New-York tribune., 1901-01-28
ENGLAND AND GARFIELD.
QUEEN VICTORIA ORDERED HER COURT
IN MOURNING WHEN THE AMER
IcA PRESIDENT DIED.

The most vivid impressions 50 quickly fade that
II may have been generally forgotten that the
death Of President Garfield called forth in England
demonstrations OF sympathy even remark
able than those which upon the lips Of so
many Americans who sorrow for the good Queens
death. How many persons for example, remem-
ber that The Times Of London, appeared in
mourning upon the announcement Of the Presi-
dents death. 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 Tribune's London correspondent
and the general press dispatches Of the time Few
passages recalling former occasion on which the
two great peoples drawn together by com
mon grief;
(From The Tribune of October 3, 1SS1)
During the eighty days of President Gar
fields slow advance to death, 1 have seen al
most every day some new proof that English
egt ,,e oncerp Upon The stTaser in the railway
carriage asked you how the President was get
ting on. The shopkeeper asked you. The boat
man on the pier asked. The boatmans wife
ness letter-in which something was not sald
about the President have the honor OF khoM- I.
ing a venerable woman, eighty-one years OLD.
She begged me to bring her. every day, news of
the President. not satisfied with what the news
paper told her. I said over and over again that
! could tell her nothing that was not tod more
fully in print. No matter; she wanted 70 near
from American lips. The newspapers print, OF
course what their customers want to read.
They have continued TO publish details or the
Presidents progress less cOpious. naturally and
necessarily, than yours but OFTEN eXceedlng a
column in length. transmitted by cable at
shilling word. or perhaps siXpence. Whenever
2 crisis in the patients condition came. the
dispatches were always fuller and commonly
accompanied by editorial article, intelligent
and profoundly sympathetic. This is true, not
only Of the great London 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 l have
seen many 1t is true of apers of every shade
Of opinion, political religious scientific. AS
you know. the medical organs busted themselves
continually about the medical symptoms. In
all their comments there has been, so far as
know. hardly a word that the dearest friend or
the President or the most patriotic and sensitive
American, need wish unsaid ! know that is a
strong statement, but ii is not made heedlessly.
l cannot express too strongly what feel about
the language Of the English press with reference
10 this matter. If we have retained any mem
ory of any injury 10 us from that source IN
times past it ought to be blotted out for
What l may call the mere physical facts of
journalism hardly less striking than their
sympathetic concord. First of all, The Times
appears in mourning Never before. so far
I know. anybody whom can ask knows
has that striking tribute been paid to any per-
son not English. 1t has been universally spoken
Of a most singular and remarkable occur
renee. II may seem less so TO your readers, who
do not reflect on the extraordinary cogency of
precedent and custom in this country. They are
nowhere more cogent than in the office of The
Times" but they have been broken through 70
do honor TO the memory OF American Presi-
dent More than two entire pages of The
Times are occupied with this one topic, OF
which three columns are telegraphic and two edi
torial. The other papers. with much less space,
devote almost as much 10 the President. none of
them having less than two leaders on the subject.
The manager OF one great journal said that
whether in out of the newspaper world he
had known such excitement and no such
pressure of public interest since the Prince Of
Waless illness That, as you see, is the only
standard of comparison from whichever side you
look at this memorable demonstration.
On such a subject this the press may be
trusted to speak for the country but ii is very
far from being the only mouthpiece 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, and will remain
household words in America. ] only repeat
what I told you some weeks ago. that those
about the Queen describe her passing agi-
tated days, often talking of the President and
Of Mrs. Garfield, impatient for the bulletins and
rervously anxious for better news when a bad
dispatch 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 handwriting. TO Mr.. Lowell
and TO Mrs. Garfield You may take il upon the
best authority that the Queens frequent mani
festat!ons of concern are not only spontaneous.
which anybody can see but that they the
expression OF a feeling which has been the pre-
occupation of her life for these eighty days.