PRESIDENT M'KINLEY

Dunstan Times, Issue 2096, 24 September 1901, Page 5

PRESIDENT M'KINLEY

THE LAYING AWAY OF THE PRESIDENT. HONOURED IN BRITAIN. [70,000 IN THE FUNERAL PROCESSION. MRS M'KINLEY'S CONDITION GRAVE. London, Sept. 19. Special services were held in the chief cathedrals throughout the United Kingdom in memory of Mr K'Kinley. The Earl of Pembroke represented the King at a crowded service held in West 1 - minster Abbey, amongst those present being Princess Louise. % , Vashington, Sept. 19. The Duke of Cornwall was represented at the interment of PresN dent M'Kinley at Canton. Mrs I ¥ 'Kinley was too ill to attend the obsequies Sep. 20. < Seventy thousand persons visited 1 Canton from all parts of the States ( twenty thousand joining in the pro-., cession from the Methodist Church j to the cemetery, incuding Presi* < dent Roosevelt and Cabinet, Con- I gressmen, the chief generals, I admirals, foreign Ministers and representative. Americans. There ' was little pageantry, though

regulars, 5000 national guards and a strong lorce ol veterans participated. ' The silent homage was most impressive ; the day was ' extensively devoted to mourning and prayer, and railway and other traffic were lately suspended during the hour of interment. Mrs M'Kinley's condition is grave. ASSASSINATION OF PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS —o — Assassination has for the third time stricken down a President of the United States and in each instance has selected for its victim one of the noblest and the best. Abraham Lincoln, the first of these, was shot by John Wilkes Booth at *oras Theatre, Washington, on the night of 14111 April, 1565. But as James A. Garfield, ' who was himself destined to meet with a I similar fate, said, "It was no; one mau who killed Abraham Lincoln ; it was the embodied spirit of treason and slavery. inspired with fearful and despairing hate, that struck him down in the moment_ ot the nation's supremest joy." The time was the close of the great war, which to: f<»ur wearv years ravaged the land with desolation and death. The dawn of peace was being heralded by t.ie people with demon«traiions of unbounded joy. lhe consolidation of the Union was assure 1 and President Lincoln was entering 0.1 his second term of office in the glow of military triumph and political succts . but partisan bitterness still existed, au . a conspiracy wes hatched which had for : its diabolical object the sirnultanaous murder of the chief officer* ot State a! the Federal capital. The murder of the President was to be one net in the trasne drama On lhe eveuiug of the fatitul day the President and Mru Liucolu attended the theatre. At 10.15 t;h -. murdeter walked along the pas-age behind the spectators in the dress circle, showed., card to the President's messenger, and then entered the vestibule of the President box, fasteung the door securely benn.t him. The occupants of the box were intent on die proceedings upon the stage. Booth, holding a pistol in one hand and a double-edged dagger hi the other, stepped right up to toe chair on which the President sat, aud shot him through the head. Mr Lincoln fell slightly forward, and his eyes closed. The asaasaiu rushed to the front of the box. shouted dramatically ' Sic semper tyrannus,' and leaped t > the stage below, where, facing the audi ence, he again shouted ' The South i„ avoided.' lie then rushed behind the scenes out of the theatre, where a horse was standing ready for him, aud escaped safely to Lower Maryland. The assassin was ultimately run to earth in a tarn, which was tired bp his pursuers but while pushing for the door he was shot. Pour cTt the accomplices v tie hanged. James A Garfield, in some re»pects one of the greatest of the American Presidents was the second whose career was untimely ended by the assassin ballet. Trouble had arisen in consequence of the newly elected President ignoring a custom which had become an abuse—that of allowing senators to nominate those who should fill certain offices in their respective States. The constitution required that these nominations should reso with the head of the State, and Garfisld acted in accordance with the law. Considerable ill-feeling was aroused in consequence but the people approved of their President's independent attiiude. Garfield had been four months in office when he took a trip to New England, to perform some public f unctions. On Saturday, S:lst July, lie started with Secretary Blaine for the Baltimore and Potomac railway stations. which he entered arm in arm with Mr Blaine, Immediately after two shots were tired in rapid succession, and the President ■ Cell heavily to the floor; The assassin was secured at once, and turned out to be a man named Charle J. Cuiteau, a disappointed office seeker. The wounded President was taken to the White Ei-use, the doctors were soon in attendance, aud then ensued that long and memorable stiuggle between life and death which the world watched with anxious interest and which exhibited those marvellous qualities of courage and . fortitude which Ir.ave made James Garfield's life story for all time. President Garfield died on 20th Septemi er, ISSI, aud w«.s buried by a Wtepiug nation.