The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-10-19
A Murderer's Funeral.

Tie little village of Ansonia, Conn,
Witnessed on Sunday remarkable fun
eral pageant; remarkable in the great
mber Of persons in attendance, in the
character of the individual thus honored
and in the circumstances under which
he met ms death. 1t was most impos-
ing demonstration. A stranger witness
ing such a spectacle twenty years ago
would have said: Doubtless the body
of some brave boy who fell in battle
while fighting for his country has been
brought home Tor burial, and these thou
sands has gathered to do honor to his
memory" And he might have added, in
view of the great multitudes assisting IN
the payment of this last tribute of re-
spect, He must have been some uncom-
mon hero; some one who, having I'm
ished in his life the model of exemplary
conduct and manly department, had still
further endeared himself to the hearts of
his neighbors and friends by his self
sacrificing patriotism and had crowned
all by meeting martyrs fate in the per-
Torrance of some brilliant act of
heroism." But the stranger would have
been wide, very wide, of the mark. Ex-
cept that tins was the funeral of man
who died by violence as the result of en-
gaging in acts of violence, there was
nothing here to suggest a soldiers life or
soldiers burial.
This was the funeral of James
Smith, better known to the people of the
village where he had spent the larger
part of his life, and to which his body
had been brought for burial, as "Chip"
Smith. He was young man-twenty-
three years old ut the time of his death.
His life. SO far from being profitably
and nsefully spent, had been worse
than wasted; so far from being an exam
pie, it was fearful warning to all his
associates. What he was as son was
illustrated in the person of his father,
made permanently deaf by a blow from
his hand when comparatively boy. In
the family he was brutal and cruel; in
the neighborhood in which he lived he
was feared and avoided; to the officers OF
the law, with whom he was in constant
conflict, he was terror; and 1T was IN
evidence that for a long period he had
enjoyed local notoriety as fellow OF
depraved tastes and vicious habits. and,
when inhamed with drink, OF the most
reckless and desperate temper. Going
home intoxicated, he so abused his sister
and mother, threatening them with q
loaded pistol which he carried, that the
Frightened women sought the aid OF the
village police. When the policeman un
dertook to arrest him, Chip" Smith
drew his pistol and shot him in the bow
els. The policeman fingered four days
in agony and then died.
The murderer was tried, found guilty,
sentenced to death, and, after many de-
L o,lx <la i,,n w. Of
his counsel for the prolongation of his
life, last Friday he was hanged. He was
buried on Sunday as being the day best
calculated to bring out large crowd to
assist in the posthumous honors. Ten
thousand people are said to have been in
attendance upon the occasion. Two
hundred Young men belonging to the
Monitor, Starlight and jolly Rover
Clubs. the character of which is limited
in their names, marched ahead of the
hearse. and twenty one hacks and one
hundred and twenty-seven other car
riages, filled principally by young peo-
pie" followed it to the grave. His last
DAYS in prison were soothed by the min
istrations of religion and the attendance
of faithful and devoted priests, and
there was no lack of floral offerings and
other gifts from the class of women who
habitually idea,ize, lonize the perpetra-
tors of great crimes. Upon the casket at
the funeral were many flowers; on pill
low surrounded by white dove were
the words, Thou art forgiven" and on
a cross the word Hope The officiating
clergyman took occasion to impress upon
the great audience in the church the
warning contained In the young mans
career and its ending. Two hundred
young men, members of social clubs, y
to one of which the deceased belonged.
listened leverently, no doubt; but can
there be any question that they were
much more impressed by the spectacle
of these posthumous honors done to one
of their own number, not in spite of, but
on account of. his crime, than by the
solemn warning of the priest?
''Chip" Smith dying IN his bed, hay
ing committed no murder, would have
been quietly and unostentatiously
buried. Having committed murder and
died at the hand of the executioner, b
goes to his grave amid great ceremony
followed by ten thousand sympathizers