Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1881 — DUST TO DUST. [ARTICLE]

DUST TO DUST.

The President Passes Through the Talley of the. Shadow of Death—The Last Moments Painless and Peaceful, Like a Blissful Dream—While the Destroyer Has Expected, He Came Almost Without. Premonition. Long Branch, Sept. 19. President James A. Garfield died at the Franeklyn cottage, at Ei heron, at 35 minutes after 10 this evening. His death was so sudden and unexpected that when thh family was summoned the President was unconscious. From this he did not rally. He died a few moments alter Mrs. Garfield entered the room. From what can be ascertained, his death was from sheer exhaustion. At the President's bedside, holding his poor, emaciated hand in her own, and watching with anguish unutterable the fast-vanishing sands of life, sat the faithful, devoted wife during the closing hours of the President’s career. Around him were other weeping friends and physicians, lamenting their powerlessness in the presence of the dark angel of death. Toward the last the mind of the sufferer wandered. He was once more back in Mentor, amid those scene ß whore the happiest hours of his life were spent. He sat in the dear old homestead again with the loved ones around him, his aged mother so proud of her big boy, his faithful wife and beloved children. It was a blissful dream that robbed death of its terrors and rendered the dving man for the moment linconsciom of the cruel rending of his onee-vigorous frame that was constantly going on. The moan of the restless ocean mingled with the sobs of tne loved ones as the lamp of life flickered and went out forever. Nearly every one around the President clung to hope"to the last, and refused to believe the approach of death until the shadow deepened and the destroyer's presence could be no longer unfelt. Flags hang at half-mast from every bouse on Ocean avenue, and the gayety of this favorite watering-place is followed by the deepest gloom. The struggle is over, and death is the vietdr. This morning the physicians thought that the President was a little better. He seemed to have some appetite, and no indication of any chill or any disturbance was noted. The insidious nature of these attacks was again mado manifest soon after 8 o’clock. The President had been very quiet, and seemed comparatively comfortable." Suddenly he complained of dullness, and, although his body was wrapped in warm flannels, and withiu half an hour he had been bathed in hot alcohol, it was fonnd that his feet and hands were. cold, and, in a moment, there was marked rigor. He shivered and every muscle iri his body was rigid. The pulse went up to 140, and" even higher, but it was so thready and feeble that it was impossible to count the beats. After it had passed that figure there was great danger that he would sink into a comatose state after the ngor had passed, and every exertion was made to induce reaction. Hot flannels were applied to the feet and poultices of raw onions cut fine and steeped in alcohol were placed upon his stomach. In addition cooling lotions were applied to the head, and the arms and limbs were nibbed vigorously. The result was that a reaction was established much sooner than tho physicians expected. After fifteen minutes had elapsed, Dr. Bliss noticed increasing warmth in the feet, and at tho same time the rigidity of the muscles was observed to be relaxing. It was evident that the rigor was passing away in about half the time which the first one had lasted. That one, in spite of the most vigorous treatment, had only yielded under half an hour. Tho vitality of the President once more astonished the physicians —so much so that Dr. Agnew said, when he came from the sick-chamber, as ho has said before : “ The vitality of the President is something more remarkable than I have ever met with in all my practice.” This was said to Mrs. Garfield and Private Secretary Brown, and the great surgeon also added that “ if it was not for his wonderful evidence of constitutional strength, he should feel as though it was folly to indulge in any hope.” After tho rigor had passed the President fell asleep, and. although his pulse was still beating above 120, yet his temperature had not decreased more than a tenth of a degree or so below normal point He awoke in about twenty minutes, and the first words he said showed that tho mind was more active than his bodily strength. Ho said to Dr. Bliss : “ Doctor, I feel very comfortable, but I also feel dreadfully weak. I wish you would give me the hand-glass and let mo look at myself.” Gen. Swaim said : “ Oh, no, don’t do that. Mr. President, see if you can’t get some more sleep." “ I want to see myself,” the President replied. Mrs. Garfield gave him a hand-glass. He held it in a position which enabled him to see his face. Mrs. Garfield, Dr. Bliss, Dr. Agnew, Gen. Swaim and Dr. Boynton stood around the bed, saying not a word, but looking at the President. He studied the reflection of his own features at length. He wearily let the glass fall upon the counterpane, and with a sigh said to Mrs. Garfield : “ Crete, I don t see how It is that a man who looks as well as I do should be so dreadfullyweak.” In a moment or two ho asked for his daughter, Miss Mollio. They told him that She would come to see him later in the day. He said, licw.ver. that he wanted to see her then.

