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Show SUPERSTITION OF GEN. GRANT Union Commander Believed It Bad i Luck to Turn and fUtraea His Steps. Tho country folk In tho vicinity of Grant's boyhood homo were ns superstitious super-stitious ns was tho general run of rural pcoplo In that day. One thing grew out of thoso notions thnt fixed Itself permanently In tho mind of tho youthful Grant that had, no doubt, marked effect on his later life. Ho says that ho enmc flrmly to be-llovo be-llovo that It meant bad luck for ono to tnrnpiund wulrc4rao his steps when on i Journey. Ob might, with flup iilly Return homo without reaching hi lutcndod tkslljibtlo JArt ho njust d It by another road. not tho" game one" ltt7(rnvclod"b3 going. This fcArnlr -may Vvo hud soinj-thing soinj-thing to dp wltli his cntrnupa at WeSt I'oliiW It Is commonly 'known that fcls appointment wait noi of his clionsluii but thnt of his father. Grant himself hung back and had to bo pressed to go to tho academy. Even after ho was well on his way at Philadelphia and New York ho smcercly hoped that somo accident might hnppcn that would make his return Imperative. But he would not turn round nnd,retraco his steps. Tho feeling seems to hnvo grown gradually Into set rule with him that after having set out to go anywhere, or to do anything, ho must go to the end of tho thing, and thero must bo no such thing as turning back. That was characteristic of his course In tho Civil war when ho roso to positions In which he had supremo decisions to make. Tho only tlmo tn his llfo when ho Rccmed near to breaking lu on this rule wns when, after the Mexican war, ho decided to resign from tho army and chango the whole course of his llfo up to that time. But for tho Civil war that called him back, It Is likely that ho would hardly havo been heard from ngaln. |