The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-20

between the present history of this coun-
try and of Rome, but it is nevertheless true
that while repressive laws may reduce the
amount of crime they never wholly prevent
it. The cure for political assassination,
like the cure for common murder, cannot
be found alone in law. but must be
wrought out largely in a general elevation
of opinion and a feeling of increased re-
spect for law and government among the
people themselves.
within the last few years human life
seems to have had less sanctity in the eyes
of mankind. Crimes of violence of every
sort have multiplied amazingly. Lynchlngs
have become so common, North and South,
that we scarcely pause to read the story
i'm the morning paper. There Is a marked
renewal in literature of a taste which asks
for stories OF combat, or violence ana OF
blood. Our magazines ma S4edt 0ctlldIa
for pictures of guns and torpe DO boats r
accounts of battleships. There is a revival
of the rOugher sports ana more cruel pas
times.
such a general inclination of the public
mind toward force and violence augurs ill
for any age or country. II is a mark OF
the savage. of the brute, TO resort TO force
and violence, except in cases of the most
extreme necessity. Civilization is no longer
progressive IL a people go back TO these
methods of barbarism. All history is the
record of a tight with force, of an effort
of the world to ~Subjugate, eXterminate and
drive from the minds of men the thought
of violence, as a means for accomplishing
a supposed good result. 1t was Jesus who
was the great teacher of the gospel of
peace, Peace on earth, good will toward
men,. 1t was He who taught the doctrine
of nOnresistance, and said that if smitten
on one cheek the victim should turn the
other. 1t was an inspired writer who de-
clared: WHO takes the sword shall perish
by the sword Violence in the end destroys
those who resort to it. The nations who
make war in the end fall victims to war.
In war times the contemplation of public
violence makes the minds of the people
familiar with the thought of physical
force, and so a prevalent war spirit always
increases crimes of violence.
BUT RECENTLY HERE.
"The citizens of indianapolis nave this
sorrow brought home to them more keenly
because President Mckinley was but re-
Gently in our midst. On the 18th of last
March L saw him standing serene, digni-
fed, and sad by the open grave of General
Harrison. 1t is a striking fact that on the
occasion of that visit a prominent news
paper proprietor in this city apprehended
the danger of a personal assault on the
President and personally urged the super
intendent of police to take the most eX-
treme precautions for his safety.
Yet though the assassin succeeded in
killing our beloved President. how has he
failed to seriously disturb our government
As General Harrison once said i'm the
course of argument, made at a time of
great public disturbance, what a fine trib-
ute to our institutions it is that, while
these things are going on . y the
great. deep current. the peaceful, fOrceful.
flow of our civil order is not stayed for one
moment; but the courts are administering
the law between those who have invoked
its aid, and the general peace OF the Nation
is scarcely ruftied.'
Last Monday the splendid train which
mad carried the President and his party i'm
haDDineSS and cheer to Buffalo turned
back toward Washington. bearing the dead
body of the murdered man, and the mourn
ers were with MIN there in death who had
been his beloved companions in life. That
night he rested for the last time in the
White House. On Tuesday evening the
weary procession of mourning started to
Canton. The last sad rites are now being
performed amidst the faces OF SorrOwing
friends.
To-day the world mourns. President
Roosevelt has set it apart for one mighty
national funeral service, in which the
whole people may join.
Throughout the cities of this country.
from New York To San Francisco. there IS
n hush i'm the market places. Factories are
for a moment silent, and stores and ware
houses are dark and still. In village and
hamlet. too, the people mourn. Alike in the
green hills of New England, and on the
plains of Colorado, alike on the farms Of
Illinois, i'm the gloomy forests of Oregon,
and in the bright gardens OF California,
the hearts of men and women are heavy
with sorrow. In the cotton fields of the
distant South the negro, whom the dead
man fought to free, gives way TO grief and
sings in minor key the wailing melodies of
plantation songs. Even in those distant
Islands of the sea Which fate or fortune
has flung into our lap there are at this
hour draped houses and mourning hearts.
The people loved this man. they rebel
against his cruel fate, they put on sack
cloth and ashes, as his body is given back
to the embrace of the kindly earth.
But perhaps if we We're to borrow from
him his W philosophy of life, we would
neither curse nor rebel, but accept in sOr-
row and patience this cruel stroke of fate.
He himself. in his last conscious moments,
expressed this feeling when he said Good
bye all. goodbye: it is Gods way; His
! will. not ours, be done.
"In words of the great poet-OratOr: He
is asleep forever i'm the windowless palace
of rest, careless alike of sunshine and of
storm or as Shakespeare makes Macbeth
say of Duncan:
:" After Iife's ftful fever he sleeps well:
Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor
poison,
| Malice domestic. foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further
The exercises closed fttingly with the
singing of the national air America" by
the choir and congregation. In Difference
to their guests, the congregation remained
seated after the close of the services while
the members of the Sovereign Grand Lodge
left the church.