The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1905-02-03
OF GENERAL BLACK
""Comrade Mckinley" Typical American Boy
."n Ardent Patriot, Brave Soldier, Eminent States
aa,, man, and Martyr President .5

had known in his college days, and
who was at that fateful event serv
ing upon the staff of general officer,
fell desperately wounded The assid-
uous attentions of the surgeons avail
ed nothing, and life ebbed away. AS
his time drew to its close he handed
TO minister of the gospel who was
present Bible which he had picked
up on the battlefield, and which it
self had been pierced by a bullet, and
said to this reverend man. Read to
me from this volume" What shall
l read" was the question. ard the an
swer- came from the lips soon to be
sealed forever. Read to me that pas
sage which says, In my fathers
house are many mansions Short
ly thereafter. with these words of
promise so mmeasurably full of COM
fort filling his mind, he passed to his
last rest
He was one of the type OF soldier
to which Mckinley, whom we have
come to honor. belonged Both, in
childhood and in their young man
hood had been trained to ways of
pleasantness and peace, and all the
influences that surrounded them were
those that looked through peace to
the upbuilding of humanity. There
was nothing to them or either of
| them In the allurements of dreadful
war that would in after times have
colored their lives or changed their
careers. They we're of great gener-
alton, where Death afterwards reap
ed his widest harvest. and whose loss
the world has not yet made up, and
will not until 1t shall note in the
great accounts what it means to have
lost seven hundred thousand American
youth trained through generations to
the thoughts and purposes and in the
traditions of our people. and to have
ben obliged to replace them with the
youth of other lands. ....a
But let us turn from these. depress-
ing calculations to the training and
| life of him whose stately monument,
reared by the affection of great peo-
pie, stands so near us. Sixty-two
years ago in humble Ohio home,
whose owner was a laborlng man. a
gentle American wife waited in wom-
ans travail for the coming of the life
which was to be so gladdening to his
countrymen. And when they said al
last-"a child is born a mothers love
greeted him: a fathers -. benedietior
was his; child's nurture and admoni-
ton awaited him: and other heritage
had he none save that of every 9TH
er one about him. He had that in
full %measure-an American boys
training and schooling. My country
men, how much better these are. for
mankind and as we'll the individual
than all the temporal gifts beside in
the world. 1t matters not how pool
and lonely may be the lot of thu
American child. though he reach out
his hands empty of gold, yet they are
full of the jewels of opportunity. His
feet may be naked. but before them
from the open schoolhouse dooI
stretches away the path which leads
to the heights Of success sometimes
through difficulties; sometimes through
storm; sometimes too steep for the
faltering toiler, but always open while
the open door pours the splendid sun
light of opportunity. and while 1t is
open America Is secure. 1t was opeI
to Mckinley, and he walked in 1t In
boyish happiness. with never dis
turbing thought Of the wide horizons
to expand for him. From the homo
and school he sought the college
and even as the academic life vel
coined him, and in the plastic IA,
his youth, he was thrown into the
vortex of war;, Brought under tn,
rule of the camp and the march, he
learned the lesson of obedience tC
lawful authority. The service was
long and arduous, for the life of tn
private soldier In actual hostilities is
one of measureless difficulties. 1t is
his to forget all that he might be in
dividually; to repress the native emo-
tion; to forgo the exercise of inde-
pendence In action, and almost in
I thought; to subordinate his will to
that will which has the right to COM
mand; to, learn Implicitly .,
obey, unshrinkingly to perform, un-
hesitatingly to execute. having nc
sense of responsibility except to dc
that which is commanded within the
scope of lawful power, and not toe
nicely to scrutinize the character OF
the power exercised; to do, TO be, ant
| to suffer all that this means. tn fore
go the pleasant relationships of life
to endure all its hardships, to make
companion of danger, and to scorn
the thought of fear, It is his, what
ever may be his environment, to look
to the glory Of his country, in so far
as 1t is committed to him, and to up
hold the splendor of the flag, by
whomever threatened or assailed, and
In the vast mechanism of war to be-