MAJOR GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE,
GRAND MARSHAL.

A. NOEL BLAKEMAN,
CHIEF OF STAFF.

COL. H. C. CORBIN, U. S. A.,
ADJUTANT GENERAL.

CAPT. JOHN A. JOHNSTON,
ASST. ADJUTANT GENERAL.

COL. WILLIAM CARY SANGER, N. G., N. Y.,
INSPECTOR GENERAL.

GENERAL T. F. RODENBOUGH,
SPECIAL AID.

Grant Monument Inaugural Parade,

APRIL 27TH, 1897

HEADQUARTERS, GRAND MARSHAL,

Room 292, No. 1 BROADWAY,

TELEPHONE, 1758 BROAD.

New York, March 24, 1897,

State Salisbary East
13 Oct 27th Street
New York.

SIR:

You are hereby tendered an appointment as Aide-de-camp on my Staff upon the occasion of the Inauguration of the Grant Monument, April 27th, 1897, and are requested to send a notification to these Headquarters, at your earliest convenience, signifying whether you will be able to serve in that capacity. In accepting this appointment the Grand Marshal expects that every Aid upon his Staff will be prepared to undertake and accomplish, without question, any duty that may be assigned to him.

The requirements will be that officers and ex-officers of the Army, Navy, and officers of the National Guard actually under commission, also ex-officers of U. S. Volunteers only, must appear mounted and in the uniform to which they are entitled by law.

Those of the above class who are entitled thereto by law may use horse equipments so pre-
scribed, in lieu of those stated in inclosed circular, except that all Aides will provide themselves with
sash and rosettes.

Civilian Aides, mounted, will wear high silk hat, Prince Albert coat, dark trousers, buff leather gloves, and spurs.

Very respectfully,

Grand Marshal.

GREAT NORTHERN BUILDING,
77 JACKSON STREET,
CHICAGO.

Washington Porter
and
Nate R. Salsbury,
Agents.

May 24th, 1897.

Nate Salsbury, Esq.,
#20 West 96th St.,
New York City.

My dear Nate:--

Complying with your request of April 20th.

First, please accept an apology from me for delay
in forwarding you the desired information. My excuse this
time is that I was suffering from a severe case of indiges-
tion brought about by potato salad, green grape jelly and sev-
eral other vile concoctions prepared by the many relatives and
neighbors of Aunt Mit's served at the repast on the day of the
golden wedding. One would have to have the stomach of an
ostrich to recover from dissipation of this kind under like
circumstances.

The affair passed off pleasantly and on the whole
the day was a most enjoyable one. The only thing lacking to
make our happiness complete was the presence of Rachel and
yourself, and I want to say to you right here, old man, that
if you could have had a seat at the table and watched Uncle
Jesse do the sword act with his knife and stow away ice cream
and cake - never looking to the right nor left - but contin-
ually keeping his eye on the good things that were being passed
to all parties present, you would have lost two or three sus-
pender buttons and no doubt given way to severe hilarity. The
day was a beautiful one. We arrived at Downer's Grove at
11 A.M.. Uncle Jesse was at the train to meet sister Mittie
and family, our brother Willie and wife and the two "skates"
from California. The arrival at the house, (which you know
is situated on a side street and to me looks like the jumping
off place of Hell's Half Acre; and were it not for the knowl-
edge that in your kindness of heart you bought this home for
Aunt Mittie and Uncle Jesse, I should certainly lay more
stress on the description of the residence) found Aunt Mittie
waiting at the door dressed in a dove-colored satin or silk,
home-made, long-waisted, flat-chested and no bustle. The
dress was a present from our large-hearted, long-lived Uncle,
Judge William C. Salsbury of Legrand, Iowa, and as Aunt Mit-
tie is very small and Uncle William sent a large dress pattern,
rather than have any of the cloth go to waste and as she has
plenty of patch-work quilts and no opportunity to work these
pieces in, she put cloth enough in that dress to fit a giant-
ess, but she was happy and lively as a cricket. After greet-
ing us all her first remark was that she had just received

GREAT NORTHERN BUILDING, Washington Porter

77 JACKSON STREET,
CHICAGO.

and
Nate R. Salsbury.

