Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-08-29
A FRENCH VIEW OF GARFIELD.
A serIO-ComIe Description Of FTest-
dent Gsnrfield,s Career.

The only really remarkable leaulng
article we have seen in the French press
regarding the attempt upon the Presi-
dents life appeared in Le Figaro of July
%, under the signature of "Ignotus 1t
contains some brilliant writing. some
pleasant observations, and some informa-
ton which will be new even to the best
informed Americans. We give the most
striking portion of the FEgaro's leader:
Only the necessity of the hour could
induce me to speak of what l have never
seen. But | have made myself very
familiar with the citizens and affairs OF
the United States For hours at time,
on at least ten different occasions, | have
cOnyersed with two of Mr.. Garfield'S old
comrades, who have been very intimate
with him. One is Republican, the
other is Democrat" And by con-
tinual conversational research | have
finally succeeded in drawing from their
brain, as from a portfolio, the living
photograph of the President OF the
United States.
have always had place apart in my
portrait gallery for the sons of widows.
They seem to me to have a two-fold
claim to the title Son of Woman; they
are doubly the sons of women. Their
faces always have a peculiar gentleness
of expression. Their character, how
ever well tempered, betrays woman's
handiwork. They are as statues that
have been modelled by feminine fingers,
before noble lives and great works have
marbleiZed theml
Mr.. Garfield, sort of Yankee colos-
sus, has all the gentle and strong quail
ties of widows son.
Mr.. Garfield is not yet fifty years of
age. His father was very humble
Iaborer Of Ohlo-a pioneer and the de-
scendant of pioneers. Mr.. Garfield,
senior, died, leaving q widow and four
children. James Garfield was the young
est. He was only eight years old. The
widow continued to live in the cabin in
which she had been born. There she
continued to till the soil her husband
had so often broken. Him! what hard
times those werep says the President Of
the United States to-day, making his
tongue clack against his palate; 1--WE
certainly did not always eat when we
were hungry" he adds, passing his
broad hand over his ample beard with
the gesture of a bearded man who had
just been drinking creaml
The friend who gave me these facts
told me: Garfield does not talk of the
black misery of his childhood before
everybody. He thinks that would be
like showing off; but he often speaks OF
it before his five children-four BOYS
and a girl. 1t is a moral lesson for them,
he thinks; you understand
The Widow Garfield sent her boy to
school because he was too little to work.
At twelve years of age the lad knew more
than the schOolmaster-a fact which es-
tablIshes anew the astounding mystery:
"Man can teach more than he knows.
At the age of IA, Garfield hesitated be-
tween the calling of minister OF the
Lord and that of sailor-between those
two Infinites, Heaven and the sea. He
preferred the sea.
Unluckily, at first he could only navi.
gate upon fresh water, under the orders
of one of his cousins, canal driver
(sic.O. He went to the sea at last, and
| fell sick James Garfield returned to
the widows poor home in dying condi-
ton. a second time she gave him life.
Then James became a teacher. At
twenty six years of age he was prCtes-
seur de .fdcute, Just as though he had
graduated from our Ecole Normale. He
was pupil of the famous mixed schools
which are SO often spoken of as a re
proach to the United States. Young
lads and young girls are brought up
there together in Spartan style, often
until the age of fifteen.
Here follows an uninteresting and
absurd story as to how Garfield van
quished the infdel professor. William
Denton, in a controversy, and how the
latter declared, "James Garfield, you
are stronger than the Bible" etc.
Finally the heart of James-the heart
| of lamb in a bulls envelOpe-was
stolen by little Yankee. The thief was
only sixteen years of age. She was in
| telligent as a demon and pure as an angel.
Perhaps a little naughty in her way,
| though poor. Was it because she bore
that beautiful Roman name, Lucretid?
A fortune teller had predicted to her
as it was predicted to Josephine, another
transatlantic wOman-that she would be
an Empressl And, in fact, Lucretia
Rudolph did espOuse that James Garfield,
who has Just been shot at, as If he were
an Emperor.
The dollars began slowly to enter Mr..
Gariield's pocket. Nevertheless, his
heart was not American in regard to
money. You know the envious folks
charge the Americans with having purs-
es instead of hearts.
James Garfield has also been lawyer,
| like his cousin in Republican sOVer-
eighty, Mr.. Jules Grevy. In that country
all careers are open, and it is as easy for
a man to pass from one profession to
| another as to 90 from one street to
another. The magistrature is elective
I need no further information about the
magistrature to feel assured that it is not
good. Nevertheless, its evil features are
strangely moderated by lynching. A
year or two ago, in the State Of Missouri,
the people lynched more Judges than
criminals.
About this time the Angel of Battles,
who passes over each nation from time
to time to sound his trumpet summons,
lowered in the American heaven. Ter
rible was the war which followed, and
more than terrible; civil war, and worse
that civil war-nadgts guam ct0tttG bella
-fraternal war.
Mr.. Garfield is appointed Colonel. and
| what a fine Colonel he Isl His pupils
form two companies of his regiment.
Soon after he is appointed Major Gen
eral for gallant and meritorious services.
| Mgr lie Comte de Paris, who served in
the armies of the North, has grasped the
| hand of Gen. Garfield. What mighty
battles those were!-what hosts of apo
calyptic vastnessl On the field of battle
two hundred thousand men against two
hundred thousand men The traveller
who followed in the track of these armies
| found all the wells dried up; and both
be and his steed were forced to drink
| from rivers that ran crimson. Altar off
| the sound of the battle seemed the awful
roaring of two monsters, huge as Atlas,
| fighting under the horizon.
Bahl-these great battles were only
like the green manure which is strewn
over our plowed fields-made with clover
mown before maturity. So these young
generations fattened American earth by
their premature death. The Americans
have already forgotten the war of seces-
sion, and we historians will soon be the
only ones to remember it. Mighty
nation of children their hearts are only
a hundred years old-as old as the Con-
stitution of the United States
The South was crushed, but still strug.
gled. Nothing is really decided while
one of two adversaries refuses to &C
knowledge himself conquered. Garfield,
while still on horseback, is nominated CD