AMERICAN EXAMPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1937, Page 32

AMERICAN EXAMPLE

TWO MINUTES' SILENCE

Whenever the season of the Armistice approaches there are everlasting arguments as to ' how the • idea of the Two Minutes' Silence originated, says a correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph and Morning Post." I hope that the following may find room in your paper. In 1902 I happened to be in New York when President McKinley, that splendid man, was murderer), Theodore Roosevelt taking his place. At his funeral, the Government appealed for iwo minutes' silence. The ieffect was stupendous—it could only happen in a self-contained territory— from New York to San Francisco, down to Florida and the Gulf Colonies. Suddenly; a deep silence swept over the country. .It seemed almost .is though the birds folded, their wings. Trains, tramways, great industries, elevators, all stopped short. Then every human being who could sing joined in unison in singing "Abide with Me," that most beautiful of all hymns, and President McKinley's favourite. Then j followed the roar of the big city again, and the resumption by the nation of all its different interests was most 'impressive. My next, point is that on visiting old Trinity Church, at the end of Broadway, where our ancestors were buried, walking round the cemetery I noticed a beautiful mausoleum and engraved upon it: "To the Unknown Warriors who laid down their lives in the American Revolution of Independence." _