New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-11
PRESIDENT G1RFJELD,s CHARACTER

equanimity, is waiting the termination of the
struggle of nature with his severe wound.
In the street and the market where men con-
gregate the talk is naturally most about his
public career but in the homes and family
circles of the land it dwells upon his traits of
personal character and recalls with new inter
est all that became known of him as son, hils-
band, father and friend when the Presidential
campaign of last year threw open his personal
affairs and private life to the critical inspection
OF friends and foes.
The centre Of President Garfelds life has al
ways been his family. He is devotedly attached
to wife and children, and never allows his
public career seriously 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 midst of the last
campaign he found little time every day to
bring their minds together in simple plan of
study, in which all could share. lie leans
greatly upon his wife, pIefcrrng in many things
her Judgment to his own and making her the
conidant of all his thoughts and the companion
OF ms studies. Few great men have been
fortunate IN their domestic relations. He has
an ardent love of home, which was never fully
gratlhed until i'll recent years after he became
the owner of farm. His little cottage in
Hiram with its Scanty village lot seemed only
temporary abiding place, and his house in
Washington, though roomy and comfortable
was after all only lodging for the Congress
sional season When the savings of many years
increased by the fees of few important law
cases enabled him to buy the Mentor farm, he
was probably happier than at any time since
Ia. IL
and loved the woods and fields, orchards and
cattle, and the smell OF the 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 Presidency the old house
was expanded into comfortable modern
dwelling, ANA barns and fields wore the look of
order and plenty, his contentmcnt increased.
HIS home suited his tastes, and ii was his plan
10 return to it when released from his public
duties and resume his quiet, studious, rural life
After his family and his home, President Gar
field loves his friends. No man was ever
blessed with more of them. His genial manner
aud his fresh original, receptive mind attracts
people to him by strong ties of comratleship
He has not, like most busy men, narrowed in his
circle OF friends as lac grew older; il is all the
time widening, aud no one who comes into il
ever falls out. He Is exceedingly companiona-
bic, showing his liking in hearty, simple ways,
and always taking his friends upon the intel
lcctual levels where his own mind moves. lie
is Il marvellousiy good talkcr. There seems
to be no limit to his store of information vet
he is never pcdantc. 1t is the subject his
guest starts that usually sets him off on a train
of conversation which is limited only 10y the
time at his disposal. lie likes a good listener.
but he can he ii good listener himself when
anyone brings him information that is new
to him. Best OF all, he rClishcs a solid hour OF
talk with some one who can give and take
theories, facts and arguments on some topic
quite outside his ordinary political work. He
likes politics not for the struggles of men in
NOlved in them, bat for the conflict of
ideas. When in Congress it was always
the thoughtful side of party and legisla-
tive controversies that interested him. such
rs finance, tariffs, constitutional interpre-
tations and the working of the finer portions of
Government machinery. The Presidency is
foreign TO his tastes, because he has no sym
patty with the struggles Of men for place, or
real interest 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 Administration.
President Garfield is an exceedingly indus
luck, but he had unbounded faith in the power
of hard work. All his life he has been
tremendous worker. His large, Nell-
trained brain is the servant of an indom-
liable will, and he keeps it in harness
I'LL the time. His theory of mental rest is to
change the kind of work which had tired him
for some other kind. If wearied with problems
Of legislation, he reads Greek or tries mathe-
NAUTICAL problem. Every step forward he has
made in his career he fairly earned. When he
came to the Presidency he was probably the
bcst-informcd man in the country on all matters
relating to government Town, County, State
and National. Yet he is widely unlike men
who narrow themselves in to n single line of
study, for his mind ranges over all fields of
thought, and there is scarcely "A subject of hui
man interest which it has not touched upon All
his life he has been an omnivorous reader. and
his singularly retentive memory allows moth
ing to escape it which had once been contided to
its keeping.
President Garfeld's nature is essentially
religious He believes in Immortality 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 mbibed when a boy has never been
shaken. The materialistic tendencies of the
age have never affected him. He cannot conceive
mind n mere phenomenon of matter Al
though sincerely attached to the denomination
he joined in his boyhood, he is no sectarian,
and his views to crceds and forms of worship
are broad and liberal.
A study of the character and career of the