The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-12-31

-@~~ -~~~1 hAoAAh VA sAC W Oi10 tbllu
marvellous unarmity has already assigned
to its place Pblie sorrow and love have
found utteranceif not adequate, yet such
as speech and flence and funeral rites,
especially procesions and prayers and
tears could give On the 26th day of Sep
tember, the t1ay,f the funeral, common
feeling stirred ninkind as never before in
history. That lgsterious law by which
great audiences, very motion is multiplied
in each heart b sympathy with every
other, lost its sell on universal human
ity at the touch hich makes the whole
world kin. All brriers or rank, or party,
or state, or nation disappeared. His own
Ohio, the state ofii birth and his burial;
New England. frcn whose loins came the
sturdy race from which he descended,
whose college gavBhim his education, can
claim no preemineee in sorrow. From far
therest south CONS the voice of mourning
for the soldier of tn Union. Over the fisher
ma ms hut and the rontiersman's cabin is
spread with glool because the White
House is desolate. The son of the poor
widow is deap and te palace and the castle
are in tears. As tie humble Campbelite
disciple is borne ! his long home, the
music of requiem f1s the Cathedral arches
and domes of anc.nt synagogues. On
the coffiin of the caal boy Queen lays
her wreath As til bier is lifted word
comes from beneaththe sea that the ma
tions of earth are ring and bowling their
heads. From manyflimes, in many Ian
guagcs, they join in the solemn service.
This is no blind ad sudden emotion,
gathering and breaking like wave. 1t is
the mourning of MAJ kind for great char
acter already perfecV known md famil-
lar The history the settlement Of
Massachusetts, Cenral New York and
Ohio is the history of the Garfield race.
They were, to borrot a felicitous phrase,
Hungry for tn horizon" They
were natural frontiesmen of seven gener-
ations born in Arerica. Including the
President, not one Ws born in other than
frontiersmens dwellings. Two of them,
father and son, Gaze over with Winthrop
in 1880. Each of ix general clans who
dwelt in Massachusetts, have left honorable
records, still presered. Five in succession
bore honorable military titles. Some were
fighters in the India wars. At the break
ing out of the revolution the male repre-
sentatives of the flnily were two young
| brothers. One, VIII sc name descended to
the President. waain arms at Concord
| bridge at sunrise orthe 10Th OF April. The
other, the Presidents great grandfather,
dwelling thirty mi.s off, was on his way
| to the scene of actid before noon. In 1881
James Garfield waborp in a humble Ohio
cabin. where he wa left fatherless in his
infancy. Blendingwith the Saxon stoci
| young Garfield inhibited on his mothers
side the qualities.of Huguenots. These
| gentle but not lesslrave or less constant
| Puritans, who foI conscience sake lef
| their beloved and beautiful France, whC
| gave lustre and glory to everything
| they touched. Th child of such race
| left fatherless in te wilderness, yet des
| tined to such gloT, was committed by
| providence to thes great teachers, with
| ont either of who'll he would not have be
come fitted for hi distinguished career
These teachers wte wise, Christian mothe
poverty and veneable college Presiden
who lived to wath his pupil through tn
whole of his varid life to witness his in
auguration amid idsuch high hopes and t
lament his death To no nobler matrol
did even Romaniero trace his origin. Fe'
of the traditionsDf his puritan ancestr
could have com{ down to the young OF
ph;,n. 1t is sid there were two thing
with which his mother was specially fl
miliar, the Biblg and the rude ballads {
the war 1912. The child learned the B
BILE at his motifr's knee and love of cour
try from his cradle hymns. From such
home came whistler and Clay and Lii
coin and Jasxlbn. 1t is no race of boo
| that has struck its axes into the forests I
this contineit These men knew how
build themaves low houses in the VI
derness. Thy were more skillful st
! to build ct,nsEutions and statutes Slo'
; cautious, co., sciencious, sluggish and u
ready in ordaary life, their Brains mo
Quick and sue as their rifles flash. wh'
great CONTROVERSIES that determine the la
of states ae to be divided, when Il
great interess that brook no delay are
stake, and gsat l'attles that admit OF L
decision are 10 be fought. I would n
undervalue tie material of which other r
publics havI been built The polish,
marbles of Greece and Italy have ths
t own gracd but art or natu
. contain no more exquisite beauty al
= color than bis split and unhewn grani
taken from tie temple It is grand. /.
story of childhood passed IN poverty,
intellectual ind moral exertions which
: the strenuos contests with adversity.
not unfamilir to those who read the hv
7 of those whe have been successful in Il
# country in any of the walks of life. 1t
- one of the mist beneficent results OF Am
=. ican institutions that we have ceased
speak of poverty, hardship and necess
> for hard and humble tolls as advantageo
TO a spirit endowed by nature with capac
!, for generous ambitions. In a socis
uharo Dbor ;sghnnarahlc apd where eve