Thereupon Rockwell went to tha beach where Misb Mollie was sitting with Miss Rockwell, and told her that her father wanted to see her. When the child went into the room she kissed her father and told him that she was glad to Bee that he was looking so much better. The President said : “ You think Ido look better, Mollie? ” She said : ‘ I do, papa.” And then she took a chair and sat at the foot of the bed a moment or two. After Dr. Boynton noticed that Miss Mollie was swaying in the chair, he slipped up to her, but before he could reach her she had fallen over in a dead faint. In falling her face struck against the bedpost, and when they raised her from the floor she was not only unconscious, but also bleeding from the contusion which she had recoived. They carried her out where she could get- the fresh breeze from the ocean, and, after restoratives were atiplied, she speedily' recovered from the faint. The room was close, the windows were dosed, and Miss Mollie had not been very well, and all these causes, combined with the anxiety, induced the fainting fit. The President, they thought, had not noticed what had happened to his petted child, for he seemed to have sank into the stupor which characterized bis condition most of the time. But when Dr. Boynton went back into the room he was astonished to hear the President say: “ Poor little Mollie. She fell over like a log. What was the matter?” They assured tbo President that the fainting fit was caused by tho closeness of the room, as well as the delicate constitution of the girl, and wben he had that assurance he again sank into a stupor or sleep, which lasted until the noon examination. This stupor was not; a healthy sleep. The President frequently muttered and rolled, and tossed his head upon the pillow.

After the noon examination there was very little change in the President’s condition, oxcept that it was noticed that there was more mental confusion. The fear of a rigor about that hour was not realized, but there was a fear that a rig6r would occur m early evening. At the same time the President was doing so well, comparatively, that tho physicians entertained a slight hope that tho evening, and possibly the night, would pass without any recurrence of the rigors. The Cabinet, who are all here with tho exception of the Secretary of State and Secretary of War, asked the physicians for an honest prognosis of tho ease. They wore told that the case was almost hopeless ; that a person who had less vitality than the President has shown would be pronounced by the attending physicians to be beyond hope. Dr. Agnew said that the I’resident’s condition was bad as bad could be, but that lie was not yet quite prepared to say that there was absolutely uo hope. At the same time tho Cabinet beard that which satisfied them that tho President was now suffering from acute pyaemia. At the evening bulletin his condition was thought a trifle more comfortable. There was a feeling of congratulation on all sides that he had escaped' another rigor, which had boen anxiously feared since the chill of the morning. Dr. Boynton, during the early evening, talked even "a little hopefully, and the people about the hotels prepared "to retire at the usual hour, having almost no fears of ill news before Dooming. At 10 o’clock Secretary Brown's cottage was dark and deserted. A few of the more vigilant newspaper-men sat talking of the ease on the Elboron piazza. Dr. Boynton was among them. At twenty minutes" past 10 a colored messenger called Dr. Boynton out iu tho dark and whispered to him excitedly. Tho Doctor turned back to the gang of reporters. ‘-The President is sinking rapidly,” ho said, and disappeared in the gloom across the lawn toward the President's cottage. In a minute the scene had changed. There was a hurrying about the house, and the word was quickly sent the length of Long Branch that the President was greatly worse. At 10:30 Capt. Tngalls came across from the cottage slowly, as if nothing was wrong, and, when questioned, answered very quietly: ‘•I was just sent for by the officer of the guard, to send one of my men to the camp surgeon for mustard for an application to the President’s body.” The reporters went out on tho lawn as far as the guard lines to wait for tidings. The report that mustard had been sent for led to the report of another rigor. The reporters were nearly all out on the dark lawn, and there was a suspense. Suddenly, with a rush, the reporters came across the lawn, thair boots sounding upon the hard piazza like horses stampeded. In an instant the little telegraph office in the Elberon was Surrounded, and there was a shower of bulletins thrown upon the two paralyzed operators. "‘He is dead,” was all that could bo heard. The President had been dead half an hour when, at 11:10, Windom, Hunt and James arrived from West End. They went into the hotel office and w ere met by MacVeagh, who led them away to the cottage. It was then learned that the President had not died in a rigor. He had suddenly shown signH of fading, and messengers were sent out for all of the doctors and attendants. Every possible application was used to revive him "from the stupor which was apparently overtaking him. The end was plainly at hand, and present yhe sank away. He was dead. The first report was not believed, when it was confirmed, and the messengers who hurried away in carriages and on liorsooaek were called for "confirmation of the distressing news by people along the wayside. The guests at the hotels who had retired were at once aroused. Attorney General MacVeagh, as soon as possible after the death, came to the office of the Elberon and made the following statement as to the death-scene. He said : “Dr. Bliss at 9:30 went to the cottage to make his finalexaminatiou before ho retired. Ho found the pulse, temperature and respiration exactly as they were when the evening " bulletin was issued. There had been no change of any kind. There was every promise of a quiet night. All of the doctors retired at once for the night, as did all of the attendants except Gen. Swaim and Col. Rockwell. They remained, and nothing transpired until about 10:20. Then the President said :

