OCR Text |
Show i Swan Meets President Grant I By O. A. Kennedy The committee on the state of the countrv. which meets 'I illy In the basement base-ment of tho Stockgrowere" National, bank building. was discussing the proposed celebration of the- 50th an- nlerarv of th Driving of the Gol.lo Iike Swan Swanxon. true- to form, mounted his faorl:e hobby, and wa given a list of his lnt'rvicws with great , ( men. "About the biggest man I ever sen I to talk with him and be right clone (to him was old Ge neral missus b Grant When he came back from his Itrli. around the world." said Swan, "he had gmat reception in California and then ho stopped off In Nevada and visited the mines on the ComstOCK Lode and his next stop was in I'tahj I to size up us Mormons. You bet we mad'- big preparations and the !: hp i came In on the old Central Pacific there was the biggest crowd around tho Union depot this town ever seen. "Was I there? Wild horses couldn't have kept me away. I was onlv six-; teen, but I had read all that history! stuff about the war and 1 was rlnlit up to the front all the time The may-I or and all our hlghups wore on hand I and our military band and our artil- , It inmp.m; to fire a -vilute. and When Grant's train reached tho north end of tho yards the cannon began1 and all the bells began ringing and all the engines In the ird biew their whistles. There was plenty of noise. "There were people here from all oer, governors and congress men and! government officials and church off i -1 cials, till you couldn't rest. The gov-1 ernor of the territory and a special train load of Salt leakers were up to (receive General Grant and take him down to the capital with them "I neer had any Idea before thatj there was ?u many plug hats and Prince Albert coats In all the world Jas I seen that day I got right in amons; em and got to shake hands with the governor. You could hardly i move for tho crowd. People had como by thousands from 50 and 100 miles away to got a look at the first president presi-dent rt.-ih had ever seen, j When the train carrying Grant, I reached the depot they cleared every body off the platform excepting the reception committee and a few of the I fuzzy shirts, but I still stuck in the front row where I could see all that I went on. "When the train stopped and the reception committee and the governor land mayor got on board and met Grant and brought him out on the platform, plat-form, the people cheered, and Mrs Grant was there and a special committor com-mittor of ladies looked after her. Mrs. Grant came out on the platform and I was cheered and then people was more quiet and was wondering how th'-y were going to get close to Grant and shake hands with him "Grant looked Just like his pictures, i I knowed him in a minute He shook j hands with a lot of tho fuzzy shirts and listened to their addresses of welcome wel-come and said a few words, not very much, I couldn't hear what ho said It wasn't intended that us common people should hear It only the higher-ups." higher-ups." "Steady there. Swan," broke in the fire insurance agent. No radicalism allowed in this basement." Well, I don't care if it's radicalism, or something worse, when I see a president or ex-presldent I propose to Shake hands with him and I did. I k pi In the front line and when some of .the crowd began reaching their hands out to General Grant across the rope I did tho same. "He shook hands with maybe a hundred hun-dred and when it came my turn he said. "How do you do, young man?"i And I says "Never better," and he. kinder grinned. I was tho last ho shook hands with For Just about that tin).- h stepped hack from the rope that fenced out the crowd and I beean to si.ire away over the heads! of tho people I "I was taller than most people In the crowd and I looked to see what (Grant was staring at and I couldn't see anything unus'ial i xc pt th.ii ei u the I north end of the depot old Bill Clark, nn romcmber him. the Job wagon man, umM to have his staml on Twen- ty-fourth street. Just west of the Z. C. M. I. corner. "Wtll, Bill had backed his wagon up to the baggaKe platform and was sitting sit-ting there, all humped up. with his legs hanging over the end of the driver's seat, and watching the pro-1 ccedingB. and grinning a little bit. '.rant Kept staring and finally atart- .! to walk townrd tho north end of the platform. People reached out their hands but Grant kept looking over their heads ajid walklisc long Some of the committee followed him. Th.ir big man you see. was getting away from thorn and might get to as-soclatins; as-soclatins; with the common herd. ' Stop that warned the Typewriter man "Ix)ok Where you step, Pwan " 'Well, as c".rbody was busy watching Grant, 1 ducked under the rope and walked down that way too, so 1 was rljrht close to Grant w lien he i;nt to Hill Clark's wagon. Bill and he were looking right at each other and both smiling. "Hill wrapped the lines around th"-brako th"-brako and stood up. He motioned to the men and boys In his wagon anil hny began climbing over tho aides. Grant walked up the incline to tho baggage platform and then stepped Into Billy Clnrk's wagon. ' When Grant stepped Into the wagon wag-on the last of the men and boys Just Iroppcd over onto the ground for they ould see that ho didn't want to bother with anybody but Bill Clark. "Bill stood there very straight, he was a man Just about Grant's size-' and build, only a few years young' r and he held his right hand up to the brim of hln hat in salute Grant pul his hand up quick to his hat and thi 'i they stood there a full minute neither .-ay ing a word. "When they broke loose I seen that the tears was running down old Bill's! checks although they were both laughing. laugh-ing. Then Grant sas: "Is this really! you. Bill?' "Yes, General, wat's left of me," ; Bill nas. "They stood there a minute talking and then they sat dow n on the wagon j seat, facing the depot and the reception recep-tion committee of silk hats, and talked and then I seen tears In Grant's eyes j too. 'And afterward I found out the I story how Bill Clark had been a m I ber of Grant's personal bodyguard for' nearly three years during the Rebel-! Hon and had stood guard at the door of his tent many a night In the rain and snow while Grant slept and had rustled grub and shelter for him many a time and Grant had never seen him, since the war "Well, the train for Bait Lake City was all made up and waiting, the reception re-ception committee was waiting, the governors and congressmen anrl army officers were waiting, but they all had to keep on waiting and watching, while Grant had his visit out with Bill,, the Job wagon man "Grant put his left arm around Bill's shoulders and they sat there and talked. talk-ed. I was standing near Grant aske, him how ho came to Utah and Bill told him about working on construction construc-tion work on the Union Pacific, how he had got married, and had bought a little farm in the edse of town. Grant asked him all about his children their names, and so on. "Thousands of people could see them but it made no difference to Grant They talked along as If no one else was present and Grant asked about a lot of names, soldiers with Clark In the army, and then they went back to certain battles and places they wcre in together down South during the war and sometimes thej lautrhed and sometimes tears stood in th. ir eyes "But finally Grant stood up and bid Bill " goodbve." shook hands, saluted and Bill saluted him. and away he went back to the committee of fuzzy shirts. He had had his little trip back to the ranks of the common peop but he belonged after all with the fuzzy shirts and they closed In around him and hustled him onto the Salt Lake train and that was the last we saw of Ex-President Grant. "The train pulled out for Salt Lake a few minutes later and about half an hour afterwards I see BUI Clark driving driv-ing up town with a wagon load of trunks and freight. He was sitting up a little stralghter than usual, but otherwise you couldn't see that he was the least bit puffed up." "Well, there you have another case of the rank injustice of life," said the real estate man. "Grant, the successful success-ful commander Is mad pre lldent :md wined and dined, but Bill Clark, the private soldier, who risked his life, Just as much as Grant did, he drives a Job wagon for a living 'But his work" argued tho farm loan agent, "was just as Important to the world as Grant's was "Your both wrong" broke in Swan Swanson "There Isn't an thing to the story except that Grant was a plain, ordinary man who became great, and he remembered and liked Bill Clark. They are both dead now, but whore-ever whore-ever they are, they are comrades af?aln and ju6t plain ordinary, common people, and I hope that Isn't radical at all." |