Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1898 — Grant’s Self-Control. [ARTICLE]

Grant’s Self-Control.

Even when a cadet General Grant was as free from agitation In an emergency as that self-possessed woman of whom Alexander Pope wrote, “And mistress of herself though china fall.” An amusing story, told by a classmate at West Point, and quoted by J. G. Wilson in his memoirs of the great commander, displays his imperturbable gravity under the most trying circumstances: “One morning, when our squad was marching to the academic hall, to recite, Frank Gardner produced an old silver watch that was apparently about four Inches in diameter. It was passed along from one cadet to another to look at, and when we arrived at the section-room door it was in the hands of Grant. He could hide or carry it only by putting it in the breast of his coat “When the section was seated, Zealous B. Tower, who that day heard the recitation, sent Grant and three other cadets to the blackboards. The weather was mild, and the room door open. When Grant had turned from the board and had begun to demonstrate, suddenly a sound resembling a buzzsaw and a Chinese gong burst forth and drowned all proceedings. In the uproar we laughed aloud with impunity. ‘“Shut that door!’ cried Tower, and that only made matters worse. Fast and furious went the buzz-saw, and louder went the gong. Bang! went something. The noise stopped. “While all this rattling din was going on Grant looked as innocent as a lamb, and In the profound silence that followed he began: “ ‘And as I was going to remark, If we subtract equation E from equation A we have,’ etc. “I mention this to show how he could conceal his emotions, for It was that alarm-watch: in his bosom that caused all the commotkn. It had been set to go off, and it did go off!”