ii«>«)»W!:!i«s«!SMSi»s.'mraf«KFii»^^ ■■.»^''- \\ U r/ yil JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS OF L. H. NELSON CO.. Portland, Me. POPULAR EDITION. 32 pp., 8x10, profusely illustrated. Little Stories of Great Pictures. The Story of Longfellow. The Story of Washington. The Story of Lincoln. The Courtship of Miles Standish. The Story- of Frances Willard. The Story' OF Robert E. Lee. The Story of Whittiee. The Story- of Garfield. The Story- of Columbus. The Story of Landseeb (in preparation) The Story of Franklin (in preparation) Paul Revere's Ride. 32 pp., 6x9. A Little Book of Conundrums. Also publishers of Nelson's Interna- tional Series of Souvenir Books, em- bracing all prominent cities and resorts of the United States and the Dominion of Canada. The Story of Garfield by EDGAR L. VINCENT Author of " Margaret Bowlby," etc. 1908 L. H. Nelson Company Portland, IVIaine Library ot ooN«it.£s3 I (wo CoplM Kecei'^ APR 13 190B 1 vDnyimi'^ ciiuii MESSAGE OF THE STORY OF GARFIELD ^^ HE Storv of Garfield comes as a message of hope and \m inspiration to every youth of the land. To him who is struggling against adverse circumstances, it brings the cheering assurance that honest purpose, backed up by taith- tul endeavor and patient effort, will win against all odds. For the one who is more favorably situated, but who must yet work out his own fortune, the storv speaks in the same certain tones. Victory will come to those who are willing to strive earnestlv for it. COPYRIGHT. Um. BY L. H. NELSONICO. ^^^^ i^ ■^ ^^^^^^H ^Bfc^^g "- .^^^B^^ ^^USr ^^^^ " -n — a r^p o >■ j ) The Story of Garfield 'N the fourth day of March, 1881, a man who had just leen inaugurated President of the United States, standing on the beautiful east front of the Capitol at Washington, stooped and kissed his aged mother, who had been sitting close beside him while he made what was the greatest address of his life. Thirty years or a little more before that, the same man, then a lad ot sixteen, was trudging wearily along the tow- path of a canal in the State of Ohio. From tow-path to President! Thinking ol it now, what a long, long way that seems! But to a lad who possesses the spirit of James A. Garfield, it is only the working out ot a plan by natural methods. In this great country of ours wonderful things happen, and the study of the lives of great men often leads us back through the years to very lowly places. Something about the atmosphere of the humble homes ot the poor seems calculated to bring out all that is strongest and best in lite. THE S I () \i\ OF GARFIELD In our study of geography, we always trace the river back to its source. We enjoy wandering through green fields and shady forests where the tangled undergrowth lies thick all about us, until we come to the spring fed by the mountain storms, where the stream begins. So it is a charming and a fascina- ting thing to go back through the lanes of life anci find the fountain which fed the early bo\hood of those who have left their mark on the world's history. And to find the source of the two streams which, after flowing through many a pleasant dell and shady nook at last mingled their crystal waters in the life of James A. Garfield, we must journey through the years until we come to a log cabin in what was then the "far west" country of northern Ohio. In that little c^uiitrv " clearinu;," chopped out of the wilderness, Abram Garfield hewed with his own hands the logs which were atterward rolletl up to make the hi>me in which the tutiire President was first to see the light ot d^\ Until we come to a log cabin in what was then tlic ' tar west ' country ot nortliern Ohio ' THE S r O R Y U F GARFIELD It we wish to trace the family stream farther back, — and that is always full ot interest, — we must study musty and scanty records until we come to the story which tells ot the towering form of Edward (jarfield, who was among the one hundred and six men that came with Governor W'inthrop' to the shores ot Massachusetts in i6]c;, and became the proprietor of one ot the first homes ever set up on American soil. Either of Saxon or Welsh descent, this stalwart man lived to the ripe okl age of ninety-seven. Some of the descendants of this good old patriarch struck mighty blows for the lite and preservation ot the land of their adoption. CJne son ot Edward was a captain in the war with the In- dians. Following on until we come to the sixth in that line we find one Solomon Garfield ; and he was the great-grandtather ot the man about whom we are novy studying. We are told that Solomon had in him the stutf' of which pioneers are made. We follow him until he comes to a little clearing on the west side of the Hudson River, in what might well be called the "wilderness" ot New York, where he carveti the beginnings of the town ot Worcester. Then, in