Mrs. McKinley

One of the members of his Cabinet recently said that President McKinley had the sweetest nature he had ever known. It was this power of affection that surrounded Mr. McKinley with friends during his life and constituted one of the great sources of his strength. But nothing made him dearer to the American people than his beautiful devotion to his wife. A semi-invalid during her residence at the White House, cherished with a watchfulness and a devotion which realized to an unusual degree in the foremost home in the Nation the American ideal of the relation of husband and wife, after the tragedy which removed the President Mrs. McKinley became in a way the ward of the Nation. A gentlewoman, born in the happiest surroundings, with excellent educational opportunities, of a refined and pure nature, and of many graces of person and mind, the affection of the country went out to her because of the early sorrows that had devastated her life and because of the affliction which made her dependent upon her husband’s love and care. Thus the people of the country saw in the White House a family life in accord with the highest American ideals of purity and chivalrous devotion. Mrs. McKinley’s life after the going of her husband was a vigil, and now the morning has come to her. It was fitting that the President, Vice-President, four members of the Cabinet, and a great company of men of the highest official position should gather in the quiet home at Canton on Wednesday of last week and express by their presence at the grave of Mrs. McKinley the honor in which the country held her husband, and the tender affection with which it has surrounded her in her lonely widowhood.