The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-05-09

In his ninth series of articles or
titled, Looking Backward" running
through the current numbers of the.
Saturday Evening Post, Mr. Henry
Watterson pays the following beau-
tiful and touchingly tender tribute
to Horace Greeley.
We know that it will be read with
interest by many readers of th:s pa.
per:
1t was mid October. We aa1
heard from Maine; Indiana and Ohio
had voted He Greeley was for
the first time realizing the hopeless
nature of the contest. The south IL
irons and under military rule and
martial law sure for Grant, there bad
never been any real chance. Now it
was obvious that there was to be No
compensating ground swell at the
north. That he should pour forth
his chagrin to one whom he knew
so well and even regarded as one If
his boys was inevitable. Much .:
what he said was founded on basis
of fact, some of it was mere susCi-
cion and surmjse, all of it came ba,.K
to the main point that defeat stared
us in the face was glad and yat
loath to part with him. If ever a
man needed a strong friendly hand
and heart to lean upon he did during
those dark days-the end in darkest
night nearer than anyone could di-
vine He showed stronger mettle
than had been allowed him; bore a
manlier part than was comm My as
cribed to the slovenly slipsho1 habili-
ments and the aspects in which be-
nignancy and vacillation sea:red to
struggle for the ascendency ABROAD
the elements conspired against him.
I At home his wife lay Ill, as 1t prov
ed, unto death. The good grav head
he still carried like hero, but The
worn and tender heart was beginning
to break. Overwhelming defeat was
| followed by overwhelming afflictio1.
He never quilted his dear one he'd
side until the last pulsebeat, and then
he. sank beneath his load of grief.
! THE Tribune is gone and / am
gone" he said, and spoke no more.
The death of Greeley fell upon the
, country with a sudden shock. Il
reused a universal sense of pity and
! sorrow and awe. All hearts Were
hushed In an instant the bitterness
| of the campaign was forgotten,
though the huzZas of the Victors still
rent the air The president, his late
antagonist, with his cabinet and the
leading members of the two houses ot
congress, attended his funeral. AS he
lay in his coffin he was no longer
the arch rebel leading combine CT
buccaneers and insurgents, which the
republican orators and newspapers
had depicted him, but the brave old
apostle of freedom who had lone
more than all others to make the
issues upon which militant and tri-
umphant party had risen to power
The multitude remembered only
the old white hat and the sweet old
baby face beneath it, heart of gold
and hand welding the wizard pen;
| the incarnation of probity and kind.
ness, of steadfast devotion to his
duty as he saw it, and the needs Of
the whole family. A tragedy IN
truth it was; and yet as his body was
lowered into the grave there rose
above it, invisible, unnoted, a flower
of matchless beauty-the flower of
peace and love between the sections
of the union to which his life hai
been a sacrifice.
| The crank convention had builded
wiser than it knew. That the demo
| cratic party could ever have been
brought to the support of Horace
Greeley for president of the United
States reads even now like a page
out of a nonsense book. That his
warmest support should have come
from the south seems incredible and
was priceless fact. His martyrdom
shortened the distance across the
bloody chasm; his coffin very nearly
filed it. The candidacy of Charles
Francis Adams or Of Lyman TRIM.
bull meant mathematical formula,
with no solution of the problem aud
as certain defeat at the end of it.
have read some Of the works of this