order to get a better knowledge of the mother ot young Gartield, we must push oin- way once more back into the down-east country ot Rhode Island. Among the Huguenot tugitives who fled trom France because they were not permitted to worship God according to ways that seemed to them right and true and just, was one Maturin Ballou. For several generatit)ns the Ballou tamily lived, at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, rejoicing in the religious treedom which had been purchased for them by the sacrilices of their paternal ancestor anci doing their part towarci building up the new land to which they had come. Some of the family followed the westward trend of civilization and settled lirst in a forest home in New Hampshire and then drifted still farther toward the settine; sun. Among these was one who took with him a boy named James Ballou; and this was the father of President Garfield's mother. In early man- hood this James Ballou united his heart and hand with that of Mehitabel Ingalls: and they, on the iist of September, i Soi, tirst looked into the laughing eyes of her who in due time was known as Eliza Ballou, the dear motherly old lady upon whose cheek of softest velvet President Garfield left that kiss almost eighty years afterward at W^ashington. THE S 1 O R Y OF GARFIELD Who knows how it was that when Grandma Garfield was onlv eight years old, her mother, left alone to battle w ith the world, took her tour little ones and journeyed away to the westward until she came to the new settlement of Worcester, the very place where the Garfield's at that time lived? Can we doubt that a Guiding Hand had been leading them all the way along? Here Eliza Ballou and the boy Abram Garfield played together as many as five years. Had anyone told Eliza then that this lad would some day be her lover, would she not have blushed rosy red and stoutly declared that such a thing could not be ? But the time came when fortune brought the two together once more, after a separation of a few years, still farther in the heart ot the new country beyond the border-lands of Ohio. There, in the comfortable house ot logs which the two built up after their marriatre, on the 19th of November, iHji, James A. Garfield was born. THE STORY OF GARFIELD A Sapling in the Woods THAT is what the tather of young Garfield called him, when at the age of thirty-three, the stout young pioneer died an untimely death. " I have brought you these four young saplings, Eliza ! " he said. " Do the best you can to take care ot them ! " And who could say that she failed in her trust? She had before her a grave problem. In debt, four little ones and alone. Some of the neighbors thought the widow should let the children be "bound out," thus giving her a better chance to maintain herself. But with a spirit worthy the bravest of her ancestors she said, " As long as I live and can work, the children shall be mine ! " Fitty ot the eighty acres of land were sold, the mort- gage cleared up and the real struggle with the world began. With her own hands Mrs. Garfield split rails for fences on the farm — for the oldest child of the family was only eleven, and a daughter at that, while James was but eighteen months of age. She worked at sewing for the shoemaker of the neighborhood, to pay for boots and shoes for the Garfield boys and girls. She did many kinds of out-of-door work on the farm, besides carding the wool and weaving the coarse cloth with which her little ones were clad. More than that she did. She gave a little corner of her farm on which to build a schoolhouse, and worked all she could to help in its erection. In this poor little log cabin of a school- house, James, not much more than three years old, learned his letters. Before the first year came to an end, he had won a little Testament offered as a prize to the best reader in his class. It was here, too, that he gained all he knew of reading, spelling and arithmetic, then deemed to be about all that a lad should know in order to be fully equipped for the life of a farmer boy. THE SrORY OF GARFIELD But somehow it seemed to the rest of the family that James had in him the making of a scholar. The kind and fatherly lad, Thomas, though only eight years older than James, seconded the efforts ot his mother to give the boy as good an education as possible. "James ought to go to school. Mother!" he said, with a sjiirit ot selt- sacrifice almost pathetic to think about. " I will stay at home and work, but he gets along so well with his books we ought to give hnn a chance." But how limited were the resources at the boy's command I No splendid libraries from whicli to ciraw books. No presses turnmg out papers and maga- zines in a flood as we have to-day. No, the English Reader, Webster's Spelling Book and a few volumes like them constituted the sum