| Publication information |
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Source: San Diego Union and Daily Bee Source type: newspaper Document type: article Document title: “A Nation’s Grief” Author(s): anonymous City of publication: San Diego, California Date of publication: 24 September 1901 Volume number: none Issue number: none Pagination: 5 |
| Citation |
| “A Nation’s Grief.” San Diego Union and Daily Bee 24 Sept. 1901: p. 5. |
| Transcription |
| full text |
| Keywords |
| William G. Baker; William McKinley (death: public response: Buffalo, NY); William McKinley (mourning); William McKinley (lying in state: Buffalo, NY); Buffalo, NY (City Hall). |
| Named persons |
| Amelia Baker; William G. Baker; William McKinley. |
| Document |
A Nation’s Grief
AS SHOWN AT BUFFALO.
——
WHEN PRESIDENT WILLIAM M’KINLEY PASSED AWAY.
——
A Letter from Wm. G. Baker Who the President Lying in State
at the Buffalo City Hall. [sic]
Mrs. William G. Baker, of Sorrento,
has received a letter recently from her husband who is, or was, in Buffalo at
the time of the death of President McKinley, and saw the martyr lying in state
at the state capital. He describes some of the scenes and remarks that a feeling
came over him when he gazed at the dead form, which gave him knowledge of why
strong men wept. In part of his letter he writes:
“I am here in Buffalo—in the heart of the nation’s
great grief—and at a time when it has reached its greatest depth, in the death
of the president early this morning. I cannot describe the situation here. One
would have to stand as I did and see the multitude of bowed heads, the sea of
faces all bearing the same expression, that of great grief mingled, I might
almost say, with terror, to understand how these people feel. The thought came
to me that if I had been set down here, after some terrible earthquake had for
days shaken and rent the city from one end to the other, and every family had
sustained a personal loss, the effect might have been similar. The day the president
lay in state in the city hall, I stood in (I will not say in line but in) a
block of solid humanity, the qual [sic] of which I have never witnessed, for
three hours. Women fainted and children cried, while many an old veteran dropped
from exhaustion. By a big effort, however, I was able to hold out, and obtained
a last look at our martyred president. A peculiar feeling came over me as I
gazed, and I understood then why strong men wept.
[“]The city hall was beautifully and appropriately
draped, folds upon folds of rich cashmere in black and white, so simple yet
so grand, while four large flags of our country formed a cross. Truly the decorations
spoke eloquently of a nation’s grief. I will be in the city until after the
funeral cortege leaves for Washington, and will have much to tell of what I
saw when I come home.”