Agents.

#4.

to the hardened hearts of show-men, and even a man who has been guilty of selling short-weight fruit packages for years could not keep back the tears as he listened to the sentiments expressed by the minister. After this prayer, Mrs. Clendenin sung and then her son (who as before stated is a reporter on the Inter Ocean) being in some way a relative of yours and I suppose a little professionally inclined, stated that his sister in searching through the library at Elgin had discovered a poem which she had copied on fool's cap paper and that for the past week he had been rehearsing, when opportunity presented itself, in order to enable him to deliver the poem on this occasion. His hair was long, face pale; he wore a Prince Albert, tight pants and a pair of shoes that had elastics in the side. He took his position in the doorway between the bed-room and the sitting-room, drew his left foot in with a curve at the knee, placing the heel of the left foot at the instep of the right, waltz position No. 1.; the thumb of his right hand between the second and third vest buttons, rolled his eyes and opened up his battery. God forgive me, Nate, I had to laugh. He reminded me of our mutual friend who purchased the book containing the beautiful poem:-

"Cover them over with beautiful flowers,
Cover them over, those heroes of ours."

And if I had had a spray pump filled with a solution of asafoetida and rain water, I should have been tempted to have given him both barrels. The sentiment in the poem was beautiful. The rendering of same would have brought back to you memories of the little red school house on Pecatonica Creek.

After this able effort and an apology from the young man that he had not had sufficient time to familiarize himself with the poem, we again settled down to business, and Elder Green read several verses from the 31st Psalm. Uncle Jesse's elder sister waltzed up to me, took a seat on the sofa and said, "I hope you are leading such a life as will prepare you for a future home with these good people who have lived together in married blessedness for fifty years." I cocked my eye on old Fan and said to myself in all seriousness,- "Spike tooth, if I am obliged to live with you 50 years I should want to be a wasp and sting myself to death." My reply to the lady was that I had always lead a blameless life and the only relative that I was acquainted with who was perhaps gradually straying from the path of goodness, truth and morality was now a resident of New York City, half a block from Central Park, and the only time that I had been tempted to do wrong was when his wife had retired to her chamber and carelessly left the key to the sideboard on the oaken table, and

GREAT NORTHERN BUILDING Washington Porter
77 JACKSON STREET, and
CHICAGO, Nate R. Salsbury.

Agents.

#5.

this relative immediately appropriating said key, without malice aforethought, tampered with the lock of the whiskey cannisters. A quart bottle of Scotch was produced and finished and the aforesaid relative and myself bended our knees and ascended the stairs in rather a demoralized condition. I thanked the lady for her kind interest in my behalf and asked her, if in the goodness of her heart she could do so, that she would write you a long letter on the beauties of Christianity and the ever-lasting happiness that would come to one if they denied themselves all the pleasures in life and are content to live on faith.

I could perhaps continue this description for many hours, but time and the expense of a stenographer prevents. I hope you will not think me facetious in this description, Nate, but I can assure you that it is not overdrawn and I hope you will not think it is criminal on my part to give you these points as they actually occurred. But, to be truthful with you, I want to say that I never enjoyed a day more in my life and it has never been my pleasure to see any one more happy than our good Aunt Mittie was on that day. Your ears must have burned for you were the topic of conversation many times and every one present knew how good you had been to these dear old people. As for myself, I really felt guilty that I had not been more friendly and made a greater effort to see this good woman and the future will not find me remiss in this respect. They have not many years to live; their wants are few and their comforts at the present ample for their requirements. They are happy in the little home that you gave them and your goodness of heart and liberality to them is certainly appreciated more than mere words can express. Aunt Mittie is looking forward with great pleasure to the time when you will visit Chicago, and we must make it a point to go out there and see them when you come here.

Fannie was scarcely able to leave the house but yet felt that she should go to Downer's Grove that day and she enjoyed herself very much indeed. We returned home on the 5 o'clock train and will make arrangements for Aunt Mittie to pay us a visit as soon as possible.