total of the literature ot that (juiet country home. But James delighted in such as he had. The spelling book he had almost by heart when he was eight, and in the years of manhooci he could repeat more than one page from the English Reader, stored in memory so long ago. And there was one other book young Garfield came very early to love, and that was the Bible. From his mother he inherited a deep love and reverence for the word of God. She not only spent much time reading the liook to her chikiren but on Sunday she regularly walked with them to the little Disciple meeting-house, three miles distant, to attend preach- ing service. All through his life the precepts taught him in those early vears clung to the man, and it cannot be ijuestioned that to this training he owed much ot the deep religious sentiment which underhu' his actions. So It went on until the boy was fifteen years old. I'hen he went away to work tor neighboring farmers, recei\'ing almost as much as a man, tor he was strong and active. l^'or a rime he worked at burning; logs ot wooil to get the ashes, an occiqiation w hich rook the time of man\' in those days w ho made " burning salts" ipiite profitable. Mone\ was scarce, ami one season when he worked away at haying he received a young colt in paymcnr tor his labor, and this he led away home to swell the stock of the tiirm. All he earned was con- scientiously brought home to Mother. One winter he chopped one huiulred cords ot tour-foot wood, for twenty-five cents a cord, some days cutting two cords, antl so earnin^ half a dollar. THE STORY OF GARFIELD Then came the opportunity to drive horses on the canal. Young Garfield was now sixteen years of age, a stout and daring lad, ready for anything and everything that might come in his way. He intended to go on the lake as a hand before the mast, and from there out on the ocean. To his boyish mind the canal was to be the primary school, the lake-ship the academy and the ocean vessel the college where he might get his education. Ten dollars a month and his board, this rough work on the canal paid, and Garfield went at it with a will. He would make the best he could out of it, and he learned not simply to drive the horses, but a chance came to him to master the art of steering, an art which he put to such good use in later days that once, while in the army of his country, he stood at the wheel of a boat on the Ohio river for forty-four hours at a stretch and saved the craft from destruc- tion when no other hand was lifted to do it. 'Then came the opportunity to drive horses on the canal " THE STORY OF GARFIELD The Sapling Transplanted BUT better things than being a dnver-boy on the canal were in store tor Garfield. He found this out in the wav man\' important lessons are learned, the way of suffering. He contracted a fever which sent hini back home delirious. There his good mother cared for him tor ti\e months. In those fi\"e months new and broader aspects of life came to him, so that when he was able once more to go out to battle with fate, he no longer thought of the canal, the lake and the sea, but his heart had been set upon taking a course ot schooling in Geauga Academy at Chester, Ohio. Here we find him digging away at his books tor four terms, teaching winters and working as a month hand during the summer vacation. Then came a chance to attend the new college at Hiram, Ohio. 'Hiree years passed here, when the wav opened tor a course at Williams College. From this school he yrailuateti with such high honors that he was soon atter- ward called to the chair of Latin and Greek in Hiram College. From this position he quick- ly rose to that o f President ot the same institution. Then into the stream ot his lite a new force came, aiul that torce swept on its course until it car- ried Garfield out upt)n the sea ot matrimonv. ' The new colleee at Hiram, Ohio " ii.i ^ i " • W hen the v o u n g 12 THE STORY OF GARFIELD man first went to the Seminary at Geauga, he made the ac- quaintance of a modest and studious girl named Lucretia Rudolph. Together the two had read and studied, forming a companionship which had lasted ever since : and when Garfield returned to Hiram College and began his work there, among the pupils he found this same earnest young lady whom he had known at Geauga. She now became his pupil in Latin, Greek and geometry. A little later this relationship deepened, and on the nth of November, 1858, the two were married. The union proved to be an ideal one. Mrs. Garfield was ever a most sympathetic helpmate. In every way pos- sible she encouraged him to develop to the highest degree the powers with which he had been endowed. The little college felt the influence of her character, as well as it did the strength of her husband, and sprang to a position never before known. But Garfield was not simply