Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1887 — GRANT’S MEMORY. [ARTICLE]

GRANT’S MEMORY.

It Is Commemorated bj His Admirers at Pittsburgh aud Other Places. -v ] Mark Twain Scathingly Criticises the Critics of the General's ~ ' Grammar. The Americas Club of Pittsburgh commemorated the sixty-fi'th anniversary of Gen. Grant’s birth by banqueting at the Monongakela House of that city. The tables in the banquet hall were arranged so as to make the initials “U. 8. d.,” and were elaborately decorated with flower Sieces containing the initial letters of the eceased President’s name and the dates 1822-1887. Gov. Foraker occupied the seat assigned Gon. Grant on the occasion of the recept on given to him on his return from his trip nronnd the world. After the tables hnd been cleared Governor Foraker was introduced and responded to the toast “U. 8. Grant.” He sketched the life of the General from early manhood to the close of his honorable career. "That he wag 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 ho was never more securely intrenched in the affections ot tho American people than he was at the very moment when the historio fight of the 306 determined followers ended in defeat at Chicago. It seemed as though ho could not possibly do anything more to increase the esteem and affectionate regard in which he waß held, but he could—and he did. He was unwittingly involved and overwhelmed by financial disaster, and practloally at the same time smitton by a fatal malady. The unconquerable character cf 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, hut successful struggle that followed. Job cried out in his lamentations and said, TOh! that mine adversary had written a book,’ as if that were, as it probably is, tho 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 ho had been identified, but also to provide against want for the faithful and deserving companion of hig life and partner of all his joys and sorrows. It has been graphically said by some ono that as he sat at one Biffed the table writing. Death’ 6a’ at the opposite side impatiently waiting and watching. “Without a tremor or a murmur, bedevoted himself to his labor of love. A merciful Providonce 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, aud then, as ‘gently as day into night,’ he passed into eternity." Roscoe Conking sent a letter of regret, in which he said: To jo nin 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, aud 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 tho 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 tire Hero Against Matttliew 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 Hie house: I will detain you with only just a few words —just a few thousand words—and then give place to a better man—if he has been created. Lately a great and honored author, Ma thew Arnold, has been finding fault with General Grant’s English. That would be fair enough, may be, if the examples of imperfeot English averaged more instances to the page in General Grant’s book than they do in Mr. Arnold’s criticism upon the book, but they don’t. [Laughter and applause. | It would be lair enough, may be, if such instances were commoner in General Grant's book than they are in the works of the average standard author, but they aren’t. In truth, tieueral Grant's derelictions in tbe matter of grammar ana construction are not more frequent than are such derelictions in the works of a majority of the professional authors of our time and of all 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 couple oi 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 might wish 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 tho service. Grant assured him that he bad no thought of moving him, and in his memoirs, after relating what had passed, he adds,” etc. “To read that passage a cou-ple of times would make a man dizzy; to read it four times would make him drunk. “People may hunt out what microscopic mote* tjiby please, but, after all, tbe fact remains and cannot be dislodged that General Grant's book 1b a great and, in its peculiar department, unique and unapproachable literary masterpiece. In their line there is,no higher literature than those modest, simple ‘ memoirs.’ Their style is at least flawless, and ho 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 about the sur which makes us forget his sprats, and when -we think of Gen. 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 iis America shall last tho roll of his vanished pruins and the tread of his marching hosts. [Tumultuous applause.] “What do wo care for grammarwhen we think of the man that put together that thunderous Shrase, ‘Unconditional and immediate surrener,’ and those others, ‘I proprasa to move Immediately upran your works,’ ‘I proprase to fight It out on this line if it takes all summer I’ [Applauae. | Mr. Arnold would doubtless claim that that last sentence is not Btrictly grammatical; and yet, nevertheless, it did certainly wake up this nation as a hundred million toes 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 his tongue the gif t to fitly praise them—‘Let us have peace.’ * [Prolonged applause and cheering.J