CHARACTERLESS AND PENNILESS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 13, 18 July 1884, Page 29

CHARACTERLESS AND PENNILESS.

The Grant and Ward disaster in New York, not only virtually rains the Grant family financially, but must also result in great humiliation to the ex- President himself. What to him must be one of the exasperating features of the failure is the use made of him personally to " raise the wind "in a trying emergency. On Saturday last, the firm, even then in the throes of bankruptcy, induced tbe General to go to Vaaderbilt to borrow money. It is not believed that the truth waß told tbe General, but Fisk and Ward used him to ask William H. Vanderbilt on Sunday afternoon for 150,000d015. Mr. Vanderbilt most readily granted the ex-President such a favour, but at the General's request, dated his check tbe day previous and accepted no other securities than Grant and Ward's check on the Marine Bank, which he promised to hold for a day or two on accommodation. One can imagiue what for a moment must have b?en his opinion of General Grant. In his anger he sent for the General. Tbe latter and as the story goes, fully satisfied Vanderbilt that he had no ' knowledge of the firm's inpending failure, and agreed to see that the sum was paid, even if Mrs. Grant had to sacrifice her property. The Grants themselves are greatly to blame for allowing their means to be u«ed in a way for which they could not at all times account. It was the tacit understanding from the start that they were to draw each 3,000d015. a month from the firm and ask no questions. Fisk and Ward were to run the business, which, now that the truth is coming out, seems to have been little more than a usury shop on a large scale, and the Grants were given 36,000d015. a year each for the use of the General's name, influence and connections. This view of the case is an ugly one, an<l before the end is ireached may result in lessening the sympathy with which the ex-President and his family are now regarded. — Cliicago Herald.