Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1885 — GENERAL. [ARTICLE]

GENERAL.

The news of the death of Gen. Grant was received with profound sorrow, bells being tolled, flags hung,at half-mast, and emblems of moumihg displayed from public and private buildings. President Cleveland issued a proclamation testifying to the magnitude of the national loss, and ordering the payment of appropriate honors to the memory of the deceased by the several departments of the Government The Georgia Legislature passed resolutions of regret and at once adjourned for the oav,

and f similar action was taken by «many j municipal bodies, commercial organizations, etc., in all sections. Atfiong the senders of telegrams of condolence to Mrs. Grant were President Cleveland; ex-Presi-dent Hayes, Gen. Sheridan, and many Otner distinguished men. A correspondent at Mount MacGregor furnishes the following gccount of the last moments of the dead heio: ' •; A few minutes before 8 o’clock Henrv, tbe nurse, stepped hastily uron the piazza and spoke quietly to the physicians. He told them he thought the General was very near to death. The medical men hastily entered the room wh -re the sick man was lying, and approached his side. Instantly upon scanning the patient's face, Dr. <Douglss ordered that the family be summoned to his bedside. Haste was made, and Mrs. Grant, Mr. Jesse and wife, U. S, Cirant, Jr., and wife. Col. Fred Grant and wife, and Mrs. Sarto ris were quickly beside the doctors a{t the sick man’s -cot. The members of the group had been summoned not a moment sooner than was prudent. The doctors noted, on entering the room and proceeding to thefbedside, that already* a purplish tinge, which is one of nature's signs of final dissolution, had settled beneath tne fingernads. The hand that Dr. Douglas lifted was fast growing cooler than it had been through the night. The pulse had fluttered beyond the point where the physician could distinguish it from the pulse-beats in his own finger-tips. The respiration was very rapid, and was a succession of shallow, panting inhalations; but, as tho end approached, the rattling fullness of the throat and lungs diminished, and the respirations became has labored and almost noiseless. This fact was In its results a comfort to the watchers by the bedside, to whom was spared the scene of an agonizing or other than a peaceful death. The wife almost constantly stroked tho face, forehead, and hands of the dying General. and at times, as the passionate longing to. prevent the event so near would rise within her, Mrs. Grant pressed both his hands, and, leaning forward, tenderly kissed her husband’s face. Col. Fred Grant sat silently, but with evident feeling, though bis bearing was that of a soldierly son at the death’-bed of his father, U. S. Grant, Jr., was deeply moved, but Jqese bore the scene steadily, and the ladies, while watching with wet cheeks, were silent. The morning had passed five minutes beyond eight o (clock, and there was not one of the: strained and waiting watchers but who could mark the nearness of the life-tide to its final ebbing. Dr. Bouglas noted the nearness of the supreme moneTit, and quite: ly approached the bedside and! bent above it, and while he did so the sorrow of the gray-haired physician seemed closely allied with that of the family. Dr. Slirady also drew near. It was 8:07 o'clock and the eyes of the General were closed. His breathing grew more hushed as the last functions of the heart and lungs were hastened to the closing of the ex-Presi-dent’s life. A peaceful expression seemed to be deepening in the firm and strong-lined face, and it was reflected as a closing comfort in the sad hearts that beat quickly under the stress of loving suspense. A minute more passed and the General drew a deeper breath. There was an exhalation like that of one relieved of long and anxious tension, The members of the group were impelled each to step nearer the bed, and each waited to note the next respiration, but it did not come then—it never came. There was absolute stillness in the room and a hush of expectancy, so that no sound broke the silence save the singing of birds in the pines outside the cottage and the measured throbbing of the engine that all flight bad waited by the little mountain depot down the slope. “It is all over!” quietly spoke Dr. Douglas, and there came then heavily to each witness the realization that Gen. Grant was dead. Then the doctors withdrew, the nurse closed the eyelids and composed the dead General's head, after which each of the family group pressed to the bedside, one after the other, and touched their lips upon the quiet face so lately stilled. The Associated Press reporfcr at Mount MacGregor telegraphs an interesting chat he had with Dr. Douglas the day after Gen. Grant's death, “l am going to tell you of an experience-I had with Gen. Grant on the afternoon of Thursday, July 16. During the afternoon of that day the General wrote this, ” and Dr. Douglas drew from his pocket several slips written by the General, and read what the sick man had written, which was as follows: I feel sorry at the prospect of living through the summer and fall in the condition I am in. Ido not think I can, but I may. Except that I do not gather strength, I ieel quite as well from day to day as 1 have done here oiore. But lam losing strength. I feel it more in the inability to move around than in any other way, or rather in the lack of desire to try to move. When he had read that, Dr. Douglas said ilmt he turned to the General nutt to cheer him by felling him of the apparent improved condition of his throat and neck, to which in reply the General again wrote: After all that, however, the disease is still there, and must he fatal in the end. My life is precious, of course, to my family, and would ' be to me if I could recover entirely. There never was one more willing to go than I. I know most people have first one and then another little thing to fix up, and never get quite through. This was partially my case. I first wanted so many daySdo work on my book, so the authorship Would be clearly mine. It was graciously granted to me, after being apparently much lower than since. My work has been done so hastily that much was left out, and I did it all over, from the crossing of tho James River, in 1864, to Appomattox, in 1865. Since that I have added as much as fifty pages to the hook, I should think/ There is nothing more to do, and therefore I am not likely to be more ready to go than at this moment. Gen. J. B. Weaver, who, it will be remembered, was one of the representatives of the Oklahoma colonists when a journey was made to Washington to place before the administration the justness of the settlers’ claims, says the cattle-leases will be revoked, and that Oklahoma will be opened finally to settlement.