Daily Los Angeles Herald

WHEN President Garfield was taken from the White House to Long Branch only one of two interpretations of this action was possible. The first was that the President had recovered strength to such a degree that his comfort could be properly considered in the matter, and that in this sanguine mood the attending physicians elected to give him the benefit of the invigorating sea air. This was the cheerful view which we, in common with the great mass of the American people, took of the situation. But there is a far more sombre aspect to the matter, and this opens up the melancholy vista of the second hypothesis. Death may have been certain in the White House, and the removal to Long Branch may have been resolved upon as a dernier resort. It is too plain, of late, to admit of dispute, that the last theory must be given at least equal credence with the first. Garfield has a superb constitution, but no man who ever lived can long sustain a fight with death at the odds which are reported against the President. Though he were made of iron, a pulse alternating between 100 and 130 is bound to prove fatal unless an immediate and marked amelioration can very shortly be chronicled in his symptoms. The bulletins for the next week will be scanned with anxious solicitude by the people. Should they fail to record the presence of marked recuperative agencies of the illustrious patient the end is near.