a student of books. He read human life as he found it written in the everyday actions of men. It was not strange that he should be led to give much thought to the question of slavery, which at that time was one of absorbing interest to the entire country. Neither is it to be wondered at that the people should come to understand that in him they might have a strong, fearless and incorruptible representative in the halls of legislation. And to such a place did they elect him in the fall of 1859, when he was chosen to be senator from the district in which he lived. " Mrs. Garfield was ever a most sympathetic helpmate " 13 THE STORY OF GARFIELD Wearing the Blue AT the ai);e of twenty-eight Garfield took his place in the upper house of the legislature of the State of Ohio, and here we note the same careful and painstaking attention to details which had so characterized him in every field of labor. While still serving in this capacity the shadow of the Civil War settled over the country. The young man speedily took his place on the side of tree- dom for the slave and advocated the presersation of the Union. From making vigorous speeches in favor of the Federal L'nion and working tor the movement to raise a State miHtia of 6,000 men, it was hut a step tor him to leave the c|uiet field of studv as he found it at Hiram College, and the stirring arena of the State legislature, and enter ^i upon the work ot raising a liodv of recruits for one of the first regiments mustered into the s e 1- %• i c e of the National Cio\e r n - ment from Ohio. Nor was it an un- natural thing that he s h o u Id he CO m m I ssi oned in House of the Legislature of the State of Ohio " •4 THE STORY OF GARFIELD August, 1 86 1, as Lieutenant-Colonel ; nor that the still greater honor of being promoted to Colonel should be accorded to him. In fact, this was but the natural recognition of his services in making strong the forces of his country against the storm of rebellion soon to rage with tury over the Southland. It was on the 17th of December, 1861, that the young Colonel marched away with his regiment to the front, reporting to General Buell, in Louisville, for immediate duty. A picture of him taken in his uniform of Colonel shows him to be what he in truth was, a strong, athletic, sturdy man, with the will of a giant and the courage of one ot the Vikings of old. It will not do to linger too long on the part of Garfield's story which tells about his bravery and wisdom as a soldier. We can not follow him all the way from muster-in to promotion — the grand day which advanced him to a proud position in the council of the nation at Washington — for that would take too long ; but we may tarry long enough to speak of the hand-to-hand fight of Garfield and his eleven hundred men fresh from the farms and the shops of the north with Zollicoffer in Kentucky, when the Colonel won the State of Kentucky for the Union. The State was wavering between an avowal on the side of rebellion and continued allegiance to the Union. The eastern part of the State was already suffering from an invasion by the confederate troops. It was Garfield's task to drive these forces out. The Colonel sat up all of one long night in January, 1862, posting himself as to the whereabouts of the enemy's forces. Early the next day he broke camp and pushed on, through many bands of skirmishers, until about noon he came upon the main body of the op- posing army, five thousand strong, and heavily entrenched on a steep and rocky hill, fortified with twelve pieces of artillery, while Garfield had only eleven hundred men and a single cannon. In the face of these odds he bravely charged the blufl'". For five long hours the battle raged, with many advances and repulses, but in the end Garfield and his brave Boys in Blue made the valley ring with their shouts of victory as they pursued the flying foe. The state of Kentucky had been saved to the Union and Garfield had won the straps of a Brigadier. These are the words General Buell used when speaking 15 THE STORY OF GARFIELD of this engagement in a general order : General Garfield's operations " have overcome formidable difficulties in the character of the country, the condition of the roads, and the inclemency of the season ; without artillery, they have in several engagements, terminating in the battle of Middle Creek on the loth inst., driven the enemy from his entrenched positions and forced him back into the mountains with the loss of a large amount of baggage and stores, and many ot his men killed and captured. These services have called into action the highest qualities of a soldier, fortitude, perseverance and courage." -mm^ i6 THE STORY OF GARFIELD At Ghickamauga IT was at Chickamauga, however, that the courage and ability of Garfield came to their true testing time. Under General Rosecrans