards had
been used. Just imagine their using
printed cards, anyway!
"Then, another time, we went forth
into the shipbuilding business, and
with government lumber made a row.
boat which. 1 suppose, resembled an
old-fashioned cheap coffin more than
anything else. But it would float, and
that was the main requisite. After we
had completed the boat, all of which
was made of government material, we
looked around for a place to float 1t,
and finally decided on the fountain in
the White House grounds. The boat
leaked some, but it served its pur-
pose, and after we tired of 1t
we decided to give it to a gar
dener who lived on the Potomac
river, thinking that he could use 1t TO
great advantage. But afterward we
found out that he used the boat as
a chicken house. We let that particu-
lar gardener alone and treated him
with great GOODNESS after that.
Little Horace Porter, jr., son of
General Porter, was of about the same
age as Jesse and myself, but of an
entirely different disposition. Saturday
afternoons he was sent over to the
White House to play, always immacu-
lately attired in a black velvet suit.
Now we decided that those fine clothes
were too much for us. One day young
Porter accidentally slipped into the
fountain. OF course no one could inn
agine how it happened, but this stopped
his Saturday afternoon visits to the
White House.
Ghosts of the Past
I'm the great east room we used to
have escapades that, 1 dare say, made
our hair stand on end. We would go
to the western door and dare each
other to go TO the southeast corner,
which was particularly formidable to
us boys. Little caring for the tradi-
lions of the famous room, when any