Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1887 — GRANT’S BIRTHDAY. [ARTICLE]

GRANT’S BIRTHDAY.

Celebrations at Pittsburg, Washington, Hartford, and Other Points. Governor Foraker’s Oration—A Characteristic Speech by Funny Mark Twain. The Americus Club of Pittsburgh commemorated the sixty-fifth anniversary of Gen. Grant’s birth by banqueting at the Monongahela House of that ‘city. Ths tables in the banquet hall were arranged sc as to make the initials “U. S. G.,” and were elaborately decorated with flower pieces containing the initial letters of the deceased President’s name and the dates 1822-1887. Gov. Foraker occupied the seat assigned Gen. Grant on the occasion of the reception given to him on his return from his trip aiound the world. After the tables had been cleared Governor Foraker was introduced and responded to the toast “U. S. Grant.” He sketched the life of the General from early manhood to the close of his honorable career. “That he was not a third time called to the Presidency,” said Gov. Foraker, “was due to considerations that had no relation whatever to him personally. On the contrary he wgis never more securely intrenched in the affections of the American people than he was at the very moment when the historic fight of the 306 determined followers ended in defeat at Chicago. It seemed as though he could not possibly do anything more o to increase th e esteem and afiectionate regard in which he was held, but he could —and he did. He was unwittingly involved and overwhelmed, by financial disaster, and practically at the same time smitten by a fatal malady. The unconquerable character of his nature was never' more clearly demonstrated than then. It would be difficult to exaggerate the heroic fortitude and true Christian patience he displayed in the pathetic, unequal, but successful struggle that, followed. Job cried out in his lamentations and said, ‘Oh! that mine adversary had written a book,’ as if that were, as it probably is, the most surely fatal undertaking any ordinary man can assume. Gen. Grant’s last work was to write a book. He had a double purpose to serve. He sought not only to record his recollection of the great events with which he had been identified, but also to provide against want for the faithful and deserving companion of his life and partner of all his joys and sorrows. It has been graphically said by some one that as he sat at one side of the tablewriting, Death sa' at the opposite side impatiently waiting and watching. “Without a tremor or a murmur, hed evoted himself to his labor of love. A merciful Providence lengthened his days and gave him strength until the last line and word had been written, and his heart had been gladdened by the assurance that both his purposes had been accomplished, and then, as ‘gently as day intonight,’ he passed into eternity.” Roscoe Conking sent a letter of regret, in which ho said: To jo.n in paying honor to the memory of a man so illustrious and so true to his country and friends, so firm set, so calm and enduring under calumny, suffering, and sorrow, would be a mournful and grateful privilege. I should feel at home in doing so with those who did not wait for the glorification of his death to show them the rugged grandeur of Grant or the honesty of his purposes, and his reverence for the rights of every fellow-creature. GENERAL GRANT’S ENGLISH. Mark Twain Defends the Hero AgainstMatthew Arnold’s Criticisms. At the Army and Navy Club’s celebration of General Grant’s birthday in Hartford, Ct., Mark Twain delivered the following address, which brought down thehouse: I will detain you with only just a few wofds —just a few thousand words—and then giveplace to a better man—if he has been created. Lately a great and honored author, Mathew Arnold, has been finding fault with General Grant’s English. That .would be fair enough, may be. if the examples of imperfect English averaged more instances to the page in General Grunt's book than they do in Mr. Arnold's criticism upon the book, but they don’t. [Laughter and applause. | It would be fair enough, may be, if such instances werecommoner in General Grant’s book than they are in the works of the average standard author, but they aren’t. In truth, General Grant’s derelictions in the matter of grammar and construction are not more frequent than are such derelictions in the works of a majority of th*, professional authors of our time and of aH time—authors as exclusively and painstakingly trained to the literary trade as was General Grant to the trade of war. In Mr. Arnold’s paper on General Grant’s book we find a dbuplo of grammatical crimes and more than several examples of crude and slovenly English. The following passage is a fair illustration : " ‘Meade suggested to Grant that he mightwish to have immediately under him Sherman, who had been serving with Grant in the West. He begged him not to hesitate if he thought it for the good of the service. Grant assured him. that he had no thought of moving him, and in. his memoirs, after relating what had passed, he adds,” etc. “To read that passage a couple of times would, make a man dizzy; to read it four times would make him drunk. “People may hunt out what microscopic motes they please, but, after all, the fact remains and. cannot be dislodged that General Grant's book is a great and, in its peculiar department, uniqueand unapproachable literary masterp ece. In. their line there is no higher literature than those modest, simple ‘memoirs.’ Their style is at least flawless, aud no man can improve upon it; and great books are weighed and measured by their style and matter, not by the trimmings and shadings of their grammar. There is that aboutthe Bur which makes us forget his spots, and when we think of Geu. Grant our pulses quicken and his grammar vanishes; we only remember that this is the simple soldier who, all untaught, of the silken phrase-makers, linked words together with an art surpassing the art of the schools, and put into them a something which. Will still bring to American ears as long as America shall last the roll of bis vanished prums and the tread of his marching hosts. [Tumultuous applause.] “ VV hat do we care for grammar when we think of the man that put together that thunderous Shrase, ‘Unconditional and immediate surrener,’ and those others, ‘I propose to move immediately upon your works, 1 ‘I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer 1’ | Applause. j Mr. Arnold would doubtless claim that that last sentence is not strictly irammatical; and yet, nevertheless, it did certainly wake up this nation as a hundred million tons of Al fourth-proof, hard-boiled, hide-bound grammar from another mouth could not have done. And», finally, we have that gentler phrase—that one which shows you another true side of the man: shows that in his soldier heart there was room, for other than gory war mottoes, and in hrs tongue the gift to fitly praise them—‘Let us havepeace.’ ” [Prolonged applause and cheering.] Other Celebrations. A moderate-sized audience assembled at the Metropolitan Methodist Church, Washington City, to celebrate the sixtyfifth anniversary of the birth of General. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., and JesseR. Grant were present. An address by Senor Romero, Mexican Minister, on “Grant and Our Foreign Relations,” waff read by Gen. Colton, Senor Romero being, sick. Addresses were also delivered by ex-Postmaster General Creswell and oth.ers. The Grant Club of Des Moines, lowa, celebrated General Grant’s birthday by memorial exercises, with speeches by Gov.. Larrabee and several other leading liepub* ' licans of the State. *