Evening star., 1915-12-05
FIFTY YEARS Ago
IN THE STAR

In THE STAR
When Gen. Grant. came to Washing
ton to assume his position as general
=. in command
A Fund to Purchase of the armies
Gen. Grants House. s..tss 81 he Sc
lected and purchased a house in this
city for residence, on 1 street be-
tween I'd and Sd northwest. Later a
project was started to raise a public
subscription to buy a house and pre-
sent it to Gen. Grant. In The Star of
November 2S, 1865. is the following
item copied from the New York Times:
When the committee having in
charge the arrangements for the late
reception of Gen. Grant was in the
midst of their deliberations at the
Fifth Avenue Hotel. a proposition was
made that a subscription be taken up
for funds wherewith to pay for the
house which Gen. Grant recently pur-
chased in Washington. The PROPOSE
ton was accompanied by a statement
that the house in question was owned
by a personal friend of the lieutenant
generals, who offered it for 100000,
the whole of which sum might re-
main on bond and mortgage at per
cent, the yearly interest at that rate
amounting to s1.500. which is precisely
the annual rental of the establishment.
The matter was discussed in the COM
mittee and it appeared to be the opin-
ion of a majority that Congress ought
to appropriate two or three hundred
thousand dollars to Gen. Grant in ac-
acknowledgement of his services. An offer
was finally made by a large dry goods
merchant towards getting up testi-
monial. Another gentleman immedi-
ately followed with an offer of s10,O 900.
Now, said the maker of the original
proposition, the rest of the gentlemen
present will make up another $4,000
between them easily and this will give
the Washington house to Gen. Grant
The dry goods merchant would not
agree to his, however. He was only
willing to subscribe $4,000 if a. large
testimonial, amounting to two or three
hundred thousand dollars, should be de-
clded upon. The matter then dropped.
Since the reception Maj. Gen. Butter
field has interested himself in raising
the sum to buy the house and we are
informed that the subscriptions have
already nearly reached the required
amount"
X X
The government was suffering seri-
ously from the activities of counter
o.. feiters at this time fif-
Counterfeiters ty years ago. In The
r.4J Star of November 20,
p'"A 1865, is the following
paragraph on the subject:
coupfarfaitfo- AZ =
the Treasury Department has received
sharp check, which, 1t is believed,
will put stop to the operations of
the gang and the capture of the guilty
parties concerned. The secret service
division of the department has during
the period from the 1st to the 23d of
November arrested twenty notorious
counterfeiters. who have been among
the most extensive operators in the
country. The large amount of legal ten
der notes was also captured, together
with number of plates, including one
on which counterfeit coupors of c-hn
ten-forty bonds were printed. They
We're put IN 4lrcuiatIoh some mo-,
ago and were only detected by the
rough manner of printing and finish
ing. The plate was found in a wall in
the aqueduct near New York. 1t was
almost a perfect imitation of the genu-
IL
who was arrested for counterfeiting
the hfty-cent currency. Five-dollar
legal tender notes had been detected
ana are known to have been made in
Indianapolis. This new counterfeit
can be known by it's rough appearances
and general clumsy execution of the
Goddess of Liberty on the left end. The
red seal of the Treasury is the hest
one yet made by counterfeiters."
After the war the country expert
.enced serious outbreak Of crime, due
doubtless to the return to
Carnival civil life of large numbers
of soldiers who, freed
VI SAAnae' from restraints of mill
tary discipline, went to unusual ex-
cesses of conduct. In The Star of No
vember 80, 1865. is this item:
1T would really seem that the very
Pandora's box of crime has been opened
in the land. 1t needs but a glance at
the headings of the New York papers
to tell of the frightful carnival of
crime there. In the Puritan city of
Boston crime is SO rampant that the
Courier calls for a vigilant committee
as the only remedy. Unless the New
Orleans, St. Louis, Nashville. Memphis
and other western journals greatly .ex-
aggerate, crime of every description
there is fearfully on the increase. In
New Orleans the murders are said to
average about one per day, and the
other cities mentioned present a record
not much if anything better. Despair
ing of profection from the ordinary
processes of law, the citizens are
threatening to be themselves the min
listers of justice. In Nashville no man
dares to go into the street after dark
unless he be armed. Garroters and rob-
bers hang about the corners, and for
every one that is arrested a dozen es-
cape. In Memphis things are quite as
bad. Much of this fearful depravity is
due to the laXity with which justice is
administered throughout the country
Thoughtful people are beginning to in
quire where all this is to end"
Some excitement was caused in
Washington about this time half a
century ago by the
Yellow Fever appearance of re-
in the Port. fever ~ in '11e this 'e etv ye''o% Nv
The Star of December 4, 1865, is this
item on the subject:
The funeral of the late Isaac B. Fort,
son of Rev. w. s. Fort, took place at
his fathers residence yesterday after