Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-03-09
ON THE EDGE OF THE SHADOW.
The Brilliant and Touching Per0ratiOu Of Blaine
EulogV i,araetd

Eulogy ON Garfield. .
Surely if happiness could come from
the honors of triumphs of this world, on
the quiet July morning, James A. Gar
field may well have been happy man.
NO FoREBoDNG OF EVIL
haunted him. No Slight premonition of
danger clouded the sky. His terrible
fate was upon him in an instant. One
moment he stood erect, strong, confident
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 surpass-
ingly great in death. For no cause, by
the very frenzy of wantonnesss and wick
edness, by the red hand of murder, he
was thrust from the full tide of this
world interest, from its hopes, aspira-
tons, its victories. into the visible pres
ence Of death-and he did not quail
Not alone for the one short moment in
which, stunned and dazed, he could give
up life, hardly aware of its relinquish-
ment, but through days of deadly Ian
guor, through weeks of agony, tina. was
not less agony because silently borne,
with clear sight and calm courage, he
looked into his open grave. What blight
and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose
lips may tell--what brilliant, broken
plans, what baffied. high ambitions,
what sundering of strong, warm man.
hoods friendships. what bitter rending
of sweet household tiesl Behind him a
proud, expectant nation, great host of
f,,a IL,
happy mother, wearing the full, rich
honors Of early toll and tears; the wife
of his youth, whose whole life lay in his,
the little boy not yet emerged from
childhood day of frolic; the fair, young
daughter; the sturdy sons, just spring
ing into closest companionship, claim
ing every day and every day rewarding
q fathers love and care; and in his heart
the eager rejoicing power to meet all
the demand. Before him. Desolation
and great darkness! And his soul was
not shaken. His countrymen were thrill
ed with an Instant, profound and univer-
sal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal
weakness, he became the center Of a
NATION sLoyE
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 I'M
faltering front he faced death With
unfailing tenderness he took leave of
life. Above the demoniac hiss of the
assassin's bullet he heard the voice of
God. With simple resignation he bowed
to the divine decree. As the end drew
near, his early craving for the sea, re-
turned. The stately mansion of power
had been to him the wearysome hospital
of pain. and he begged to be taken from
its prison walls, from its oppressive,
sitting air. from its hopelessness and its
helplessness. Gently, silently, the love
of great people bore the pale sufferer
to the longed-for healing of the sen, to
live or to die, as God should will, within
sight of its heaving pillows, within sound
of its manifold voices. With wan. fever
ed face tenderly
! LIFTED TO THE COOLING BREEZE,
he looked out wistfully upon the ocean ;
changing wonders; on its far sails,
whitening in the morning light; on its
restless waves. rolling shoreward to
break and die beneath the noondav 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
meaning which only the rapt and part
ing soul may know. Let us believe
that in the silence of the receding world
he heard the great waves breaking on
= further shore, and felt already upon
| his wasted brow the breath of the eter-
nal morning.