The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1881-10-15
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

Mourning the Nations Loss-dagnificent
Gift from Sorrowing People to the
Widow of the Dead Observation-Disclosures
3oom-Isevelations Among the Poor
The Irish Boagnerges and His Internal
Machines, Etc.
New YORK, October 8, 1881.
EDITOR CHIEF:
AS the rushing crowd surges down
Broadway, and through the great arteries
Of New York's life, Oh every side we are
reminded that he has gone out from
among us who shall come. back no moro
till the judgment day. Yet, in the hour
Of his greatest glory, in the power of his
strength and the pride of his manhood,
he was never SO present to the American
people as now. The sacred ashes, borne
from the capital of the nation to the rest
ing place of the dead, in his own loved
State, may be laid beneath the sod, over
which the violet and rose shall bloom for
ages yet to be, but the spirit Of the man
marches on sublimely, living, ever pres
ent and immortal.
Nothing is more touching than the evil
dences of sorrow that meet you on every
side. Poor work girls, who toll down
town, have spared enough from their
scanty earnings to buy a little piece Of
mourning ribbon, or mourning collar,
to testify their respect. to him who has
passed away. Opposite the Times office
stood little, ragged, barefoot waif, with
his bundle Of papers under his arm, and
they were slung from his shoulder by
bit of Grape.
Some Of the mourning draperies are
very beautiful, and many of them exceed
ingly costly, but it is not The " trappings
and the suits Of woe" that impress one
so much as the feeling of universal sad
ness that weighs upon the whole commu
nifty, in which is concentrated the grief
for the father, mother, sister, son or
brother. The magnificent tribute to his
worth, as attested by the generous con-
tributions to his stricken widow, is in
itself only partial evidence of the esti-
nation in which she is held by the peo-
die who loved and honored her husband.
It is especially fitting that New York,
which started the Garfield fund, should
be it's most imperial contributor. 1t has
already exceeded, by many thousands,
the sum originally named, but if it should
reach million it would not equal the
desert Of him who has fallen in our ser
vice. The victory at Bleinhiem brought
wealth and title to Marlboro. Trafalgar
brought undying fame to Nelson and
wealth to his posterity. The field Of
Waterloo brought a grateful nation to
the feet of Arthur Wellesley, and the
dukedom Of wellington, with his royal
gifts, was the reward Of service won
without scar. Here is the ending of
one Of the noblest lives in all tho his
tory Of men-a life of stormy struggle
and patient, honest toll, without a paral-
lei in history. AS poor man guided our
ship of State through its hour Of stormiest
trial-one Of as humble estate succeeded
him whose greatness was born in the
storm and disappeared in the midst Of the
tempest-but to James A. Garfield,
beyond any President that ever preceded
him, were given all the elements which
constituteintellectua and political great
ness-greatness won by constant and un-
firing struggle along that rugged path
way over which there is no royal road.
But the world stops not for the dead.
Life, busy, restless, fretting and foaming
like pcnt-up torrent, rolls up and down
Broadway, and if we were not constantly
reminded by the sable trappings on the
houses, we would scarcely recognize the
fact that such change has taken place
in our government.
A marvellous business revelation comes
to us from our railroads, or at least those
that centre in New York. For many