The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield / Twentieth President of the United States, Including Full and Accurate Details of His Eventful Administration, Assassination, Last Hours, Death, Etc., Together with Notable Extracts from His Speeches and Letters

by E. E. Brown

PRESIDENT GARFIELD.

The hush of the sick-room; the muffled tread;
Fond, questioning eye; mute lip, and listening ear;
Where wife and children watch 'twixt hope and fear,
A father's, husband's living-dying bed!—
The hush of a great nation, when its head
Lies stricken! Lo! along the streets he's borne,
Pale, through rank'd crowds, this gray September morn,
'Mid straining eyes, sad brows unbonneted,
And reverent speechlessness!—a "people's voice!"
Nay but a peoples silence! through the soul
Of the wide world its subtler echoes roll,
O brother nation England for her part
Is with thee: God willing she whose heart
Throbbed with thy pain shall with thy joy rejoice.

Sept. 6, 1881.
London Spectator.