Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-03-02

difficulties confronting him at his in
auguration had been safely passed
that trouble lay behind him and not be-
fore him; that he was soon to meet the
wife whom he loved, now recovering
from an illness which had but lately
disquieted and at times almost I'M
nerved hirn; that ne was going to his AL.
ma Mater to renew the most cherished
associations OF his young manhood, and
to exchange greetings with those whose
deepening interest had folio we'd every
step of his upward progress from the
day he enteredi upon his college course
until he had attained the Hottest eleva-
ton in the gift of his countrymen.
Surely if happiness can ever come
from the honors or triumph of this
world, on that quiet July morning
James A. Garfield may we'll have been
happy man. No foreboding of evil
haunted him; no slightest promotion
of danger clouded his sky. His terrible
fate was upon him in an instant. One
moment he stood erect, strong, conf
dent in the years stretching peacefully
out before him. The next he Law
wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed
to weary weeks of torture, to silence,
and the grave.
Great in life, he was surprisingly
great in death. For no cause, in the
very frenzy of wantonness and wicked
ness, by the red hand of murder, he
was thrust from the full tide of this
worlds interest, from its hopes, its as
pirations, its victories, into the visible
presence of death--and he did nos
quail. Not alone for the one short mo
ment in which, stunned and dazed, he
could give up life, hardly aware Of its
REIMBURSEMENT, but through days of
deadly languor, through weeks of ago
ny, that was not less agony because ST.
lently borne, with clear sight and calm
courage, he looked into his open grave.
What blight and ruin met his anguish
ed eyes, whose lips may tell-what bril-
liant, broken plans, what batiled, high
ambitions, what sundering of strong,
warm, manhood's friendships, what bit
ter rending of sweet household ties /.
Behind him proud, expectant nation,
a great host of sustaining friends, a
cherished and happy mother, wearing
the full, rich honors of her early toll
and tears; the wife of his youth, whose
whole life lay in his; the little boys not
yet emerged from childhood's day of
frolic; the fair, young daughter; the stur-
dy sons just springing into closest COM
panionship, claiming every day and
every day rewarding fathers love and
care; and in his heart the eager, re-
joicing power to meet all demand. Be-
fore him, desolation and great dark
ness And his soul was not shaken.
His countrymen were thrilled with in
slant, profound and universal SYM
pathy. Mastertul in his mortal weak
ness, he became the center of a ma
TONS love, enshrined in the prayers of
a world. But all the love and all the
sympathy could not share with him his
suffering. He trod the wine press
alone. With unfaltering front he faced
death. With unfailing tenderness he
took leave OF life. Above the demon
lac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard
the voice of God. With simple resig-
nation he bowed to the Divine decree.
AS the end drew near, his early crav-
ing for the sea returned. The stately
mansion of power had been to him
the wearisome hospital Of pain,
and he begged to be taken
from its prison walls, from its OPP
pressive, sitting air, from its homeless
ness and It's hopelessness. Gently, ST.
lently, the love of a great people bore
the pale sufferer to the longed-for heal
ing of the sea, to live or to die, as God
should will, within sight of its heaving
pillows, within sound of its manifold
voices. With wan, fevered face tend
erly lifted to the cooling breeze, he
looked wistfully upon the oceans chang.
ing wonders; on its fair sails, whitened
in the morning light upon its restless
waves, rolling shoreward to break and
die beneath the MONDAY sun; on the
red clouds Of evening, arching low tc
the horizon; on the serene and shining
pathway OF the stars. Let us think
that his dying eyes read a mystic mean
ing which only the rapt and parting
soul may know. Let us believe that IL
the silence of the receding world he
heard the, great waves breaking OF
a further shore, and felt already upor
his wasted brow the breath Of the eter
nal morning.