Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-03-03

On the morning of July second, the
president was q contented and happy
man-not IN an ordinary degree, but
| loyfully. almost boyishly happy. On
his way to the railroad station TO which
he drove slowly, in conscious enjoy
ment of the beautiful morning, with an
unwonted sense of leisure aud a keen
anticipation of pleasure, his talk
was all in the grateful and
gratulatory vein. He FELT that
| after four months of trial his adj
mlnlstration was strong in its grasp of
affairs, strong in popular favor and des-
hDNd - grow stronger; that grave
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 him, 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 followed every
step of his upward progress from the
day he entered! 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
a happy man. No foreboding of evil
haunted him; no slightest promotion
of danger clou6ed 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, be 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, It's as
pIratlons, its victories, into the visible
presence OF death-and he did not
quail. Not alone for the enc 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.
Iently 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 baflled, high
ambitions, what sundering Of strong,
warm, manhood's friendships what bit
ter rending of sweet household ties
Behind him a proud, expectaut nation,
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
trolc; the fan, young daughter; the stur-
dy sons just Springing into closest COM
panlonship, claiming every day and
every day reWarding fathers love and
care; and in his heart the eager, re-
loicing 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
AS0S3 AiO pOStLlllS lllG vi Il In
tons love, enshrined in the prayers of
world. But all the love and all the
sympathy could not share with him his
suffering. He trod the wine-press
alone. With unfaltering from. 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 tho Divine decree.
As the end drew near, his early cray
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 its hopelessness. Gently, 81
lently, the love of 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, fevefed 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 to
the horizon; on the serene and shining
pathway of the stars. Let us think
that his dying eyes read mystic mean
ing which only the rapt and parting
soul may know. Let us believe that in
the silence of the receding world re
heard the. great waves breaking g.
further shore, and felt already upo.
his wasted brow the breath Of the eteI
nal morning.