Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-19

one would muster up sufficient cour-
age to enter, we would yell, There
comes the ghost of Van Buren'-Lin-
coin, Tyler or anyone else we could
think of, when there would be gem
eral scamper and no more brave deeds
for us in the dark for a while.
Through all this we kept up our
fighting spirit. Just as in the days
before the Grants went to the White
House, we prepared for possible at
tack by the crowd fighters OF course
we didn't think that the very idea
of our being in the White House
grounds made any difference.
I'VE began with a secret society
which we called the %. H. but why
we called 1t that I can't possibly i'm
agine. We used to tease the presi-
dent to guess what the initials stood
for and he wasn't satisfied until one
day he finally struck the right name,
the old Hat After this had been
guessed we took &C. F. finally guessed
as crowd fighters Later we adopted
"A. A, which we instituted, in the gar
ret of the White House, a great big
dark, pokey place. Following this we
formed the F. K. r., which has re-
manned a secret with the members
We held our meetings in little house
in the White House grounds.
"Once each year the boys continue
to gather at a dinner given in Wash
ington in celebration of the old times
in the capital city.
Jesse and I kept up our friendship
and in 1873 he accompanied our fam
lily back to California, where we had
some great experiences. We went to
Suffer creek and one day we boys left
the party for a days excursion. We
had only one mule and Jesse rode it
fInn tot, s-s1 40
rived nearly at the top we heard the
unmistakable sounds of a bear in
tree and we both jumped pellmell onto
the mule and rode it at record speed
down the mountain, leaving the bear
master of ali it surveyed.
1--WE had still more exciting expert
ence with a bear, however. The men
of the party occupied a brush house,
all sleeping on the floor, with our feet
toward the door. One dark, starless
night Jesse felt something move about
his foot and to our surprise, and need
less to say horror and subsequent re-
lief, a large bear snuffed and leisurely
walked out. Evidently the bear had
been attracted by the warmth, and
the wind coming toward the house had
not smelled us.
"On our way out we were both pre-
scented with beautiful knives, which we
used during the trip. Probably the
most exciting use to which we put the
knives was in cleaning fish. Some
years afterward, while L was on visit
in the east, 1 was introduced to a
charming young woman, who is now
prominent society matron, and she dis
played the knife presented to her by
Jesse Grant repeating the wonderful
deeds he had performed with it. nj
GLIDING the killing of several large
grizzly bears and a wildcat or two for
good measure. Well, Jesse was made
out a hero, all right!
ct thought l wouldn't be outstripped
by Jesse and Immediately forgot the
ignominious and hasty retreat down
the mountain side and produced my
own knife, the counterpart of the one
given by Jesse, and told of the deeds
which I had accomplished with it, end
ing by presenting 1t to the young lady
to keep company with her first knife.
To this day she has the two knives
crossed on the wall, and delights in re-
peating the wild adventures in which
they were used in the early days in
California, little dreaming that the
cleaning of mountain trout was the
most murderous deed to which the
knives were put"