Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-10-07
ENGLISH SYMPATHY.
Intense Feeling During President
Garfeld's P~rostration
Expressed by all CIassss--FrOm theousen
to the Fisherman.

London Cor. New York Tribune by Geo. w
Smallcy.l
But during the eighty days of Pres
ident Garfeld's slow advance to DEATH
have e every day some new proof
that EnClishmen looked upon his fate
as a matter of domestic concern. Inc
stranger in the railway carriage dld
ask you how the President was getting
on. The shopkeeper asked you. The
boatman on the pier asked; Inc
boatman's wife asked. | hardly ever
| cot a letter-oven a business letter
in which something was not said about
the President. | have the honor OF
knowing a venerable lady eighty-one
years old. She begged me to bring
her. every day, news of the President,
not satisfied with whatthe newspapers
told her. said over and over again
that | could tell her nothing that was
not told more fully in print. No
matter; she wanted to hear 1t from
American lips. The newspapers print,
Of course, what their customers want to
read. They have continued to publish
details of the Presidents progress,
less copious, naturally and necessarily,
than yours, but often exceeding q col
umn in length, transmitted by cable
at a shilling a word, or perhaps six
pence. Whenever a crisis In the pa
TENTS condition came, the dispatches
were always fuller, and commonly ac'
cempanied by an editorial article, In
t%elligent and profoundly sympathetic.
This is true, not only of the great Lon
don papers nor of the great provincial
papers only, but Of all the papers,
great and small, that | have seen, and
as [ have been a good deal out Of
| London | have seen many. 1t is true
of papers of every shade Of opinion,
political or religious or scientific. AS
YOU know, the medical organs busted
themselves continually about the med
ical symptoms. In all their con
ments there has been, so far as [ know.
hardly a word that the dearest friend
ofthe President, or the most patriotic
and sensitive American, need wish un
said. | know that is a strong state
ment, but it is not made heedlessly.
| cannot express too strongly what |
feel about the language of the English
press with reference to the matter. II
we have retained any memory of any
injury to us from hat ource in times
past, it ought to be blotted out for
ever.
You know what the press has been
You have had an almost daily record
!. of its tenor; and the Transatlantic
cables, which often do SO much mis-
, chief, have done a real servicei in echo.
9 ing from side to side, the words in
D which English and Americans have
a expressed their feelings. But the con.
: duct of the press cannot be too muel
Z dwelt upon. What has been sale
/ here since the fatal news came is Sc
. admirable, so suffused with sincere
emotion, so penetrated with fraterna
sentiments toward the nation whose
illustrious head has departed, that
: could wish to see all those articles col
a lected and preserved. They ought t.
o form part Of our national archives
:. Many of them will be transmitted tt
Washington by our Minister. But there
5 ought to be at least n complete col
e lection in the Congressional Library
d if not in the State Department.
may sum them up in the words of tn,
/, Pail Mall Gazette, to which one look
j usually for the most convenient anC
4 compact summary of opinion: "In oul
a epitome," says that journal, we hay,
q not attempted to present a summar!
) of the observations of our press. II
u do so would be merely to give frou
every newspaper published to-day i.
Great Britain and ireland varying
expressions of a sympathy literal.
! unbroken by a single Earring note
' Such hearty unanimity is all but un
~precented in our history, and bode.
well for the future union of tn,
English-speaking race"
= What | may call the mere physica
+. facts of journalism are hardly les!
striking than their sympathetic con.
cord. First of all, The Times appear.
in mourning Never before, so far as
l know, or as anybody whom l can
ask knows, has that striking tribute
. been paid to any person not English
1t has been universally spoken Of as {
most singular and remarkable occur
0 renee. 1t may seem less so to you
q readers, who do not reflect on the ex.
s traordinary cogency of precedent anC
q custom in this country. They are no.
where more oogeDt than in the Office
8 Of The Times, but they have beer
e broken through to do honor to the
{ momory of an American President
. More than two entire pages Of the
Times of Wednesday are occupied
y with this one topic; Of which two col.
umns arc Geographic and two edito
rial. The other papers, with much
, less space, devote almost as much to
the President, none of them having
! less than two leaders on the subject.
The manager Of one great journal said
that whether in or out of the news
; paper world he had known no such
excitement and no such pressure Of
public interest since the Prince OF
Wales's illness. That, as you see, is
/ the only standard of comparison from
whichever side you look at this mem
orable demonstration.
| will add this only with reference
! to the press. Heretofore, and espe-
| cially Of late years, when an English
Journalist desired to express his good
will TO America, he has been in the
habit of referring to Americans as Of
Anglo Saxon descent, as bis kin be-
yond the sea, OF perhaps rs his cousins.
All these phrases to-day have dropped
out, and you read instead, of the ab
solute community of race and senti
ment between England and the United
States. Cousinship has given place to
brotherhood. we claim" says the
leading Conservative journal Of Eng
land in words as eloquent as they are
pathetic, ito stand side by side with
our brothers across the Atlantic en-
this sad occasion, to feel all they feel.
to suppress all they would rather sup.
press and 10 understand and share