The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-01-23
THE LATE COL. NEVIN.
DEATH OF THE WELL.kNoWN EDITOR.
A Newspaper Reminiscence = Remarkable
Prayer Uttered September o, 1884,,
While President Garfield Was
Lying on His Death-Bed.
Pittsburgh Pa.) Leader.l

pittsburgh Pa.) Leader.l
Though not unexpected, it is with none
the less sorrow that we have to announce
to-day the death of Colonel John Irwin
Nevin, editor of the Leader since the start
of the daily edition some thirteen years
since. After over two months of suffering
while confined to his home and year or
more suffering from the earlier symptoms
Of the disease, the dreadful nature of
which was at that time unknown to him,
he had to at last give up to the power of
that fell destroyer, Brighps disease.
Perhaps nothing more applicable In his
case could have been written during his
season Of sickness than his prayer for Gar
field, which he wrote and published on the
9th Of September, 1881, the day set apart
on which the people of these United States
were to pray for the dying President. That
editorial was as follows:
OUR PRAYER.
0 Thou Infinite Power behind the veil of
things, on Whom by various names call all ma
tons of men when sorrow and distress make
them feel the need of help from above and be-
yond them, IL may be superstition that Inn
pels the people of this great country toexpect
this day win move Thee one hairs breadth
from the immutable order of Thy will, ex-
pressed In what we call the Laws OF Nature.
Yet surely 1t is a noble superstition, elevating
every heart that shares 1t, and attuning
every mind TO receive whatever IL may seem
best to Thee to bestow, whether of good or
evil. And when this appeal goes up for the
Nations chief ruler. stricken down so cause
lessly and cruelty that the whole world has
turned to wonder and to grieve, there is none
so hard OF heart and cold of belief as not at
least to wish TO feel the feelings that stir In
the bosoms Of millions OF his countrymen this
day, and to swell with one more voice the vol
ume OF the great petition. Therefore we pray
not only those of us who have the faith that
removes mountains, but those also whose
doubling belief Is as the voice of a child cry
ing In the night-those of us who know not
whether the ''amen" that stlrs in their hosoms
Is an instinct inherited OF religious ancestors
or apersonal ineradicable emotion that mocks
the labored efforts of reason; we all pray
both we OF the North and we OF the South
we OF the busy marts and we Of the rural
felds-we who go 70 church to-day and we
who stay at our buslnoss-we all pray that
President Garfield may not die. o guard him
on that journey which he is taking as we
write these linesl Grant that 1t may do him
the good that he expects and that his ply
sicians try to hopel May the breezes Of the
great sea drive away the baleful odors of the
river~maIshes far from him, and fan his
feVered cheeks till his poor swollen face shall
long rollers laundering ON the Atlantic beach
sooth his ear and comfort his sad soull MAY
Long Branch prove indeed stopping.place
on the road to his home at Mentor, and not to
that longer home, the gravel o, we beseech
that he NAV not die. but livel
And yet Thy will be done, as we know. amid
all our prayers and with all our faith, that il
must be. II Thy natural law decree that
James A. Garfield Is TO die, aid us TO see that
at least he shall not have died In vain. IL Il
was necessary that one man should even die
10 cement the broken bonds OF the Union of
this people, we will try to say Il was well.
From the blood OF Garfield, causelessly shed by
amadmanor Hend, we can even now see. has
sprung up a sympathy, born Of a common
sorrow, between North and South, that has
healed the wounds of the war as they would
not otherwise have healed for a generation,