The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-10-01 00:00:00

General Arthur's demeanour
It is as of a man struck with appalling grief, yet compelled
to perform public duties. His elevation has been one of the
most unexpected and dramatic events of modern times. The
public are giving him repeated evidences of their confidence
and sympathy. His administration opens most auspiciously.
In Cleveland a committee has been appointed to receive
subscriptions for a monument over General Garfield's grave.
Each subscription has been limited to one dollar.
Mrs. Garfield's fund now reaches 313,000 dollars.
The newspaper reporters left Washington for Cleveland
on Friday night, in a special train, by the Baltimore and
Ohio Railway. Early on Saturday morning, when 35 miles
west of Pittsbarg and while crossing a trestle bridge, the
train ran into a handcar carrying nine railway labourers.
One jumped from the bridge into the creek, 50ft. below,
escaping with several broken bones; one was unhurt, while
the other seven were killed.
The American law about the Presidential succession is
that if from any cause the office is vacated by the President
first chosen and by the Vice-President succeeding him, no
man can become President till there Is a new election by the
people. In such a contingency the President pro tempore
of the Senate, if there is one, or, if not, then the Speaker of
the House acts as President until the new election is held.
The call for such an election is issued by the Secretary of
State, under certain conditions, through the State Governors.
No legal provision exists for supplying General Arthur's
place, if disabled, now until the Senate elects a President
pro tempore. Hence the anxiety for General Arthur's safety
is natural.

The Common Councils of Quebec and other Canadian cities
adopted resolutions of sympathy with Mrs. Garfield and the
American people. The Toronto Common Council appointed
a deputation to attend the funeral.
The Spanish Court will go into mourning for the late
President Garfield for one week.
The New York Times suggests that, as a fitting return for
the touching sympathy shown by Queen Victoria and the
people of England at the present period of sorrow, at the
approaching celebration in Yorktown the British flag should
be saluted with cannon and cheers.
While the minute gun was being fired at Tarrytown,
New York, on Monday morning, an accident occurred by
which one man was instantly killed and another mortally
wounded.
The New York Correspondent of the Standard says:—
" The great jeweller's house in Union square is one solid mass
of black from street to roof, the windows alone shining out
brightly. This perhaps is the most striking sight in the City.
The Post-oilice and the hotel nearly opposite, and the City
Hall, are also most effectively draped. Hut the most touch-
ing tributes of all still come from the poor, who claim Mr.
Garfield as especially theirs. He came from their class, and
never were they so prosperous and happy as under his rule
They understood him, admired him, loved, almost worshipped
him, as they did Mr. Lincoln, and to-day no other class
mourns for him more generally or genuinely. A walk
through their district shows here on their walls a cheap
lithograph, there an ill-spelt home-made inscription, but every-
where something put up in affectionate memory of the dead.
This fact should be historical, as are the facts which in.
spire it."
Despatches from all parts of the United States, as well as
from many places in Canada and British Columbia, report
that business was entirely suspended on Monday. Funeral
services were held, and the bells of the churches tolled.
Minute guns were also fired, and general sorrow was mani-
fested. All places of amusement were closed.

Guiteau will be tried in Washington. His case will
go before the Grand Jury next Monday for indict-
ment. He has been informed of this and requested to
name his counsel. Guiteau at first desired to defend
his own case, but he has now sent for his brother-in-
law, a Chicago lawyer. He says he expects to be
acquitted, because it cannot be proved that he had
malice in shooting President Garfield.. Guiteau fears
that he will be assassinated when he is taken from
gaol to court to plead. The authotities think the fear
is well-founded, but they will take every precaution,
and will cause the removal to be made at a time
when it will least attract public attention.

AMERICAN MEETING IN LONDON.
A crowded meeting of American citizens, numbering
over 3,000, was held in Exeter-hall on Saturday afternoon,
under the presidency of the lion. J. Russell Lowell, the
American Minister, to offer their condolences to Mrs.
Garfield, and to express their feelings of sorrow and regret
at the tragic end of her husband, the late President On
the platform was displayed the American flag draped in
mourning, and mourning was worn by many of those
present, ladies as well as gentlemen. Mr. Lowell was sup-
port.,cl on the platform by Mr. W. J. Boppin (Secretary to
the American Legation), the Ron. N. Fish (late American
Minister at Geneva), Mr. E. S. Nadal, Colonel Chees-
borough, General W. A. Pile, Mr. T. Hughes, the Hon.
Joshua Nunn, Vice-Consul-General, Sir E. Thornton, the
Earl of Dunraven, the Rev. Dr. Channing, Bishop Simpson,
Mr. Moncare D Conway, General Merritt, General Badean,
Mr. J. S. Morgan, and several representatives of the Diplo-
matic Body, itc.
The proceedings were opened with prayer by the Rev. Dr.
Marshall, of Mississippi, after which,
Mr. Lowell said: Ladies and gentlemen, countrymen and
countrywomen, —The object of this meeting, as you all
know, is to testify our respect for the character and ser-
vices of the late President Garfield, and in so doing to offer
such consolation as is possible to a noble mother and a
noble wife, suffering as few women have been called upon
to suffer. It may seem a paradox, but the only alleviation
of such grief is a sense of the greatness and costliness of
the sacrifice that gave birth to it, and this sense is brought
home to us by the measure in which others appreciate our
loss. It is no exaggeration to say that the recent profoundly
touching spectacle of womanly devotedness in its simpli-
city, its constancy, and its dignity has moved the heart of
mankind in a manner without any precedent in living
' memory. But to Americans everywhere it comes home
with a pang of mingled sorrow, pride, and unspeakable
domestic tenderness that none but ourselves can feel. This
pang is made more poignant by exile, and yet you will all
agree with me in feeling that the universal sympathy ex-
pressed here by all classes and conditions of men has made
us sensible as never before that, if we are in a strange;
we are not in a foreign *land, aria that if we are
not at home we are at least in what Hawthorne so
aptly called the Old Home. (Loud cheers.) I should
gladly dwell more at length upon this fact, so consoling and
so full of all good omen, but I must not infringe on the re-
solutions which will be presented to you by others. Yet I
should do injustice to your feelings, no less than to my
own, if I did not offer here our grateful acknowledg-
ments to the august lady who, herself not unacquainted with
grief, has shown so repeatedly and so touchingly how true a
woman's heart may beat under the roj al purple. (Cheers.)
On an Occasion like this, when we Are met together
that we may give vent to a common feeling so deep
• and- so, earnest 43 to thrust aside every consideration of
Ati&j.be votiofiah,a, nitnst AfkAttat wliat sAd here
I should lot simple, Wong, ancM6tW(tiettiet,elift'siceisrat
the illustrious magistrate so untimely snatched from us in
the very seedtime of noble purpose that would have sprung
up in service as noble—that they should be as tender and
true as she has shown herself to be in whose bereavement
we reverently claim to share as children of th blessed
country that gave birth to him and to her. We cannot

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