Drinking to Mr. McKinley’s Memory

To the Editor of The New York Times:
     When a few weeks since the whole world mourned the death of President McKinley and his requiem was sung in his favorite hymn, “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” could any prophet have foretold that the clergy, college Presidents, and newly-elected rulers of a great city would—while meeting to study the best laws for the punishment of vice and protection of virtue—drink to the memory of our martyred President, and drink standing? Did this in any way honor the memory of the earnest teacher, the brave soldier, the wise Senator, the loving and loyal husband, and the honored Christian President?
     The words of Charlotte Corday come to mind, “Oh, Liberty! what crimes are done in thy name.” If the learned and the cultured do this in the brilliant assembly, is it any worse for the vicious to drink their toast to his memory in the poison they buy in their haunts of pleasure and call it honor to a martyr? Shall the Christian sink below the Spartan?

LUCIE B. WHITE.     

     Stockbridge, Mass., Dec. 16, 1901.