“I am suffering great pain. I fear the end is near.” The attendants sent for Dr. Bliss, who had retired to Private Secretary Brown's cottage. Dr. Bliss came very rapidly. When he entered the room he found the President in an unconscious state, and the action of tho heart had almost ceased. Dr. Bliss said at once that the President was dying, and directed the attendants to send for Mrs. Garfield and Drs. Agnew and Hamilton. The President remained in a dying condition until 10:25, when Dr. Bliss pronounced life extinct. J. Stanley Brown, the President's Private Secretary, gives the following description of the death scene: When Mr. Brown entered the room, Mrs. Rockwell and Miss Lulu, who had just come in with Mrs. Garfield and Mollie, left the room and stood in the hall just outside tho door. Dr. Bliss stood at tho head of the bed, feeling the pulse. As ho came in, taking his place among the people pr< sent, Drs. Agnew and Hamilton were trying to revive the President with hypodermic injections of brandy. Col. Rockwell then went out a moment and returned with Mollie Garfield. As the President passed into the sinking condition and began to breathe in great, slow gasps, Col. Rockwell wont quietly to the windows anti closed them. Mr. Brown walked to Mrs. Garfield, and she leaned upon his arm as the President slowly breathed bis last. Sirs. Garfield was calm, save for the convulsive shudders that at times overmastered her. Mollie came up to her a moment later, and her mother put her arm around her as the little girl sobbed bitterly. Her weeping and the President’s gasping breath were the only sounds in the room. Then Gen. Swaim came to Miss Mollie, fearing her grief would be too much for her mother, and led her away out of the room. Thero was a period of gasping, and then tho President ceased to breathe. Mrs. Rockwell then placed her arm around Mrs. Garfield and led her away. As Mis. Garfield left the room she turned and said to Mr. Brown, as blic wrung his hand: “ I shall depend upon you.” Public Sorrow. The intelligence of the death of President Garfield was received everywhere throughout the country with expressions of the profoundest sorrow. The tolling of bolls, draping of buildings, dosing of places of amnscinent, and in some cities an almost total suspension of but a few evidences of the depth of gloom produced by the sad event. Nor has this feeling been confined to any one section or party. North and South, East and West, the great public heart was buried in one common grief over the loss of tho great and good President, and one common sympathy for tho stricken mother and wife and eliildren in their terrible bereavement.

Tlie New Executive. How the news of the death of President Garfield was received by Vice President Arthur, is thus chronicled in a New York dispatch : There was no unusual stir about the house. The servant at the door informed the reporter that Gen. Arthur had received nothing later than the evening bulletin. “The President is dead,” said the reporter. At that moment Gen. Arthur appeared in the hall. “ The President is dead,” the reporter repeated to him. “ On, no ; it can not be true : it can not be: I have beard nothing.” “The dispatch lias just been received,” Haid the reporter. “ I hope, my God, I do hope it. is a mistake.” Gen. Arthur's voice broke at the last words, and his eyes filled with tears. Ho then retired to the back room, where Messrs. Elihit Root and Daniel G. ltollius were awaiting him. “They say he is dead,” said Gen. Arthur. A deep silenco ensued. A moment afterward a telegram was received. Gen. Arthur broke it open slowly. After reading it he buried his bead in his hands, and remained in this position for a long time. Meanwhile the dispatch was handed slowly around. It read : “It becomes our painful duty to inform you of the death of President Garfield, and to advise you to take the oath of office as President of the United States without delay. If it concur with your judgment we will be very glad if yon wifi come here on the earliest train to-morrow morning. “ William Window, “Secretary of the Treasury. “W.H. Hunt, “ Secretary of the Navy. “Thomas L. James, “Postmaster General. “ Wayne MacVeaoh, “Attorney General. “S. J. Kiiikwood, “ Secretary of the Interior.” By 12 o’clock the sound of cabs rattling up in front of the house filled the street. A few moments after receiving the news of the President’s death Gen. Arthur’s son hastened up the steps. He remained a few moments in the room with his father, but the latter was still too much affected by the nows to speak. It was 12:30 o'clock when Gen. Arthur received the formal notification of tne President’s death, signed by the Cabinet. He had not then decided what steps to take. He was again completely unnerved and again buried his face in his hands. “ My ’sperience iu life has taught me dat de man who swaps mules wid his eyes shut am sartiu to git de wnst ob it. Brudderly feelin’ goes a good way in case of sickness or want or death, but it seldom reaches down to boss-trade. If I wore buyin’ a mule of a man I had knowed all my life, I should begin at the hoofs and look dat animile ober clar up to de point of his nose. I shouldn’t ’spect him to tell me dat he had filed down any tees or puttied ober any hoof cracks. My advice am not to lie or deceive iu tradin’ mules, but to answer as few quesshuns as you kin’ an’ seem sort o’ keerless whedder your offer am ’cepted or not.”- -Detroit Free Presx.