Long Branch, in accordance with his own earnest desire. The journey to Long Branch was made on the 6th of September. The rate of speed was at times as high as sixty miles an hour; few stops were made, and Long Branch was reached at 1 o'clock-3,500 feet of railroad track having been laid specially to convey the train from the regular station to the immediate vicinity of the Francklyn Cottage, at Elberon.

The President showed signs of gratification at the change, but there was no immediate evidence of improvement. For two or three days the reports were hopeful, but bronchial trouble was developing, and threatening the lungs. From the 11th to the 15th the reports were fluctuating and rather dispiriting. The patient was placed for a few hours each day in a reclining-chair where he could gaze from the window of the cottage upon the sea. On the 16th there was a serious relapse, with marked symptoms of blood-poisoning, including severe chills, fever, and inability to retain anything in the stomach. The last day (September 19th), is thus described by Dr. Bliss:

66 At 10:10 P.M. I was summoned hastily to the bedside, and found the President in an unconscious and dying condition, pulseless at the wrist, with extreme pallor, the eyes opened and turned upward, and respiration 8 per minute, and gasping. Placing my finger upon the carotid, I could not recognize pulsation; applying my ear over the heart, I detected an indistinct flutter, which continued until 10:35, when he expired. The brave and heroic sufferer, the nation's patient, for whom all had labored so cheerfully and unceasingly, had passed away."

Death was preceded by a severe pain at the heart, and the President's last words were, "O, Swaim!" The announcement of his demise evoked expressions of universal grief, not only throughout this country but from the principal cities of the Old World. Messages of condolence came from representatives of authority abroad as well as at home, and from many private and unofficial sources. An autopsy of the body was made on the afternoon of September 20th, Dr. D. S. Lamb, of the Medical Museum at Washington, handling the knife, and all the physicians who had taken part in the case, as well as Dr. Andrew H. Smith, of Elberon, being present. The result showed that the diagnosis of the wound, so far as it concerned the course of the bullet, had been mistaken from the start. The following is from the official announcement of the result of the autopsy:

"It was found that the ball, after fracturing the right eleventh rib, had passed through the spinal column in front of the spinal canal, fracturing the body of the first lumbar vertebra, driving a number of small fragments of bone into the adjacent soft parts, and lodging below the pancreas, about two inches and a half to the left of the spine, and behind the peritoneum, where it had become completely encysted. The immediate cause of death was secondary hemorrhage from one of the mesenteric arteries adjoining the track of the ball, the blood rupturing the peritoneum, and nearly a pint escaping into the abdominal cavity. This hemorrhage is believed to have been the cause of the severe pain in the lower part of the chest complained of

just before death. An abscess cavity, six inches by four in dimensions, was found in the vicinity of the gall-bladder, between the liver and the transverse colon, which were strongly adherent. It did not involve the substance of the liver, and no communication was found between it and the wound. A long, suppurating channel extended from the external wound between the loin-muscles and the right kidney almost to the right groin. This channel, now known to be due to the burrowing of pus from the wound, was supposed during life to have been the track of the ball. On an examination of the organs of the chest evidences of severe bronchitis were found on both sides, with bronchopneumonia of the lower portions of the right lung, and, tho to a much less extent, of the left. The lungs contained no abscesses and the heart no clots. The liver was enlarged and fatty, but free from abscesses. Nor were any found on any other organ, except the left kidney, which contained near its surface a small abscess about one-third of an inch in diameter.

There was considerable lay and professional discussion of the medical treatment, the general conclusion being that, aside from the mistaken diagnosis, the wound was necessarily mortal, and it is doubtful if anything more could have been done to mitigate the sufferings of the patient.

After brief religious ceremonies at 10 o'clock on the 21st, the body was borne by special train from Long Branch, and, passing silent and reverent crowds at every station, reached Washington at about 4:30, where it was received by an imposing funeral escort and taken to the Capitol.

It was laid in state under the great dome, previous to being taken to Cleveland, Ohio, for burial. It was exposed to view during the 22d, and crowds of people passed through the rotunda to look upon the face of the deceased. Meantime, preparations were made in Cleveland for receiving the remains, and there the principal obsequies were to take place. On the afternoon of the 23d, after impressive ceremonies in the rotunda of the Capitol, the coffin was borne to the station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, and the funeral train started a little after 5 o'clock. Official representatives of the various departments of the Government, of most of the States, and many municipal corporations, accompanied or followed the remains. The train, heavily draped with mourning emblems, entered Cleveland at 1:20 o'clock P.M., on the 24th, and the body was placed in state on a catafalque beneath a pavilion erected for the purpose in the center of Monumental Park. The procession included a military and civic pageant of unusual proportions.

The day of the funeral, September 26th, was observed throughout the country as an occasion of general mourning, in response to a proclamation of President Arthur, which had been supplemented in many of the States by the recommendations of their Governors. There was a general suspension of business, a draping of public and private buildings, and religious services in many churches. The day was also extensively observed in Europe, and for the first time mourning was ordered in court circles in behalf of an official of a republic.

THE BLAINE-CLEVELAND

CAMPAIGN

(1884)

BY HARRY THURSTON PECK1

The nomination of Mr. Blaine produced an indescribable sensation throughout the length and breadth of the United States. No American statesman had ever had more ardent and intensely loyal friends than he, as none had ever had more virulent and bitter enemies. The former hailed his candidacy with intense enthusiasm; the latter began at once moving heaven and earth to compass his defeat.

Mr. Blaine had already enjoyed a remarkable career. Born in Pennsylvania of Scotch-Irish parentage, he had been by turns a teacher and an editor, having taken up in 1854 his residence in Maine. In 1858 he had entered the State Legislature, where for two years he served as Speaker. In 1862 he was sent to Congress, and at once made his mark by his readiness in debate, his quick grasp upon political principles, and his exceptional fertility in resource. He had the impetuosity of the Celt and the clear reasoning brain of the Anglo-Saxon, besides that indescribable quality which, for want of a better name, is known as magnetism. His personal

1 From Peck's "Twenty Years of the Republic," (18851905). By permission of the publishers, Dodd, Mead & Company. Copyright, 1906.