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46 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
tities of my tarts, the flavour of kerosene being very enduring. It
accounted also for the glory of his hair." 26
Ford's joshing contained some truth, for Pound, although not
born in the great blizzard of '88, nearly lost his life because of it.
He explained this to Kate Buss in a letter dated March 9, 1916:
"We came East behind the first rotary snow plough, the inventor
of which vortex saved me from death by croup by feeding me with
lumps of sugar saturated with kerosene." 27
In describing this efficient frontier remedy for the croup, Ezra
calls attention to the grain of truth that runs throughout Ford's
ornate prose. For instance, Ford says that Ezra's grandfather,
Thaddeus Coleman Pound, was a "periodic millionaire", who usually
went broke just as he was planning to make some munificent gift
to his grandson. While he was in Washington as a Congressman from
Wisconsin, from 1871 through 1882, his holdings were wiped out.
He must have been as out of step as his grandson, for the custom
in those days was that an impecunious man could go into Congress
for a few years and retire as a wealthy man, enriched through the
granting of special dispensations to insurance companies and railroads
(viz. the Ames case). Pound reversed this rags to riches
theme. He came to Congress a rich man and went home broke.
One can only conclude that he must have been honest. The senior
Pound called down the fates upon his head when he became an
advocate of monetary reform, just as his grandson was to do some
decades afterwards.
Those critics who bemoan Ezra's "desertion of poetry for economics"
know nothing of the family background that prompted
these interests. Ezra took up where his grandfather had left off. His
battle against bankers and monopolies, his passion for various
forms and problems of monetary issue, and his native self-reliance
in these matters, were qualities that he had legitimately inherited
from his forebears, and from such pillars of the Republic as crusty
old John Adams as well. It is of interest that Ezra liked to be
addressed by his disciples as "Grampaw".
At any rate, the bankrupt grandfather was unable to contribute
to the European "Grand Tour" which was to have been his graduation
present to the limb of Satan. The result was Pound's cattleboat
excursion to Europe.