upon the lips of his mother.  For weeks, in distant Ohio, she sat by the gate watching for the hurrying feet of the messenger bearing the telegrams of hope or despair.  His last conscious act was to write a letter of cheer and encouragement to that mother, and when the blow fell she illustrated the spirit she had instilled in him.  There were no rebellious murmurings against the Divine dispensation, only in utter agony:  ’I have no wish to live longer; I will join him soon; the Lord’s will be done.’  When Dr. Bliss told him he had a bare chance of recovery, ‘Then,’ said he, ’we will take that chance, doctor.’  When asked if he suffered pain, he answered:  ’If you can imagine a trip-hammer crashing on your body, or cramps such as you have in the water a thousand times intensified, you can have some idea of what I suffer.’  And yet, during those eighty-one days was heard neither groan nor complaint.  Always brave and cheerful, he answered the fear of the surgeons with the remark:  ’I have faced death before; I am not afraid to meet him now.’  And again, ’I have strength enough left to fight him yet’—­and he could whisper to the Secretary of the Treasury an inquiry about the success of the funding scheme, and ask the Postmaster-General how much public money he had saved.

“As he lay in the cottage by the sea, looking out upon the ocean, whose broad expanse was in harmony with his own grand nature, and heard the beating of the waves upon the shore, and felt the pulsations of millions of hearts against his chamber door, there was no posing for history and no preparation of last words for dramatic effect.  With simple naturalness he gave the military salute to the sentinel gazing at his window, and that soldier, returning it in tears, will probably carry its memory to his dying day and transmit it to his children.  The voice of his faithful wife came from her devotions in another room, singing, ‘Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah.’  ‘Listen,’ he cries, ’is not that glorious?’ and in a few hours heaven’s portals opened and upborne upon prayers as never before wafted spirit above he entered the presence of God.  It is the alleviation of all sorrow, public or private, that close upon it press the duties of and to the living.

“The tolling bells, the minute-guns upon land and sea, the muffled drums and funeral hymns fill the air while our chief is borne to his last resting-place.  The busy world is stilled for the hour when loving hands are preparing his grave.  A stately shaft will rise, overlooking the lake and commemorating his deeds.  But his fame will not live alone in marble or brass.  His story will be treasured and kept warm in the hearts of millions for generations to come, and boys hearing it from their mothers will be fired with nobler ambitions.  To his countrymen he will always be a typical American, soldier, and statesman.  A year ago and not a thousand people of the old world had ever heard his name, and now there is scarcely a thousand who do not mourn his loss.  The peasant loves him because from the same humble lot he became one of the mighty of earth, and sovereigns respect him because in his royal gifts and kingly nature God made him their equal.”