in January, 1863, out ot sixteen generals summoned in consultation with the com- mander, Garfield was the only one who advised an attack upon this place. All the other officers placed themselves on record in writing as being opposed to the movement. But Garfield had so carefully studied the situation, and in his paper favoring the advance laid down so many good arguments to show why he believed that success would rest with the Union arms, were the attack to be made, that Rosecrans decided to take his advice. The generals who doubted the wisdom of the attack severely criticised Garfield and held him accountable for what they termed a " rash and fatal movement." At a critical point in the progress of the battle General Rose- crans wrote an order that was not well un- derstood. Obeying it as he interpreted it, one of the generals opened a gap in the Union line. The foe rushed through this. The Union men were swept away like chaff. Rosecrans was hurled ■ At Chickamauga " 17 THE STORY OF GARFIELD aside and fled with a demoralized mass of troops toward Chattanooga. He thought at that time that he had lost the day, and that the prediction of the sixteen opposing generals that the battle would tiring him defeat was to be verified. Then Garfield begged Rosecrans to permit him to try to rallv the scattered and discouraged troops. To this Rosecrans finally consented and Garfield set off" on a ride full ot peril to relieve General Thomas, or " Old Pap " Thomas as he is tamiliarlv known in historv, who was struggling in what was a forlorn hope. Once (iarfield's horse was shot under him. The route lav through the woods and tangled paths, the unknown in front ot him and untold dangers lurking behind. He pressed on in the face of every difficulty and by his courage and energv prevented the rout from being what it might otherwise have been, one of the most ruinous and irretrie\'able defeats of the war. And he won something better, too ; he captured the citadel of General Thomas' heart. Not the least honor he won that day was a commission as Major- Cieneral. A little while afterward, (Jarfield was ordered to Washington to explain to President Lincoln some of the reasons for a difference which had arisen between Rosecrans and Stanton, the Secretary of War. So well did he do this that the tired and worried Presulent said he afterward untierstood the condition and needs of the Arni\ of the Cumberhuu! better than he ever had before. Rosecrans " ^^& THE STORY OF GARFIELD President Lincoln ' 19 THE STORY OF GARFIELD Still Stepping Upward Willi his military laurels tresh on his shoulders, General Garheld was now called to take a still higher place in behalf of the State he had so faithfully served and the Nation which was even then beginning to love him. While not yet thirty-one years of age, the people of the Nineteenth Congressional District of Ohio nominated Garfield to a place in the House of Representatives in Congress. Could there have been at that time a higher honor? What was his duty at that moment? Should he stay in the field or go to Washington to wage what might be fiercer battles in the halls of Congress? The young man settled the question by accepting the nomination and the election which followed. He sometimes doubted whether he had done the right thing or not, especially when " Old Pap " Thomas, having been placed in command of the Army of the Cumberland, wrote offering him the command of an army corps. This ambition President Lincoln defeated by telling the young Congress- man that his services would be seriously missed from the capitol should he yield and go back into the field. Believing that the greater good would be served by remaining in the House of Representatives, Garfield decided to refuse the kindly offer of (jeneral Thomas. The pages of the Conyressional (ilobe for those days and for many following years give ample proof how \aluable a public ser\'ant .Mr. Garfield was in those trying times. No imjiortant legisla- tion was considereti, but (iarfield was at its very forefront, in one way or another. Although as we ha\'e seen, he ne\'er took a course of study in law, as did many men of his day, he hati ne\-ertheless thoroughly mastered the subject by a plan of reading at once well laitl out and patiently carried throu^h ; so that he was able quickly to comprchentl the legal aspects of e\ery matter which came before Congress. Ihis of itself shows what the \outh of our times ma\ do in the way of self-education if they set themselves at work and staiui faithfully by their resolution to win. THE STORY OF GARFIELD " The House of Representatives " It will be still further encouragement for those who are compelled to study at home or elsewhere in the private walks of life to read what Mr. Garfield once said about this way oi gaining an education. " A finished