River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-03-09

natures have an uncomfortable reserve
he said that he found the Lords Prayer
and the simple petitions learned in in
fancy infinitely restful to him, no
merely in their stated repetition, but il
their casual and frequent recall as ht
went about the daily duties of life. Ger
tain texts OF scriptures had very
strong hold On his memory and on hil
heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh
some years ago, an eminent Scotch
preacher who prefaced his sermon witt
reading the eighth chapter of the Epis
tie to the Romans, which book hat
been the subject of careful study with
Garfield during all his religious life
He was greatly impressed by the clocu
ton of the preacher and declared thai
it had impaired new and deeper
meaning to the majestic utterances o.
Saint Paul. He referred often in afte
years to that memorable service, and
dwelt with exaltation of feeling upor
the radiant promise and the assured
hope with which the great apostle oil
the Gentiles was persuaded that Meth.
er death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin
cipalities, nor powers, nor things pres
ent, nor things to come, nor height
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love o.
God, which is in Christ Jesus oul
Lord"
The browning characteristic of Gen.
eral Garfield's religious opinions, as, in
deed of all his opinions, was his hber-
| atty. In all things he had charity
| Tolerance was of his nature He re.
| spected in others the quality he pos
| sessed in himself-sincerity of copvic-
ton and frankness of expression. Wi b
him the inquiry was not so mach
| what man believes, but does he be-
lieve it? The lines of his friendship
and confidence encircled men of every
creed, and men of no creed, and to the
end of his life, on his ever-lengthening
list of friends, were to be found the
name of pious Catholic priest, and OF
an honestminded and generous-heart-
ed free-thinker.
On the morning of July second, the
president was a contented and happy
man-not in an ordinary degree, but
| joyfully. 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 keen
| anticipation of pleasure, his talk
was all in the grateful and
gratulatory vein. He felt that
after four months of trial his adj
ministration was strong in its grasp OF
affairs, strong in popular favor and des-
tined to grow stronger; that grave
difficulties confronting him at his III.
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 un-
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 enteredl upon his college course
until he had attained the loftiest 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 well have been
happy man. No foreboding of evil
haunted him; no slightest promotion
of danger clou0ed 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 lay
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
worlds interest, from its hopes, its as
| pirations, its victories, into the visible
presence of death-and he did not
| 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 baffied, high
ambitions, what sundering of strong,
warm, manhood's friendships, what bit
ter rending of sweet household ties
Behind him a proud, expectant 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
frolic; the fair, young daughter; the stur-
dy sons just springing into closest COM
panionship, claiming every day and
every day rewarding fathers le e 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 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 its hopelessness. Gently, ST.
lently, the love Of great people bore
the pale sufferer to the longed-for heal
ing of the sea, to live or to die, az 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 tho ruornipC lioht I1nOn ifs restless