The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-05-29

nauseated with the details of How
ard Gould's attempts to entrap his
wife, the attention of the country is
at Canton, Ohio. where life and death
are but brief episodes in a love that
| is eternal. Nothing Of this world that
is purer or nobler than the devotion
of the McKinleys ever existed, and
no theme could better inspire the
obedient pen Of Colonel Henry Wat
terson than this His editorial, head
ed ida" is in his best vein:
IF ever a star fell from Heaven
into the arms of man--if ever a flow
err grew into a woman-that star and
that flower was Ida Saxton Mckinley.
There was an aroma of sweetness and
grace in the very name. Her husband
never addressed her, never referred
to her, except as Ida BY an interpo-
sition little short of divine the full
knowledge of the supreme tragedy
which descended into life yet in its
noon, was spared her; the angels
drew a veil as of tears between her
and its full realization.
God had given it to Ida Saxton to
be fifty mated. There were many
beauties and virtues in the character
| of William Mckinley; his career was
abundantly fulfilled, and the crown OF
glory he wore with such consuming
modesty was studded with jewels
both rich and radiant; the soldier, the
civilian, the man OF affairs and The
party leader; but the rarest of all
that shone in that priceless diadem
was his devotion-simple, constant.
lunerring-to Ida
II seems a strange, a most mystic
rious, inexplicable decree of Provi-
dence that ordained the death by
the assassin's hand of three such
men as Lincoln, Garfield and McKin-
ley, each so unoffending, so filled
with the love Of human kind, so gra-
cious and generous.
"Of the three, Mckinley was least
aggressive. Lincoln lived in deadly |
times, and Garfields very intellectu-
atty raised up both enemies and en-
mites. Garfield. lovabe as he was,
had a rough side to him. and Lincoln,
big of heart, and of brain, was out
wardly, even as a gnarled oak. Nc
Kinley lived a primitive Christian
man. He emulated st. Paul in theI
desire to be all things to all men. 1t
gave him pleasure to give pleasure;
it caused him pain to infiict pain. No
man ever grew as fast as he in the
executive office, both in mental stat
ure and in breadth.
"He came TO power during moving
times. Immense responsibilities de-
scended upon him. War. which he had
religiously opposed, and for which the
country was ill-prepared, was sud-
denly thrust upon him. The white
house became an armed camp. There
was not an hour of the day, or night, !
which the president could call his
own. But, night or day, there came
never a moment when that sweet
voice might not summon him to the I
side of the wife whose peculiar Of
Fiction had imposed upon him thel
care of a nurse for a child-none 9TH
er nurse than he. 1t was the knowl-
edge of this in those who personally |
knew and loved them which gave to |
the awful fnality at Buffalo an adj
ded and inexpressible poignancy Of
grief.
"The people of the south especial
ly will ever hold the memory of Will
liam Mckinley deep in the heart of
their hearts. He It was to whom i'll
was given to complete the sublime
intention of Lincoln with respect to
the disunited sections of the union.
He was quick to see the meaning and
the opportunity of the Spanish war.
The last, eternal treaty of peace be-
tween the north and the south was
written by the pen that signed the
commissions as generals in the army
of the United States of Joseph Wheel
err and Fitzhugh Lee and John Breck-
inridge Castleman, and never did
statesman and patriot perform an act
greater in reach and more benign in
effect than did William Mckinley
when he restored those Confederate
soldiers to the service OF a once more
united country, literally turning
gray into blue, and giving to genera
tons of southern men yet unborn the
sign-manual, along with the death
less assurance. of complete moral
emancipation.
Let the winged spirit take its
way to the immortal spirit waiting
for its mate. Much shortened is the
distance to Heaven from Earth be-
tween these two. Around the seraphs
stand in robes of light The gates are
flung open wide. But, be sure a sim
gle voice will alone be heard, just on
ly the one word, Ida.