education," he declares, "is supposed to consist mainly of literary culture. The story of the Cyclops where the thunderbolts of Jove were fashioned, is supposed to adorn elegant scholarship more gracefully than those sturdy truths which are preaching to this generation in the wonders of the mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the iron-mills, and in other innumerable industries which more than all other human agencies have made THE STORY OF GARFIELD our civilization what it is, and are destined to achieve wonders yet undreamed of. This generation is beginning to understand that education should not be forever divorced troni industry ; that the highest results can be reached only when science guides the hand of labor. With what eagerness and alacrity is industry seizing every truth of science and putting it into the harness." And Mr. Garfield was at that time a living proof of what self culture will do for a man. His home at Washington was a workshop, filled with the tools of his craft. The house was literally overrunning with books. The hunger of the boy did not seem even yet to have been satisfied. Scrap-books carefully made up of clippings chosen with a view to making his work more forceful, supplemented the stores of b o u n d volumes which his library contained. He also kept diaries which covered a wide range of political, religious and general knowledge. Through all the years when he was scr\ing the people so ably, he tells us in the course of a brief address, his conduct had ever been shaped by a determination to «-- "follow mv conviction Lorc. " His home at Washington " THE STORY OF GARFIELD " The Senate of the United States " at whatever cost to my personal desires or ambitions." With this high standard always before him, could he fail to reach the very highest that is within the grasp ot any man ? And as if to prove the truth of this statement, honors came to Mr. Gar- field one after another with startling rapidity. From the lower House of Congress he was advanced to the Senate of the United States. This preferment came to him without any effort on his part ; it was really in the nature of a tribute paid to him by a grateful people, recognizing the service he had rendered to the State and Nation. Still more rapidly came a wealth of honor. There was yet much in store for the hero of the tow-path. 23 THE SrOR^' OF GARFIELD Chief Executive of the greatest Republic in the world 24 THE STORY OF GARFIELD The Presidency How did good old " Mother " Garfield, as she was known by everybody, ever come to say to her son six months before the great Chicago Con- vention of 1880, "James, you will be nominated for President next June." Had the gift of prophecy been bestowed upon her? Who knows? Be that as it may, the prediction came true and on the thirty-sixth ballot taken bv the Republican National Convention held in the city of Chicago in June, 1880, he was nominated for President of the United States, and by their ballots the people ratified this choice at the election held in the following November. What a wise choice this was, the story of Garfield's career up to that moment most amply testified. Canal-boy at sixteen. Graduate of Williams College. President ot Hiram College. Member of the State legislature. Soldier, rising from private to general. Member of the highest legislative body in the land, to which he was elected nine times in succession. Promoted to the Senate ot the United States. And at last chosen to the supreme office of Chief Executive of the greatest republic in the world. Is not the story one to make the pulses leap and the heart to bound ? And vet, through it all Mr. Garfield was alwavs the simple hearted, humble, vmassuming man. It is well worth while for us to think for a moment ot this side of that wonderful man's lite. At the National Capital the Garfields had 25 THE STORY OF GARFIELD a plain, yet comfortable home. But the real home of the family was at Mentor, Ohio. Here we may see in its real beauty the home life of the President. The aged mother in that home held a place always sacred in its importance, for Mr. Garfield never forgot the debt of love and gratitude he owed to her. Next to her stood the wife, whose position was one of the most tender in all respects that could be thought of At the time when Mr. (iarfield assumed the Presidency there were four boys at the home in Mentor, Harry, James, who is now a member of the official household at Washing- ton, Irvin McDowell and ^Abram, named after the Abram of old who did so much toward breaking the way tor the new western home in his young The home in Mentor " THE SrORY OF GARFIELD manhood. This little group of boys had as its companion one bright, joyous girl friend in the person of beautiful Mollie Garfield, then just in her teens. In this ideal home love reigned