Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-07-21
PRESIDENT GARFIELD.
An Interesting Sketch of His Life,
Character. and Public Services.
New York Tribune.

In every household in the country the
chief theme of conversation is the strick-
en- President who, with wonderful cour-
age and equinimity, is waiting the ter
mination of the struggle of nature with
his severe wound. In the street and
the market where men eongregate the
talk is naturally most about his public
career, but in the homes and family cir
cles of the land It dwells upon his traits
of personal character, and recalls with
interest all that became known of him
as son. husband, father and friend when
the Presidential campaign of last year
threw open his personal affairs and pri-
vate life to the critical inspection of
friends and foes.
The center of President Garfield's life
has always been his family. He is de-
votediy attached to wife and children,
and never allows his public career seri-
ously to disturb the affections, interests
and tender condolences which spring up
under the shelter of his home. With his
children he is much like loving elder
brother, guiding their studies, sharing
their sports, and trusted with all their
thoughts and aspirations. Even in the
last campaign he found little time ey-
cry day to bring their minds together
in simple plan of study, in which all
could share. He leans greatly upon his
wife, preferring in many things her
judgment to his own, and making her
the cOnfdant of all his thoughts and the
companion of his studies. Few great
men have been so fortunate in their do
mestic relations. He has an ardent love
for home. which was never fully gratifi-
ed until in recent years, after he became
the owner of farm. His little cottage
in Hiram with its scanty village lot
seemed only a temporary abiding place,
and his house in Washington, though
roomy and comfortable, waa after all
only lodging for the Congressional sea-
son. When the savings of many years
| Increased by the fees Ofa few important
law cases enabled him to buy the Mentor
farm, he was probably happier than at
any time since his first success in life.
He was country bred, and loved the
woods and fields, orchards and cattle,
and the smell of brown earth, and the
little old farmhouse with its low rooms
was more really home to him than any
place he had ever lived in. When Just
before his nomination for the Presiden-
ce bhe old house was expanded into
Ecomfortable modern dwelling, and barns
and fields wore the look of order and
plenty, his contentment increased. His
home suited his tastes, and it was his
plan to return to it. when relased from
his public duties and resume his quiet,
studiOus, rural life.
After his family and his home, Presi-
dent Garfield loves his friends. No man
was ever blessed with more of them.
His genial manner and his fresh, origi-
nal, receptive mind attracts people to
him by strong ties of friendship. He has
not, like most busy men, narrowed in his
circle of friends as he grows older; it is
all the time widening, and no one who
comes into it ever falls out. He is ex-
liking in hearty, simple ways, and al
ways taking his friends upon the intel
lectual levels where his own mind moves.
He is marvellously good talker. There
seems to be no limit to his store of infor-
nation; yet he is never pedantic. 1t is
the subject his guest starts that usually
sets him off on train of conversation
which is limited only. by the time at his
disposal. He likes good listener, but
he can be good listener himself when
any one brings him information that is
new to him. Best of all, he relishes a
solid hour of talk with some one who
can give and take theories. facts and ar
guments on some topic quite outside his
ordinary political work. He likes poll
tics not for the struggles of men inyolv-
ed in them, but for the conflict of ideas.
When in Congress it was always the
thoughtful side of party and legislative
controversies that interested him, such
as finance, tariffs, constitutional inter-
pretations, and the workings of the f.
ner portions of Government machinery.
The Presidency is foreign to his tastes.
because he has no sympathy with the
strugges of men for place, or real inter-
est in their clashing ambitions. His hope
in entering the White House was that
he would be able to benefit the country
by wise and broad plans of administra-
tion.
President Garfield is an exceedingly
industrious man. He never believed in
genius or luck, but he had unbounded
faith in the power of hard work. All
his life he has been tremendous work.
er. His large, well trained brain is the
servant of an indOmitable will, and he
keeps it in training all the time. His
theory of mental rest is to change the
kind of work that had tired him for
some other kind. If wearied with
problems of legislation. he reads Greek
or tries mathematical promblem. Ev-
cry step forward he has made in his ca
reer he has fairly earned. When he
came to the Presidency he was probably
the best informed man in the country
on all matters relating to government,
Town, County, State and National. Yet
he is widely unlike men who narrow
themselves into single line Of study,
for his mind ranges over all fields of
thought, and there is scarcely subject
of human interest which it has not
tuoched upon. All his life he has been
al OIuulV6TOuS icduoi, dHu Hlo SluSuldA-
ly retentive memery allows nothing to
escape it which had once been cOnfided
to its keeping.
President Garfeld's nature is essen
TALLY religious. He believes in immor-
tality and in the Providential guidance
of human affairs. There was no phase
of philosophy which he has not looked
into, but the simple faith in God and
Heaven he imbibed when boy has new
er been shaken. The materialistic ten
denotes of the age have never affected
him. He cannot conceive mind as a
mere phenomenon of matter. Although
sincerely attached to the denomination
he joined in his boyhOod, he is no secta-
rian, and his views AS to creeds and
forms of worship are broad and liberal.
A stndv of the character and career of