Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-08-08
FAMOCS FUNERAL9s
Magnificent Pageants I'm HonoP 81 De
parted Heroes.

From the Boston Advertiser.
To philosopher. OF course. the disposition Of
the lifeless human body seems matter Of
small moment; but to the great body OF tho
one OF Its great heroes arr matters Of keenest
interest. In view Of the approaching obsequies
OF our own great national hero tt will be inter-
| esting 10 rccaai the hoaors paid after death to
the remains OF some OF the great captains OF
| history.
Two long years were consumed In the formid-
able preparations for the funeral Of Alexander
the Great Dying at Babylon, he directed that
| his body, which was Immediately embalmed
adopts, should be deposited In the Temple OF
3 ;ha an on an Egyptian oasis. undsterred by
forward to prepare the roads and bridges. The
| fnneral-car was drawn by sixty-iour mules,
caparisoned. The car itself was OF surprising
maSniiicence, the spokes and naves of the
wheels and ends Of the axles being covered
with gold, the platform uphoiding royal pa
vilion encrusted with gems, supporting q throne
and n coffin, the latter OF solid gold and filled
with costly spices. But the body never reached
| its destination. Ptolemy arrested its progress
and buried 1t at Alexandria, which city may
be said to have itself proved the enduring mon
Very different was the funeral of Julius
Cesar. The circumstances Of his death were so
the ceremony that they could not be formed
| into q procession, and the different classes Of
people We're accordingly asked to come together
under their appropriate insignia in the Field OF
Mars. The body of the great Roman was ex-
| posed. lying upon gildcd bed, covered with
scarlet ana cloth OF g9ld; and placed under
After the funeral ceremonies We're over, a
| question arose where they should burn the
hill; others suggested the senate house where he
had fallen. The senate, less willing to pay him
The s ds
| pute, when two soldiers, with drawn swords
| and blazing torches in their hands. forced their
way through the crowd and set fire TO the bed
| In u moment there was the widest excitement.
! The multitude fell to work directly building
Sreught so tsf and ap then behehes from s
bic material they could find, and at length, as
| arms, the musicians their instruments, while
others stripped down and threw upon the
SO fierce the ire that it spread to the neigh
boring houses, and was only with the greatest
dilliealty extlngaished. As a fitting mGnSmsnt
| lofty column surmounted by y star.
Coming down to modern times, the accounts
| the greatest ever known in England, and tie
second funeral OF Napoleon must still be borne
freshlysin mind by many OF the veterans OF TO-
state five days at Chelsea hospital, was borne
to his last resting place in st. Pauls on car
! military and civic concourse, the latter includ-
| ing Prince Albert, both houses OF parliament,
| judges, mobiles, public bodies, the mourning
coaches of the queen and royaly family, and an
innumerabe throng of the people.
Napoleon's funeral, as y parade, remains un-
paralleled in our times. The cherished remains
| OF their hero, having been received by the
French from the English nineteen years after
his death, 1T was not so much a funeral as a
| vast triumphal procession that followed
during which all France resounded with BOOM
| ing cannon toiling bells and strains OF martial
| music, while the excited people lined the banks
| OF the Seine and filled the air with frenZied
shouts and cries and sobs ofjoy and graduation.
The resources of funeral art were exhausted
upon the pageant, and the imagination is una
bic to distinguish the details OF II procession in
which the cata!alque, the central object Of in
tefest, was borne ON Il moving mound OF gold
| and velvet, drawn by sixteen black horses, and
guarded and escorced, it is said, by an army Of
10000 soldiers.
Compare with these splendors the quiet and
simple funeral rites of our own Washington, SO
betting republican simplicity and the char
acter of him who was, nevertheless, first in the
hearts OF his cOuntrym A gathering Of
the dignitaries OF the neighboring towns of
Alexandria, with the militia and Freemasons,
his friends and neighbors, his own war-horse,
duly .comparisoned, led in the midst, one YES
sci in the river hard by firing minute guns, and
the whole Procession confined TO his own pri-
waite grounds, where his tomb was made and
still is.