Cortland Contrarian: General Grant's Book and Local Cortland News, July 10, 1885

The Cortland News, Friday, July 10, 1885.

GENERAL GRANT’S BOOK.

Full Text of the Preface to his Forthcoming Volume.

He Tells How He Happens to Write His Memoirs—The Care in Preparation,

And a Fearless Expression of Opinion on the Events Narrated.

New York, July 7, 1885.–The preface to General Grant's forthcoming book will be as follows: "Man proposes and God disposes.”

There are but a few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice. Although frequently urged by friends to write my memoirs, I had determined never to do so, nor to write anything tor publication. At the age of nearly 62 I received an injury from a fall which confined me closely to the house, while it did not apparently affect my general health. Shortly after, the rascality of a business partner developed itself by the announcement of a failure. This was followed soon after by universal depression of all securities, which seemed to threaten the extinction of a good part of the income still retained and for which I am indebted to the kindly act of friends

At this juncture the editor of the Century magazine asked me to write a few articles for him, I consented for the money it gave me, for at that moment I was living upon borrowed money. The work I found congenial and I determined to continue it. The event is an important one for me, for good or for evil; I hope for the former.

In preparing these volumes for the public I have entered upon the task with the sincere desire to avoid doing injustice to anyone whether on the national or Confederate side, other than the unavoidable injustice of not making mention often where special mention is due. There must be many errors of omission in this work, because the subject is too large to be treated of in two volumes in such a way as to do justice to all the officers and men engaged. There were thousands of instances during the rebellion of individual company, regimental and brigade deeds of heroism which deserve special mention, and are not here alluded to. The troops engaged in them will have to look to the detailed reports of their individual commanders for the full history of these deeds.

The first volume, as well as a portion of the second, was written before I had reason to suppose I was in a critical condition of health. Later I was reduced almost to the point of death, and it became impossible for me to attend to anything for weeks. I have, however, regained somewhat of my strength and am able often to devote as many hours a day as a person should devote to such work.

I would have more hope of satisfying the expectation of the public if I could have allowed myself more time. I have used my best efforts with the aid of my eldest son, F. D. Grant, assisted by his brothers to verify from the records every statement of fact given. The comments are my own. and show how I saw the matter treated of, whether others saw them in the same light or not. With these remarks I present these volumes to the public, asking no favor, but hoping they will meet the approval of the reader.

"U. S. GRANT, MT. MCGREGOR, N. Y. July 1, 1885."

PREPARING FOR AN INDIAN WAR.

Indians Without Food Ordered to be Fed With Army Stores.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan., July 8.—-A brief interview has been obtained with Roman Nose [killed in battle in 1868--CC editor], the renegade Sioux, who has cast his lot with the Cheyennes and has apparently devoted all his energies to making trouble. He possesses a considerable following among the Cheyennes and has led several raids on the cattle of the companies which have leased grazing land from the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. His complaints are chiefly against the cattle companies, which he asserts have fenced in much of the best hunting land and forced the Indians to tramp over sterile plains in search of game. He claims that the payments made by the cattle companies to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes are not fairly divided, and that the cattle turned over to the Indians and branded to denote their ownership are "gobbled" by the bigger chiefs to the exclusion of the lesser ones. He believes that before long there will be a general Indian war, and that the Indians might as well die fighting as to be driven about and hemmed in and starved by white men. The war, said he, will begin with the Cheyennes and Araphoes, and then the Commanches, Apaches, Kiowas and other tribes will join them and fight even to extermination.

"Do the cowboys trouble you much?" he was asked. "Yes," he answered, "they have rifles and revolvers and whisky, and shoot Indians when they get drunk; but Agent Dyer tells that the great father at Washington wants us to give up our guns and plow and plant and raise cattle. When we do that the cowboys and other bad white men will kill us and take our property, for we will have no way to defend ourselves, and the soldiers will not help us."

WASHINGTON, July 8.—Gen. Schofield has forwarded to the War Department a dispatch from Col. Bradley, in which the latter says the Mescalero Apaches in the vicinity of Southeastern New Mexico are becoming restless because their supplies are giving out. At present they nave nothing but beet and short rations.

In communicating the above information to Adjt. Gen. Drum, Gen. Schofield said that as there were as many Indian difficulties as the troops were able to handle, he thought if the Indian Bureau could not furnish supplies to these people the army had better feed them out of their stores and charge the amount to the Indian Bureau. Secretary Lamar consented to this proposition and Gen. Schofield was directed to issue rations from the military stores at the post where the trouble is threatened.

"We would have had our hands full," said an officer holding a prominent position here in commenting to-day upon the above dispatch, "if the Apaches in Southeastern New Mexico had gone on the war path. The Utes in Northwestern and Northern [New] Mexico, the Apaches in Arizona and the Cheyennes in the Indian Territory are all giving us trouble, and they are widely separated. When one knows the condition of the Indians he cannot blame them for their actions. They have no food, and there is no game for them to kill. The Government is not half feeding them. I understand that appropriations for the Indians are less now than they were several years ago, and I have it from no less authority than the General of the army, that they are cheated out of portions of food purchased by these appropriations to which they are entitled by collusion between dealers and agents. They get cattle weighing one-half or one-fourth what their contract calls for. Of course, when this is done their food gives out before the end of the year, and they can get nothing additional on the reservation except snakes and insects, which they eat."

Another army officer says that the amount of food allowed an Indian by the Government will not equal more than one-fourth the amount which is given to soldiers.

HARFORD, July 9, 1885.

The Forresters played to good houses for three nights at Stewart's Hall the fore part of last week.

