St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1859-12-22
New York Correspondence.
FUNERAL OF WASHINGTON IRVING

Indian Simmer days which are pecu-
liar to this continent, when Nature
seems to pause in her regular transit
ton of seasons, to veil herself in
soft and balmy veil and luxuriate in
reverie, to which her aspect and infiu-
ence lures all but her rccreant lovers,
1t was calm, mellow and soft as April;
the Hudson just stirred by light
breeze, was dotted with tall, white
sails the Palisades rose under the
pearly sky with their grey tints more
distinct the odor of burning brush,
here and there, gave an incense-like
fragrance to the brooding atmosphere;
it was precisely such day as would
remind one of Irving. because the
mood it induced was dreamy, genial,
and tender and, on this day, he was
to be buried
As we traced from the car window
the familiar river Of his boyhood, his
farm, and his last home, we felt anew
how natural it was for him to thank
God that he was born on the banks OF
the Hudson. His stories seemed to
haunt its flood, his dirge to be breathed
from it's murmur-his life to be reflect
ed in Its bosom DoIph Heyiiger, Rip
Van Wrinkle and Ichabod Crane came
wildly to mind, with every distinct
summit or sunny cove and when we
whirled under the bank of Sunnyside,
and caught a glimpse of the modest
home, denuded of its thick summer
foliage, there came pang quick and
sharp with the thought, that the en-.
deared author, who first revealed to
us the charm of literature, the affinity
between sentiment and language, and
whose subsequent companionship had
made the writer almost forgotten in
the man-lay there cold and dumb
for the first time silent and without a
smile of welcome for the guest that
crossed his threshold.
But the bitterness of this thought
was subdued as one ascended the hill
at Tarrytown and saw the humble to,
kens of mourning arranged by the
country people, the groups silent and
sad, the children standing respectfully
apart, the closed shops,-the Sabbath
and more than Sabbath gatherings,
greetings and solemnity. And when
the fower-deckcd coffin, followed by
the weeping relatives, was carried to
the altar, where, but four days ago,
he prayed when the tremulons voice
Of the clergyman invited all who
wished, to look upon the face "of our
deceased friend what a crowd of
gentle memories and fond regrets
came over the mind, at the thought
that one whose name has been to us a
household word, through life, and
whose sentences were engraved in
our hearts, when childrcn,-had just
passed from earth, and that it was hi'
body that lay on yonder bier II
der and grief.
During the hour, while his countless
friends, of all classes, were thus TAX
ing their farewell look, the road side
near the church was occupied by a
scattered throng, couversing, silently
looking on, or strolling quietly to and
fro. Around them lay the fields bare,
yet here and there green with cedars ;
the charm of an autumnal sky in the
country rested on the landscape gar
lands of laurel hung from the hcarse
and, as we stood by the church door,
the very feelings with which we read,
as schoolboy, Irving's description of
rural funeral and poor widows be-
reavement, came back to be trans
fcrred from an imaginative to a real
scene, from the touching picture of OBJ
sequies in far land, to those of him
whose hand penned the memorable
description.
And, when from these thoughts, we
turned to the scene around, what a
tribute we found there to the departed;
not merely in the fact that wise and
eminent men had throngcd thither to
pay the last respect to their friend
but in the less obvious circumstances
that scarcely an individual of that
multitude but had personal motive
and memory that hallowcd the coca
sion. Here was a young author whom
his kindly encouragement had cheered
on his way there an octogenarian
farmer. for whom he had with great
pains, obtained the earliest copy of
each successive volume of his last
work, to present to this humble neigh.
Dor, with his own hand, because the
old man SO priced and rejoiced in the
compliment while yonder is a MIL
lionaire whose material prosperity the
society of Irving elevated and adorned
| Now our eyes fell on man of schol-
arship and taste, who loved the author
because to divide with him the rec.
ords of the mind was the most cheer
ing of recreations and again, we
watched one Of his fair young neigh.
bors weeping because the plcasantest
visits of her life are ended. The pub
Usher of his works had cause for
grateful thoughts, as he stood there +;
for such letter of confidence and sat
isfaction as he received, when the edi.
ton was completed, it has seldom been
| sLo La oc ono &c <Io %roJo t,> koo.<