The Silver State

HOME.

Touching Words from the Pen of Judge Goodwin.

There is one lesson that comes from the death of the late President, says the Salt Lake Tribune; that ought not to be lost upon us as a people. From one of the humblest homes in this land James A. Garfield advanced until he reached the very pinnacle of place and power. There is nothing in monarchial countries that compares in honor to that of being Chief Magistrate of this Republic. A diadem is merely an inheritance. but when fifty millions of people select a man to be the highest representative of their sovereignty, then there is an indorsement in the sheen of which earthly thrones shine as does a gas-jet in the full blaze of the electric light. Well, from the utmost obscurity James A. Garfield advanced to this intoxicating place. Suddenly he was stricken down.

A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.

At last. after weeks of suffering. the hour came when he was to die. In that hour he had not a thought that he was President of the United States ; not a thought that one hundred thousand office-holders waited upon his words ; not a thought that in his brain or right hand lay war or peace ; not a thought that all men approached him with uncovered heads and addressed him as Mr. President. Not at all: but leaping over the intervening space, he was again in Mentor—may be he believed himself a bare footed boy in his cabin home, and only thought that he was weary. and once more. with his head upon his mother's breast. he would go to sleep. We sincerely trust that when death came, the dream was the blessed opiate that soothed and supported him. And from this the people of the land can learn that there is nothing half so sweet in this world as a loving home, and nothing which deserves so much prizing and cultivating. Indeed, there is not much beyond home in this life, and if one possesses a real happy home, he or she has as much of bliss as will ever be known, either in this world or in the world to come.