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of the people. It is expressive of the gratitude of the nation of the popular confidence in the tried captain in war and leader in times of perilous civil commotion. It is not confined to the Pacific slope. It is not confined to this day or generation. The place which he to-day holds in the hearts of the people is that which he will hold in the hearts of the American people while the nation exists.

Perhaps nothing will better illustrate the high pitch of public enthusiasm in San Francisco so much as the following extracts from the three leading newspapers there. The Chronicle had a column leader headed, "Hail to the Chief," from which the following is selected:

"The jubilant peal of bells throughout the city, the shrill scream of a hundred steam whistles, and the reverberated thunders of artillery from the batteries of the fortresses that guard our harbor and the Golden Gate, have announced the arrival of San Francisco's expected guest. He returns to this country after receiving the homage of the civilized. world, crowned with such honors as have never before been bestowed by foreign nations upon any citizen of the United States. Regarded everywhere as a great representative American, the testimony of admiration and respect paid him at every stage of his journey redound to the honor of his country, with which, throughout the world, his name and fame and illustrious deeds are identified. Thus the nation itself derives fresh prestige from the renown and achievements of its most distinguished living citizen, who, without official position, occupying a private station, with no favors to bestow and no patronage to dispense, will be welcomed home by his grateful countrymen with such tokens of con fidence and enthusiastic affection as have never been exhibited by Americans to any citizen, or any illustrious visitor from abroad, since the days of Washington and Lafayette; and it is fitting that this should be so, for, assuredly, when this generation shall have passed away, when the fierce pas

sions engendered by a bitter strife shall have been tranquilized, the voices of prejudice and calumny that have been so loud against his great name will be hushed forever, and the verdict of impartial history will be that, since the foundation of our government, no American, however bright the halo that time has cast around his memory, has deserved better of his country than Ulysses S. Grant."

The Call, after reviewing the glorious war record of the General, and quoting his modest, magnanimous language to General Sherman, when the rank of General of the Army was conferred upon him, goes on to say:

"What picture of grandeur and simplicity of character is presented in this career; what magnanimity, what patriotism, what cool judgment, what clear-sighted sagacity, what singleness of purpose, what subordination of all egotistical and selfish considerations to duty and the public good! Here was a man who sought no personal ends, who had none of the airs of little greatness, who abhorred fuss and feathers, who never attitudinized before the public, or courted popularity by melodramatic vices; a man such as Tennyson has described the 'Iron Duke' to be — moderate, resolute, our greatest, yet with least picture foremost, captain of his time, rich in saving common-sense, and, as the greatest only are, in his simplicity sublime."

The Alta Californian, General McComb's paper, had a double-leaded editorial, as follows:

"The Tokio has come, and so has Grant, at present the foremost man of the nation, and whom San Francisco and California are pleased and happy to honor. He left this State more than a quarter of a century ago, when it was but a crude country, known chiefly for its gold and climate, and for the inrushing hosts of "fresh-lipped men,' seeking gold, and anticipating a speedy return to the old homesteads. He left us and went to the East. Since then the scarcely more than a territory with a population of miners

552

GEN. U. S. GRANT'S TOUR AROUND THe world.

has become almost an Empire State, summing her popula tion by the million, and boasting of her prolific soil, richer in its productions of breadstuffs than it had formerly been in its crop of gold; and General Grant cannot but be sur prised, if not astonished, as he sees the evidences here of that intelligence, industry and confidence which have changed a sand bank into a city of a third of a million. people. We noticed him as he rode through the streets last night over solid pavements, which he left as little better than sand and mud, as his eyes were seeking some well known and remembered shanty or abode of an ancient construction. But instead they followed up the facades of palace-like structures, their windows brilliant with illuminations of gaslight, electricity, and ladies' eyes from the Orient isles, just awakened from their dreams of centuries, and rushing forward in the race of a new civilization with the vim and vigor of a new-born people. He comes back to the scenes of his young manhood, to a people who have already built up here a State and city and civilization which will compare with any he has visited while girding the world about; and this people have shown their delight at his presence by a welcome which comes from the heart, as a tribute to the foremost man of the nation. And so say we all."