supreme. Everybody who came to that quiet country retreat — and the name of those who tound their way thither was legion, — was made welcome. One visitor speaks about this in the following language: " In that eventful period for the Garfield household I failed to see that Gov- ernors, and Senators and Congressmen fared any better, or were treated with more courtesy, than common people." All were men, and as men were en- titled to, and received equal love and respect. In short, this was a home lite at once beautitiil and uplifting in all its influences. MoIIie ' 27 THE STORY OF GARFIELD A Shadow Falling Over a Great Life IT seems sad that this bright picture should be marred by the touch of a shadow. Ought not the storv to stop just here, where everything is so peaceful and so cheery ? It would seem so; and so it might have been had not the hand of a half-crazed office-seeker been lifted to throw the shadow which blotted out all the sunshine. ■The station of the Baltimore and Potoniac Railroad in Washington 2S IHE STORY OF GARFIELD Charles Guiteau never was a strong man in any sense of the word. Lack- ing the mental balance which makes one a good citizen, he had been disap- pointed and made sour by his attempts to secure a position under the National Government to which he was not entit- led by any right whatever. Holding the President responsible for his failure to succeed in his plans, Guiteau followed Mr. Garfield to the station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington on the second of July, I 8 8 1 , as he was about to take a train for New York. While walking arm in arm with James G. Blaine, Secre- tary of State, the President heard the sharp crack of two pistol shots, fired in quick succession. Something stung him madly in the side. The next moment the President realized that he had been shot. Kind hands bore him away to the upper part of the station, where a hasty examination of the wound was made. It was found that the bullet had entered the body at a point which made recovery seem to be almost beyond the possible. No probe could reach it. No medicine, however powerful, could long delay the coming of the dreaded messenger of death. This the attending surgeon told Mr. Garfield. "You have only one chance, Mr. President," he said, as gently as he could. The President smilingly replied, " We will take that one chance. Doctor, and make the most of it." And what a brave fight he did make against the fearful odds ! Eighty long days the President fought the fateful wound. Anxious to do all that lay within their power to give nature a chance to do her best, the friends of the stricken Chief Executive removed him to Elberon, New Jersey, where the lames G. Blaine " 29 THE S J" O R ^' OF GARFIELD breezes were strengthening and helpful. But the battle -went against him and he was compelled to do what he never had done hetore, surrender to the toe. The iourne\' back to the National Capital was one long track, strewn with flowers and lined with men and women standing with bowed heads and tearlit eyes. Under the dome of the beautiful building in which he had served the country so manv years the martvred l-*resident lav in state tor several, days. Then the funeral cortege took its wav to Cleveland, Ohio, where the principal services were held. Here for the hrst time atter the tragedy the aged mother saw her son. An e\'e-witness says : Under the dome of the beautiful building in which he had served the country for sn ni.-iny years the martvred President lav in state" .1° THE STORY OF GARFIELD " A moment passed, when Mother Garfield arose and approaching the coffin, laid her hand upon the lid and stood for a short time in silent prayer, her companions remaming motionless around her!" Did It seem to any that all the strivings of this brave man through the years from boyhood on, had passed for nothing? Not so to this true and earnest Christian mother. She knew that the glory of such a life will last as long as time endures. And she was right. Not the State of Ohio alone; not simply the United States — the whole world caught the inspiration of the life of James A. Garfield and was carried forward toward higher and better things than had ever marked its progress in the days gone by. The National Government has erected at the entrance to the grounds of the Capitol a splendid monument to the hero of the humble life. The people of the whole country have united their contributions to make up a fund for the erection of a grand monument at Cleveland ; but the truest and best monument that stands anywhere to the memory of Garfield is the love which keeps his memory fresh in the hearts of men and women the wide world over. 31 AFH 13 >908 ' The national government has erected at the entrance to the grounds of the Capitol a splendid monument to the hero ot the humble lite "