Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-07-19
1amraster fntelhgenrer.
TUESDAY EVENING, July 10, 1881.
CanOnIzatiOn by Assassination.

CanonIzation by Assassination.
One cannot show any reason, founded
on sense, why assassination should Sc
cure canonization, yet it has SO often
shown this effect that it must be con-
ceded to he natural one. Our present
experience with Mr.. Garfield very strong
" exhibits the power of assassination in
effacing, in the eyes of many good peo-
pie, what had appeared to he very dark
spots in Il public character. We said:
the other day, in speaking OF the gush
over Garfield, that the assassin's bullet
did not of itself inspire virtue; and we
thought We said Il very true thing which
no reasonable being would dispute. We
still believe that what we said was true
but there was error in our assumption
that it would not he disputed, springing
from the fact that we forgot to re-
cognize that great many good peo-
pie fail to maintain themselves in
a reasonable and reasoning condition,
under emotional surroundings and
rs such people are in the majority in
the world, when the emotional excite
ment is general and great, it is manifest
that it is unsafe to state, at such time amy
truism with the certain expectation that
it will be recognized and justified in the
conduct of the people. We were not
wrong in stating that assassination did
not invest Mr.. Garfield with virtue that
he did not have before; but we were in
error in net admitting that it had this
natural effect, i'm the contemplation of
many if not most of his fellOw-citizens,
who were SO subdued by their emotions
as to have taken, temporarily, at least,
leave of their good sense. That all men
are fools at some time OF other, if not
always, is pretty generally conceded !;
and the occasion that most men seem to
take for the exhibition of their folly is
Just such an occasion us this, when the
popular heart is stricken with horror ut
the cu,lseless assassination OF u public
man. The feeling of grief which the oc-
c;lsiom calls forth seelns to be quite in
compatible with any feeling Of disappro-
l,ation of the object of fsolicitudc and the
men and women whose hearts were filled
with grief ut the president 5 suffering and
danger were generally unable to remem-
ber that they had not before regarded
him rs saint. 1t has been thus always {;
and many of the saints in the calendar
fl,x,i, ~ la p1ao, frnpo SCIn %
hand. Thomas A'Becket who is not pOr
trayed in the chronicles of the times as
Il saint-like character ut all, became a
saint only because he was fOully slain.
To work out it's virtue the assas-
sins work must be successful. Mr..
Garfield escapes, by his happy survival,
the joy of camonizatiOn as Il very great
and pure wlblic servant which would
have been his i'm the minds of most of
the people of his generation, no doubt, if
if he ill,l been taken from us: and this,
though his record might have been far
more Objectionable than it is. AS it is,
with his recovery he will come down
again to the reach of the cold judgment
of reason, and his fame must be justified
by his deeds.
1t would seem TO he i deal better if
people would not let themselves he upset
by their emotions, and would not blow
ut one time upon their servants rs much
too hot us ut another time they blow too
cold. Mr.. Garfield could spare some of
the lOudest of the walings of sorrow 1T
his aflliction now, just Us i month ago he
could have spared the most violent of
the denunciations to which he was then
subjected by men of his own party and
in slslrins them he would have been
more comfortable himself, and the peo-
pie who poure'l them Out upon him
would have been more comfortable, too
seeing the Wear and tear Of spirit they
would have saved themselves and the
satisfaction with which they ought to
have contemplated the fact that they
had moi made fools of themselves.
But then are the most of people happy
in not making themselves fools 2 or is it
really so, that to be happy they need to
he foolish? DO the refined people w!O
daily read those bulletins of Bliss really
enjoy them? And do they want to
know all the particulars given them
of Mr.. Gariield's state And does
it interest them to hear how the
doctors rubbed his back and cleaned his
nails and tickiel his hose and polished
his toes! And do they think it sacrilege
to deride the quartet of doctors who
are exhibiting their patient to the public
in all the naEednesS OF the sick room,
and thrusjiny themselves and their devo-
tiOn into the picture every time?
There are some people whom it would
please to boot Bliss; Others manifestly
would like to kiss him. There is no dis
putting about tastes: but the best taste is
generally Il medium and Bliss ought to
be neither kicked nor kissed, but gently
subdued and sat upon.
The Water Works.
Superintendent of Water Works kitch |