, 1881-09-10

/ In these days Of SORROW many a hear
Will turn pityingly in contemplation O
the mother Of the president. She hal
reached hat age that probably the event.
| Of tho last two decades are mere shadow,
on her memory while she is again lvins
over in thought the days of her youth
and her early womaahoed. When the
news that the president was shot reached
her she never thought Of his being Chief
Magistrate Of the Nation, but remem-
bered only how he fondled her breasts
and looked up into her eyes when he, be-
fore, could not walk, and the cry from
her heart was "Who could hurt my
baby There are those who doubt the
efficacy Of prayer. who say: IF the sup
plicalions frnm civilization could not save
from death one man, what is the use of
prayers I" But IN response there still
lives the mother, whose single prayers
arose from the cabin in the Ohio wilder.
ness and were listened to and answered in
glory TO both mother and son. And il
must not be forgotten that those prsyes
had an efficacy which never faltered until
the fame OF the son was rounded full.
Probably that pioneer mothers pleadings
were, that beyond the hardships and sor-
rows that surrounded her and her chill.
dren, an honorable career for each one of
her loved ones might succeed, Surely
that prayer has been answered. What
more could any mother wish for her son
that he might 50 live that when he comes
To die all the millions Of civilized homes
should be draped in Grape as though a
loved inmate had ceased to live, ana all
the millions Of civilized men and women
should stand with fearful eyes and bowed
heads, mourneIs around his bieri That
President Garfield should die in the vigor
Of his manhood and when fruition waited
in the very au1ience-chamber of hope,
should die by the blow of a murderer, is
indeed inscrntable: but So WAS the MUIR
der Of Lincoln. Our dull, earthly eyes
have q contracted vision at best, and as
the scenes are shifted, who shall call the
acts or predict 10 what actors have been
assigned the varions roles. Men see but
little into the future, but We can all look
back and trace the plan after it has been
unfolded fully And already We can see
in the drama Of the Garfield family so
much that is dramatic and sonderful
that We can SET that the story will, by
and by, be gathered, thread By thread,
and woven into tale or drama over
which men and women no. yet born will
weep and be thrilled, and be made better
for the reading. n pursuance of this
same thonght the Springfield Republican
says:
The Garfield legend, sure to cluster
and groS around the story of his life,
whether il snds HOW or when he is older
in years and of longer honOis, will gather
around him rs his mothers son. Their
relations will be remembered and told
and made the foundation of tale and
story and picture when the reiunding
of the 81 per cents and the struggle at
Albany are the dust Of forgotten politics
The sons kiss Inauguration day, the
heart broken cry Of the mother over my
baby" when the strong man, high in
place, WAS shot down., the solitary letter
which the weak fingers of the president
found strength to write in the weary
weeks Of illness-these are the things for
which the man and the mother will be
remembered. Linked to an emotion and
a memory which comes home to the hearts
and the boscms Of men and women, the
last remembrances Of President Garfield
will rest secure.
The Roman mother, when called upon
to exhibit her jewels, sent for her boys
and said: "These are my jewels For
her Jewels the Garfield mother faced a
piriless fortune but for the hardships
and sorrows of those days. in the books,
the records of which are Interchangeable, it
Was recorded that the name Of the mother
beside that Of the son should, in glory,
go ringing down the ayes as the years
should ebb and how, 90 long as the pulse
Of time should beat