The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-07-04
WHEELING. W. VA. July !. 1857.
Thl. DnY one Year Ago.

This Day One Year Ago.
The Fourth Of July, 1881, was gloomy
/ day, indeed, throughout the United States.
IT was the gloomiest holiday that the coun.
try had ever known, not excepting the
dark days Of the war. The murdered rresi.
dent was lowering between life and death,
all day, theindica.ions being that he would
scarcely survive tho night. The Fourth
wore away as quietly as summer Sunday,
7 tlie whole tone Of public feeling being one
1 of great depression.
& A year has passed. Alter eighty days Of
wasting and suffering the President died
{ and was buried amid honors and sorrows
such as this country never witnessed be.
|, fore. Tho Nation still lives. "The Gov.
ternment at Washington still lives. rs Gar.
!. field said II would live in that inspired
! moment In New York when he addressed
1.-The thousands who had been shocked and
Sparalyzed by the assassination OF Lincoln.
I, The country seems to be far away from the
events OF July I'd, 1881. The memory oft
still fingers like tho memory Of a night.
mare, but tho event itself has glided away
s rapidly into the historic past, and the
/ cares and distractions Of every day life,
d aud the occurrences Of public life, have MS
serted theirsway, oil OF them slowly GOV.
ering the tomb Of Garfield with the moss
and the lichen that sooner or later covers
Tho tomb OF the highest and lowest with
scmi.oblivion.
Wo read in the Chronicles OF the Kings
,sof Israclthat first ono king and then anoth.
+ er lived and reigned, and that for some few
4 Of them who had done that which was right,
4 the people mourned many days alter their
4 death, but the summary OF tho record is
that they lived, reigncd and died, and were
\ gathered to their fathers, and the people
\ went on making history rs before. This is
Z the history OF the ages that have gone, and
will be that Of those that are. yet TO come.
\ No man md no event, however great, parts
the current OF events, rs Moses parted the
waters Of the Red Sea, and brings every
thing to a stand still for any length Of
time.
l771 1t is not the time now 10 review The
events Of the year that has passed since the
occurrence Of the most tragic event OF our
history. Change upon change has sue
Sceeded since then, here a little and there
little, politically, commercially and iinan.
3cially. 1t has not, however, been satis-
factory year to the American people in any
4of these respects. The high hopes OF the
early part OF 1851 were not realized. The
drought came like blight last summer to
Edisappoint the expectations OF the people,
{ just as the assassination Ind come 10 dis
appoint their political expectations. Bust
I ness has Jagged, the cost OF living has in
creased, labor has been disconnected, great
strikes have occurred, and nervous and
Y apprehensiye feeling has been engendered
/ in all the channels OF trade.
III But ut last the cloud that has SO long
skirted the horizon, obscuring the outlook
50 perplexingly, seems to be passing away.
4 Amidst the -deluge Of never ccasing rains
!, that have. followed the drowth, VIC discern
4 once more the reflected glories and assur-
I ances Of the rainbow Of promise that was
i set in the heavens us u sure token that seed
1 time and harvest should not fail. A great
harvest is now upon us, and once more, as
in the great years Of plenty in Egypt, there
will be bread enough and to spare for all Of
#tlle people Of this and other lands.
Standing once more by the side Of this
most memorable day in our history, we
can look back and forward as the Seer of
s Bagdad did from the enchanted mountain
unto which he went up once year, sac
!, corting to. the custom Of his forefathers,"
TO perform his dcvotions. To him then the
whole horizon was m enchanted land, and
he could survey the shadowy boundary
lines Of the river Lethe in the iar.away past
and the bright Elysian plains OF fur
away, future The panorama was suread
out to view. So to-day the panorama Of
our great country spreads out to view.
This panorama includes hundred years
I Of the past and the Indefinite e,nanso of
the future. There is a Lethe that rolls he
tween us and the dark days OF the past, its
$sombre lines shading and softeninr the
memories Of our civil war and all thcstrifes
sand bitterness Of the past, Away to the
! sun rise arc the Rlysian plains of tho great
future of,our country. All IFS vast noe.
ss.,,. .o ,nto..u tneio III 'l'e glorious