The World-Wide Mourning

No sooner had the awful news been flashed about the world than fine proof of the solidarity of humanity and the unity of the race began to be seen. The stock exchanges of Great Britain closed as did those of the United States. The Union Jack was half-masted throughout the British empire. Britons, remembering our sympathy for them in their recent sorrow over the death of Queen Victoria, reciprocated in kind. Edward VII. ordered the court into mourning for a [411][412] week and gave instructions that the British army should observe the ceremonial reserved for mourning for royalty. The press of the kingdom paid tributes to the virtues of the dead. Ambassador Choate was overwhelmed with messages of condolence, King Edward telegraphing:

     Most truly do I sympathize with you and the whole American nation at the loss of your distinguished and ever to be regretted President.

Churches in the most obscure places offered up prayers for the dead and for the sorrowing living, and everything was done to demonstrate the ties of kinship and common institutions.
     In Paris festivities in honor of the czar of Russia were at once abandoned, and the president of the republic sent the following dispatch to Mrs. McKinley:

     I learn with deep pain that his Excellency, Mr. McKinley, has succumbed to the deplorable attempt on his life. I sympathize with you with all my heart in the calamity which thus strikes at your dearest affections, and which bereaves the great American nation of a President so justly respected and loved.

     Emperor William of Germany at once ordered the German fleet to half-mast their flags and to hoist the Stars and Stripes at their maintops. He cabled to Secretary of State Hay and to Mrs. McKinley, the message to the former reading:

     I am deeply affected by the news of the untimely death of President McKinley. I hasten to express the deepest and most heartfelt sympathy of the German people to the great American nation. Germany mourns with America for her noble son, who lost his life while he was fulfilling his duty to his country and people.

     From Italy came messages of condolence from King Victor Emanuel and the pope. The czar of Russia at once dispatched a message of condolence. In South America the tragedy caused sorrow and called forth grief, and from Japan and the far East words of sorrow came flying under the Pacific, telling of the shock to the Americans in Manila and to the statesmen of China and Japan, whose admiration for the dead Executive was due to his pacific policy and his considerate regard for Oriental habits and ideals. Few more poignant expressions of grief have been voiced than that of the Chinese minister to Washington.