The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1903-08-28
LORD SALISBURY
PASSES AWAY
Last Hours of the Brilliant En-
g!ish Statesman Apparently
Without Pain.
The Long, Useful Life of Distin-
suished Service, of Loyalty and of
Political mportance-Notes
of His Career.


Political mportance-Notes
of His Career.
London, Aug. 25.-Lord Salisbury
died Sunday. The end of the dis
tinguished statesman was a peaceful
one, without the slightest evidence OF
pain. When death became imminent
the attending physicians summoned
the waiting members of the family
who gathered at the bedside and took
farewell of the dying man, who. how
ever, was unconscious of their pres
ence.
Within a few minutes after the
death a brief announcement was hand
ed to the newspaper men. and simnlt-
aneously the tolling of the death knell
from the tower of the church of which
the Rev. Lord William Cecil, a nephew
of Lord Salisbury, is pastor told the
people of the little village Of Hatfield
that the long struggle was over.
The village Of Hatfield, which still
retains many features of the feudal
period, was filled with anxious resi-
dents awaiting the news of his Lord
ships demise.
! The great Hatfield house. hidden be-
hind the screen of pine trees, was
lighted at every window, n gave no
sign of the approaching fatality.
Groups Of watchers clustered under
the E~lizabethian arches of the lodge
gates, anXiously questioning Zach lat
est passer from Hatfield house.
Finally the news came when a hat
less servant dashed down the graveled
roadway, saying, as he passed: He
has gone" and then disappeared in
the church. Soon thereafter the bell
from the tewer above tolled slowly,
and the villagers at the street orner
uncovered in Acknowledgement of the
passing of their neighbor and friend,
England'S greatest statesman.
NiScount Cranborne, who now as
sumes the title of marquis of Salisbury,
Immediately notified King Edward and
Queen Alexandra, the prince and prin-
cess of Wales and others, including
Lord Edward Cecil, the soldier son of
Lord Salisbury, who is now in Egypt,
and Who was the only child Of the mar
Quir absent from the d~eathbed.
Soon messages of condolences began
to arrive, and the telegraph Office at
Hatfield was swamped with unprece-
denied business. The death OF Lord
Salisbury occurred on the fiftieth ami
versary of his entry into public life
as a member Of the house of commons
for Stamford. The elevation OF Lord
Cranborne to the house of lords creates
a vacancy in the Rochester district, and
probably will entail the selection Of a
new undersecretary of foreign affairs.
h eX-premier, though retired from
political life, was an important figure
In many ways. He was a warden OF
the Cirque ports. high steward of
Westminster and chancellor OF Oxford
university. His death places an order
of knight of the Garter at the dis
posal of King Edward.
A few months apo lord Salisbury
swayed the destines of the British en-
plre. OF late he has been practically
forgotten, even by the people Of his
own country.
Lord Salisbury always Stunned noto-
rlety, Il when he retired from politics
he was more than ever reticent about
his private life. Few veop.e knew how
he spent the evening of his life de-
voted to the service of his monarch and
his country.
In politics the late premier was re-
garded as a bitter tongued cynic-"the
master of the art of jeerS and fouts
and sneers." Disraeli called him. In So
ciety he was the aristocrat par excel
lence, haughtily scorning the new
rich and the smart set" Many Of
his supporters in the house of lords and
the house Of commons were bitterly in
censed because he failed to recognize
them in the street or the club, although
they had been introduced to him and
spoken to him frequently. Not only
was Lord Salisbury near-sighted and
abSent-minded but he had a a mem
DRY for faces-a rare defect in a public
man. 1t is said that he once asked Mr..
Balfour, when visiting the house of
commons, WHO Is that man who
spoke SO irtelligently just Snow?" That
man was Walter Long, the minister
for agriculture, a member Of Lord Sal
fsbury's own cabinet.
Lord S~alisbury's favorite residences
were Hatfield house, his ancestral pal
ace, which he had fitted up in the most
modern way, and his BeauIeu villa,
IN the French Riviera. 1t was here. be
tween the mountains n the sea, in
one of the quiet pleasure spots Of the
world, h a he owed to spend his va
cations. Walking was his exercise.
| And the men who We're on duty. day
after day. repairing the roads, became
his best friends.
Salisbury was not overload of Amer
lea. His address III the year Of the
Spanish-American war was a note of
warming against young and vigorous
nations and an expression that govern
ments, growing old and feeble after
years of power, must be succeeded by
their stronger and more youthful
rivals.
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne Ce-
Gil, third marquis of Salisbury, fore
most of surviving English statesmen
since the death Of his lifelong rival,
Gladstone, was born in the purple, sent
down to the lowest round o. fortunes
ladder because he married to The dis
satisfaction Of a stern father, and then
climbed up to the highest position in
the British empire hTu ugh sheer force
of his abilities.
S~alisbury's parliamentary career
lasted almost a half century. He en-
tered parliament in 1854, and it was not
till July, 1902, that he retired from the
premiership, leaving his party so thor
oughly in control that he was able to
bequeath the premiership to his rela-
V Arthur J. Balfour. In politics his
career may be divided into two parts,
the earlier of which he spent as the
satellite and supporter of Beaconsfeld,
the latter as chief Of his party. He
first entered the cabinet under Lord
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