Why not call it "Swivel Service Reform?" It adjusts itself to any principle, points in any direction and hits any man the boss points at. Very Swivelly. A kind of go-as-you-please race, with the bets all on the man with the most money.

It the Preble correspondent will be so kind as to favor us with an invitation, and assure us that no cold tea will be drank on the occasion, we will attend his little picnic. P. S. They make cold tea up in Preble in the fall—about apple-gathering time.

SOUTH CORTLAND, July 9, 1885.

Some of our farmers have commenced haying. Strawberry peddlers are on the road nearly every day.

Fred Francis is dangerously ill with inflammation of the bowels. Dr. Hughes attends him.

Farmers are now cautioned to look out for a new fashioned potato bug, a smaller fellow than the regulation bug and more destructive.

Mrs. William Olmsted is sick at Oliver Griswold's, with what is termed a general breaking down of the system.

Mr. Samuel Merritt, says the Marathon Independent, relates a rather curious circumstance. In March last a ewe owned by him gave birth to twin lambs, which shortly after died. On the 16th of June she gave birth to a third lamb, which is now alive and well. As the period of gestation of the sheep is about five months, this freak is quite unaccountable.

State Teachers’ Assemblage

SARATOGA, N. Y. July 8.-Yesterday and to-day Saratoga has been rapidly filling up with the members and friends of the State Teachers' Association, who are gathering for the annual meeting which is to be held here.

LATE NEWS.

The committee having in charge the arrangements for appropriately celebrating the 15th of July, when the Niagara Falls Reservation will be formally surrendered to the State, report pleasing progress in their work.

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

Jerry O'Connor has been appointed postmaster at Truxton.

The Water Works company are now laying a new main through Monroe Heights.

E. D. Mallery, has sold his interest in the billiard parlors in Taylor Opera house to his partner, Chas. Quinn.

Van Aumburgh's circus has come and gone, the people are happy and so are the proprietors. The show was a poor one, and the pickpockets that followed in its train are somewhat richer.

Otis Darby, of Homer, had his face blown full of powder on the 3rd of July evening. He was firing a cannon and supposed he was touching a fuse but touched the powder, accidently firing the cannon while his face was directly over it. The powder was picked out of his face and will not be likely to disfigure him.

And now the fat and lean men have caught the fever and are trying to arrange a game of ball. The fat ones will consist of B. B. Jones. Hugh Duffey, J. R. Schermerhorn, and others who tip the beam at 200, while the slender boys will be composed of such men as A. W. Edgcomb and C. B. Hitchcock. They will undoubtedly draw a large crowd if they conclude to play, and whatever they take in at the gate will be given to the Library Association. The game will probably be played next Thursday, July 16.

C. S. Strowbridge has been granted a patent on an automatic shuttle tor wire looms.

Glenn A. Tisdale has taken charge of the Western Union Telegraph office in this place, filling the vacancy caused by the appointment of J. F. Maybury to the postmastership.

James M. Reynolds is a steady going "print" in the Standard office, and those who know him best say he hasn't been outside the corporate limits for over thirty years, save on one occasion when he inadvertently strayed beyond the second railroad bridge about ten years ago. Imagine the surprise of his fellow workers when on Saturday last he repaired to the E. C. & N. depot and procured transportation to Ithaca. All who saw him in Ithaca say his conduct was admirable. There is no foundation to the report that a warrant is out for his arrest tor being seen outside the county. So-long, Jim.

Some Very Fast Time Made by Engineer Keating [Oswego to Binghamton].

Engineer John Keating, who caresses the throttle on the good engine "Sam Sloan" [Cooke engine, built 1857, Whyte 4-4-0], enjoys the felicity of having beaten the record on the Syracuse & Binghamton division. Last Thursday, pulling six cars, he made eighty-one miles in one hour and forty-nine minutes. On Friday, with four cars, the route was flown over in one hour and thirty-four minutes. On the last trip twelve minutes were lost on account of a hot box and three minutes in waiting for orders. This fifteen minutes subtracted from the time made, ninety-four minutes—would bring the actual time down to seventy-nine minutes. This is the fastest time ever made over that route. John Roach was the conductor of this train, and in this connection it might be well to mention the fact that this road from Oswego to Binghamton is as smooth as a patent roller rink floor, elegantly ballasted, and as safe as a stage coach.—Syracuse Sunday Times.

Lucky Escape.

The highway at the road crossing over the S. C. railroad, near the creek at Freeville, was raised a number of feet to bring it up to a level with the rails, leaving quite a high bank on either side, and without any guard rail, is far from a safe crossing at any time. A long coal train held the crossing tor some length of time on Tuesday night of last week, and Mr. George Brewer, accompanied by his two sisters, seated in a one-horse platform wagon, waited on the east side for the train to move out of the way, while Mr. A. B. Lamont, accompanied by a couple of men in a lumber wagon, waited on the west side for a like purpose, each unconscious of the others' presence. The train finally pulled out, the engineer at the same time signaling a train further north to follow.

As the caboose left the road crossing each one whipped up his team to cross before the approaching engine was too near to permit of so doing. Mr. B. got his horse and wagon across the track and came to a halt by coming in collision with the heavier wagon. Mr. Lamont's horses were on the track and the engine so close on to him before he was aware of it that he backed his team off the track, thereby shoving Mr. B.'s horse and wagon off the high bank, the latter landing bottom side up and barely missed hitting the Misses Brewer, who, taking in the situation made visible by the headlight on the engine, had made a desperate leap for life and landed out of harm's way, a jump of eighteen feet to say the least. Strange to say, no one was hurt, and aside from a broken dash board and harness, no other damage was done to any of the parties.