Dr.Richardson had been mentioned by Mr.Haldeman as "the only man that ever licked Grant," and the general promptly retorted "he never licked me," when the good old doctor said, "No, Ulysses, I never did--nor Walter, either--for you two were the best boys in school." I said "General Grant, why not give up this beastly politics, buy a blue-grass farm, and settle down to horse-raising and tobacco growing in Kentucky ?" And, quick as a flash--for both he and the company perceived that it was "a leading question"-- he replied, "Before I can buy a farm in Kentucky I shall have to sell a farm in Missouri," which left nothing further to be said.
There was some sparring between him and General Williams over their youthful adventures.

Finally General Williams, one of the readiest and most amusing of talkers, returned one of General Grant's sallies with, "Anyhow, I know of a man whose life you took unknown to yourself." Then he told of a race he and Grant had outside of Galapa in 1846.

"Don't you remember," he said, "that riding ahead of me you came upon a Mexican loaded with a lot of milk cans piled above his head and that you knocked him over as you swept by him ?" "Yes," said Grant, "I believed if I stopped or questioned or even deflected it would lose me the race.

I have not thought of it since.

But now that you mention it I recall it distinctly." "Well," Williams continued, "you killed him.