I hope this letter will find Rachel, the babies and yourself enjoying the best of health, and hoping to have good reports from you and that your business is satisfactory in every way and that your health will continue to improve.

With love to all, believe me,

Great Northern Building
77 Jackson Street,
CHICAGO

May 24th, 1897

My dear Nate:-

First, please accept an apology from me for delay
in forwarding you the desired information. My excuse for this
time is that I was suffering from a severe case of indigestion
brought about by potato salad, green grape jelly and several
other vile concoctions prepared by the many relatives and neigh-
bors of Aunt Mit's served at the repast on the day of the
golden wedding. One would have to have the stomach of an
ostrich to recover from dissipation of this kind under like
circumstances.

The affair passed of pleasantly and on the whole
the day was a most enjoyable one. The only thing lacking to
make our happiness complete was the presence of Rachel and
yourself, and I want to say to you right here, old man, that
if you could have had a seat at the table and watched Uncle
Jesse do the sword act with his knife and stow away ice cream
and cake - never looking to the right nor left - but contin-
ually keeping his eye on the good things that were being passed
to all parties present, you would have lost two or three sus-
pender buttons and no doubt given way to severe hilarity. The
day was a beautiful one. We arrived at Downer's Grove at
11 A. M. Uncle Jesse was at the train to meet sister Mittie
and family, our brother Willie and wife and the two "skates"
from California. The arrival at the house, (which you know
is situated on a side street and to me looks like the jumping
off place of Hell's Half Acre; and were it not for the know-
ledge that in your kindness of heart you bought this home for
Aunt Mittie and Uncle Jesse, I should certainly lay more
stress on the description of the residence) found Aunt Mittie
waiting at the door dressed in a dove-colored satin or silk,
home-made, long-waisted, flat-chested and no bustle. The
dress was a present from our large-hearted, long-lived Uncle,
Judge William C. Salsbury of Legrand, Iowa, and as Aunt Mit-
tie is very small and Uncle William sent a large dress pattern,
rather than have any of the cloth go to waste and as she has
plenty of patch-work quilts and no opportunity to work these
pieces in, she put cloth enough in that dress to fit a giant-
ess, but she was happy and lively as a cricket. After greet-
ing us all her first remark was that she had just received

# 4

to the hardened hearts of show-men, and even a man who has been guilty of selling short-weight fruit packages for years could not keep back the tears as he listened to the sentiments expressed by the minister. After this prayer, Mrs. Clendenin sung and then her son (who as before stated is a reporter on the Inter Ocean) being in some way a relative of yours and I suppose a little professionally inclined, stated that his sister in searching through the library at Elgin had discovered a poem which she had copied on fool's cap paper and that for the past week he had been rehearsing, when opportunity presented itself, in order to enable him to deliver the poem on this occasion. His hair was long, face pale; he wore a Prince Albert, tight pants and a pair of shoes that had elastics in the side. He took his position in the doorway between the bed-room and the sitting-room, drew his left foot in with a curve at the knee, placing the heel of the left foot at the instep of the right, - waltz position No. 1.; the thumb of his right hand between the second and third vest buttons, rolled his eyes and opened up his battery. God forgive me, Nate, I had to laugh. He reminded me of our mutual friend who purchased the book containing the beautiful poem:-

After this able effort and an apology from the young man that he had not had sufficient time to familiarize himself with the poem, we again settled down to business, and Elder Green read several verses from the 31st Psalm. Uncle Jesse's elder sister waltzed up to me, took a seat on the sofa and said, "I hope you are leading such a life as will prepare you for a future home with these good people who have lived together in married blessedness for fifty years." I cocked my eye on old Fan and said to myself in all seriousness, - "Spike tooth, if I am obliged to live with you 50 years I should want to be a wasp and sting myself to death." My reply to the lady was that I had always lead a blameless life and the only relative that I was acquainted with who was perhaps gradually straying from the path of goodness, truth and morality was now a resident of New York City, half a block from Central Park, and the only time that I had been tempted to do wrong was when his wife had retired to her chamber and carelessly left the key to the sideboard on the oaken table, and