New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-04
A MEMORABLE S4BRdTH

Yesterday was an cventfu Sabbath in the
history OF the American people. We have
known many such days of greater popular
anxiety. There were dark Sundays in tho
| civil war when the people forsook the
| churches for tho bulletin boards and telegram
offices, and waited anxi0usly for news from the
| front Thousands of lives were ut stake then
where ono hangs in the balance now.
| the issue might mean personal mourning in al
most any home, and there was tension and
popular agony which it would be unnatural
to expect at this time. The first Sunday when
Lincoln lay in his coffin was one never 10 he
forgotten. MIR. Lincoln was shot on Good Fri
day night; in seven hours he was dead and TO
the vast majority of the population the news
! OF the foul attack and of its fatal result came
together The following day was Sunday. and
the sorrow of the people found natural ont
leC III the services OF the churches, which were
densely crowded, and where the subject that
filled all minds was the only subject discussed
The passionate grief of that time can ONLY be
| understood by those who lived throuph # ond
know how the triumphant loyalty OF the North,
ern people had centred about Lincoln, maxine
HIM their idol, and causing the blow struck
| ut HIM to be felt in every n,tr;ot;c
heart 1t would be illogical in the highest de-
gree TO expect an equal Outburst of emotion
now In Il time OF profound peace and auiet
But yesterday was the first Sabbath in the
history OF our people on which Il President Inv
batting Tor his life against the still, small bul
let OF an assassin, amid the prayers of tbe
Nation, and as such it must always remain
strange and evcntful day in American annals
II the aspect OF this city was an index 70 that
of the other great cities, there were few sgns
OF general excitement. Crowds of men mo-
fore the bulletin-boald and eager prouns
III the hotel Hobbies, and large conoroc,-
tions IN the churches, were about all tho
outward manifestations of popular agitation
Ihe summer exodus has begun, and the great
avenues OF the city were comparatively emntv
as they always are on a Sunday at this season
OF the year. Many of the churches were closed
and this fact heightened the deserted appcar.
ance OF the city. But in every church and in
thousands and thousands of homes, and on the
lips OF men who perhaps would hardly have
confessed 1t TO themselves, the voice of drawer
was raised for the assassin's victim. Our
news columns bear witness to the deep feeling
OF all classes Of the population, and tho
hearty, human sympathy with which thew
watched all day for news of the fight betwnon
death and the brave, sturdy President.
If it was a memorable Sunday here and i,
the other great cities, how much more in the
rural communities, the small towns and vii.
lagos, the farming districts and little railroad
hamlets, where there is none of the indt,ar-
ence of large Cities where every man knows
his nciShbor and talks with him, where the
American spirit is strong, where there are few
OF those broad streaks of foreign population
which make large areas in our great cities
wholly un-American and so check currents Of
popular feeling. The person who saw ono
such scene yesterday saw them all-the any
ious groups in the country churchyard. the
fervent prayer in the church and the beartfoIt
response, the fearful sympathy of good women
and the honest anger of good men, s.thc crowd
gathered at the little railroad station lston;no
to the clicking of the wire that was FLASHING !
It's news to every nook and corner of our vast
territory. This scene was repeated in the peace-
ful New-EnSland villages the little clearings
In the woods of the Far West, the mining camns
and the cross-road hamets; and intensified in
all those regions of the West where General
Gariield's face and personality were ia miliarlv
known in way in which they have not been
known in the East. 1t is an impressive thought
that OF this great people, stretching from one
ocean to the other. standing uncovered whle