wonderfully grand-the roar of cannon, the clouds of smoke wandering off over the waters, the stately, noble vessels streaming with flags, the yards manned with seamen, the guards on deck, the officers in full uniform gathered on the quarter-deck to salute the General as he passed, the music and the cheers which came from the ships, the crowds that clustered upon the wharfs, all formed a sight that once seen can never be forgotten. To the General and party this enthusiastic demonstration will ever be recalled with grateful remembrance, and was a fitting climax of his now historical "tour around the world."

CHAPTER XXXVI.

GENERAL GRANT'S RETURN.

After an absence of over two years, General Grant is on his way back to the United States, having sailed from Tokio on September 3, 1879, and will reach San Francisco about the 21st. During this period he has visited almost every European capital, and has seen with his own eyes the people of every nation. Everywhere in England, Ireland and Scotland, in France and Germany, Italy and Austria, in Switzerland, as in Sweden and Denmark, Russia and Egypt, as in India and Siam, China and Japan - he has been welcomed by rulers and people alike, in a manner and with a splendor and fervor of hospitality which have rightly been felt, by the mass of the American people, as not merely a compliment to the General and ex-President, but as a gratifying evidence of good will toward us as a people. It is not pleasant to reflect that, while he was thus received and honored abroad, here at home there have not been wanting carping critics who indulged in petty fault finding with his conduct, as though they were jealous of the honors paid him- fortunately for our credit as Americans, however, this carping spirit has not been general. The public sense of propriety has frowned it down. It would have been more gracious and more creditable to our people had there been no such criticism and fault finding. While General Grant was President, he was, as every man in public office is, the subject of comment; his acts were the proper objects of criticism. But when he laid down the

presidential office and retired to private life—it has always been thought and held that he ceased to be, in any proper sense, a subject of adverse public comment. When he went abroad it was, as is well known, in pursuance of a design he had long entertained, and which he would earlier have accomplished had not public duties detained him at home. That he was received with extraordinary honors everywhere in Europe and Asia was due not only to the exalted positions he had filled, but to the world-wide appreciation of the fact that under his skillful and vigorous command the greatest war of modern times had been brought to a successful conclusion, and the security and integrity of the American Union assured. His reception by people and rulers abroad was thus a token of universal good will, not merely toward the General, but toward the nation of which he was one of the chief citizens, and it was not a gracious act in any American to raise his voice in criticism of General Grant or of the honors showered on him.

The friends of General Grant viewed with alarm and disgust certain officious preparations ostentatiously making here for his welcome home. The plan of a monster excursion under the auspices of notorious politicians, when they were to furnish tickets to the Pacific coast and return for twenty-five dollars-fully expecting that fifty thousand persons would embrace the opportunity to witness the General's reception-and the ill advised motions of other politicians, in the New York and Pennsylvania Legislatures, in the same direction, were in the worst possible taste; and it is believed that none of the real friends of General Grant took any part in them, but tried to discourage them in every way. It was as an American, and not as a Republican politician, that General Grant received his spontaneous, honorable and gratifying welcome in every foreign land that he visited; and it is as an American, and not as

a Republican politician, that we are confident he desires to be welcomed home. Hence, as before written, the politicians ought to be made to keep their hands off. Their help and management are not needed to secure the General a rousing and real welcome from his countrymen. Their officious ' interference, which looked as though they feared that without their manipulations the General might not be well received, was an offense to him, and, if it had been persevered in, could not fail to place him in a painful and even ridiculous position. Commenting on this intended hippodrome performance, the Utica (N. Y.) Herald said:

"Manufactured enthusiasm is always ridiculous; and it will be easy to make the reception of General Grant ridiculous in the eyes of the American people. When the late Secretary Seward returned from a similar trip abroad, where he was greeted with honors hardly less generous than those extended to Grant, he had a welcome to his home in Auburn, which made a profound impression upon the country, for there was visible in it the sincere personal esteem of his friends and neighbors, and the suspicion of an ulterior purpose did not enter. Somewhat similar ought to be the welcome extended to the first public man of the United States who has made the tour of the world since William H. Seward returned. We believe that General Grant himself will be least pleased with a grand reception. He is singularly averse to the blare and glamour of carefully arranged demonstrations. Notwithstanding his remarkable public experiences, he has retained that simplicity of taste and habit which distinguished him in the days of his obscurity. He hates the formality of a demonstration. He has suffered more annoyance, we dare say, from the excessive formality under which he has been com pelled to make his travels, than from any other cause. He hates speech making, for he has sense enough to know that he is not felicitous at it. It would not be surprising if

the ex-President's antipathy to parade led him to positively interdict any such uproar over his return as has been outlined."

The Cincinnati Star said, speaking of the same subject: "There is not the least probability that General Grant will end his voyage around the world by allowing himself to be used as a side-show to a circus on wheels. The cheap excursion mania is very strong among the American people, whether it be to visit some famous natural scenery, to attend a horse race, or see a two-headed baby; and a band of speculators have lately learned how to make money out of this tendency, in the American beehive, to swarm during the hot months of summer. It is assumed as quite certain that General Grant will give the cold shoulder to any such ovation as this contemplated, and that he will have both sense and money enough to remain quietly in San Francisco until the locust-like storm shall blow over, and the tired and disgusted excursionists seek their homes."

There is not an admirer or friend of General Grant who wants to see the General's return made a sort of hippodrome performance, exactly the reverse of the compliments paid to him abroad. The object of foreign nations and governments in honoring him was to pay a compliment to the American people, whom he in a certain sense represented; but the object of this excursion, and of the more recent political movements in legislature, was only to glorify him as a party man, and a possible party candidate; and to place him under obligation beforehand to the polititians who would rush forward to capture him as he landed; and to exhibit him through the country as their prey, in a manner which would leave the managers open to ridicule and make a burlesque of his whole journey.

There was really no danger or fear that the General's real and respectable friends would allow him to become a