The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-29
WHEN GARFIELD DIED.
Queen victorin's order Putting Her
Court In Mourning.

| lions of sympathy even more remarkable
| than those which are now upon the lips of
! so many Americans who sorrow for the
| good Queens death. How many persons,
for example. remember that The Times
1 OF London, appeared in mourning upon
| the announcement of the Presidents
/ death. or that Queen Victoria put her
! Court In mourning out of respect for this
nations loss? 1t seems timely. therefore,
| to reprint from the letters of the "Tri-
| bulc's London correspondent and the gen
| eral press dispatches OF the time a few
passages recalling a former occasion on
which the two great peoples were drawn
| together by common grief
| prom the Tribune Of October 8. lssI)
| London Sept. 23.-The Queens order
| for the Court to go into mourning is an
other startling innovation upon etiquette.
| hear thai 1t struck the Court officials
/ with something like dismay: not that they
personally were not DESTROYS to pay every
respect to President Garfield but that
the departure from all presidents was so
! sudden and so revolutionary Never be-
| lore has the rule been infringed. Except
for d person of royal blood and OF kin to
| the reigning family the English Court
] never puts on mourning. As all the royal
| families of Europe. Sweden perhaps ex-
1 cepted are related remotely or directly
| to the Gueiphs. mourning is ordered for
| the death of any European sovereign, as
| 1t is for German dukes and princes who
! are near cousins of the Queen It Is
| family matter. The mere rulership OF a
| great nation has nothing to do with 1t,
and constitutes no reason for the observ-
| ance. l asked yesterday friend who is
| an authority in court ceremonies whether
| IL The President of the French Republic
| Should died in office mourning would be
| ordered here Certainly not" was the
| answer: sit would not even DO thought
| Of He added that the Queens command
| had occasioned the utmost surprise-among
all those of the royal household who had
not been with her or in attendance at
Court since the I'd OF last July. Everybody
knows that there is no such stickler for
etiquette in all Europe as the Queen of
England. 1t was uncomfortable that she
should have broken away from the pre-
scribed formula But those who had been
with her said anything might be expected
OF her that would express with emphasis
| her distress-and grief for the Presidents
death. and her womanly sympathy with
| Mrs. Garfield. 1 heard repeated yester-
| day what 1 heard weeks ago, and prob
| ably then mentioned: The Queen thinks
and talks of nothing else" said this MEM
| Der of her household
/ N--NNNAa
! 8, 1ssl)
| During the eighty days OF President
| Garheld's slow advance to DEATH / have
| seen almost every day some neH- proof
| that Englishmen looked upon his late as
| matter OF domestic concern. The stran-
/ ger in the railway carriage asked you how
| the President was getting on The SHOP
1 keeper asked you. The boatman on the
/ pier asked. The boatman's wife asked
/ hardly ever got a letter-even BUSH
/ ness letter-in which something was not
| said about the President | have the
! honor OF knowing a venerable woman,
/ eighty-one years old. She begged me to
bring her. every day, news of the Presi-
dent mot satisfied with what the news-
| papSr told her. | said over and over
again that I could tell her nothing that
was not told more fully in print. No :aat-
| ter; she wanted to hear from American
| lips. The newspapers print, of course
| what their customers want to read. They
! have continued to publish details OF the
Presidents progress, less copious, natu-
rally and necessarily, than yours but
| often exceeding column in length trans
| mitted by cable at shilling a word, CT
| perhaps sixpen1e. Whenever a crisis in
| the patients condition came, the de-
| spatches were always fuller. and commonly
accompanied by an editorial article. in
! telligent and profoundly sympathetic.
1 lNlS IS true, mot only Oh the great t-DuiiOu
| papers nor of the great provincial papers
| only but of all the papers, great and
| small which / have seen, and as l have
! been good deal out of London / have
! seen many. 1t is true of papers Of every
| shade of opinion. political or religious Cr
| scientific. AS you know. the medical or
/ gans busted themselves continually sbout
| the medical symptoms. In all their CON-
ments there has been, so far as I know,
hardly a word that the dearest friend OF
| the President or the most patriotic and
| sensitive American need wish unsaid. l
| know that is a strong statement. but it IS
| not made heedlessly. | cannot express too
| strongly what | feel about the language
! of the English press with reference TO this
| matter IL we have retained any memory
| of any injury to us from that source in
| times past il ought to be blotted cut for
| ever
| What I may call the mere physical facts
| of journalism are hardly less striking
| than their sympathetic concord. First of
| all, the Times appears in mourning.
| Never before, so far as / know. CT as any
body whom 1 can ask knows, has that
| striking tribute been paid to any person
not English 1t has been universally
! spoken OF as most singular and remark
| able occurrence. 1t may seem less so to
| your readers, who do not reflect on the
extraordinary cogency of precedent and
where more cogent than in the office of
the Times but they have been broken
through to do honor to the memory OF an
American President More than two en-
tire pages of the Times are occupied
with this one topic. of which three col
umns are Geographic and two editorial
The other papers, with much less space.
devote almost as much to the President
none of them having less than two lead
ers on the subject. The manager of one
great journal said that whether in or cut
of the newspaper world he had known no
such excitement and no such pressure Of
public interest since the Prince Of Wales
Illness. That as you see, is the only
standard of comparison from whichever
side you look at this memorable demon
s+ration
On such a subject as this the press may
it is very far from being the only mouth
piece Of the people OF England The
Queen is still the head OF the State. Her
messages. most of all that last outburst
of womanly and wifely sympathy with
the Presidents wife, are and will remain
household words in America. I can ohly
repeat what 1 told you some weeks ago.
that those about the Queen describe her
as passing agitated days. often talking Of
the President ard of Mrs. Garfield. impa-
tient for the bulletins and nervously
anxious for better news when a bad de-
spatch arrived. Again and again she has
broken through the etiquette that hedges
the Queen to send her own messages in
her own name and in her own handwrit
ing, to Mr.. Lowell and to Mrs. Garfield.
You may take 1t upon the best authority
that the QUEENS freuuent manifesto ions