Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1885-08-07
A Constant Stream OF People Passing
the Body from Early Morn
ing Until the
Gates Were Closed at Midn' 'ght-Mag-
niflcent Floral Tribute From
the New York
Board Of Reconsideration for
the Funeral Procession TO
Riverside Park.

| were first in the line that soon after
o'clock this morning began filing past
| the remains of Gen. Grant where they
lay in the City Hall. There were no
great throngs awaiting admission. Those
| who waited at 6 o clock were not more
| than 1000 persons. Inspector Steers was
| In charge. He had ordered that $50
policemen should report to him at City
Hall at an early hour this morning. At
6 o'clock, the hour fixed for admitting
the police, the inspector and officers
were still filing into the plaza. The
complement was present. Soon two lines
| of policemen were placed across the
plaza from the City Hall entrance to the
| fountain. These two lines formed
| passageway through which four men
might walk abreast, and along which all
| day the visitors to the remains should
pass. Meanwhile the officers of the
| Twenty-second Regiment, who had been
on duty through the early morning, were
filing out of the City Hall. They were
going home and their places were being
taken by the officers of the Twelfth Regi-
ment. Sergt. REILLY with thirty men
ing SO as to form the channel through
which the throng should move to the
exit On the courthouse side of the
City Hall The Grant post had
mounted a detail at o'clock to serve
| from that hour until 8 o'clock. These
men were placed nearest the catafalque,
and the two lines of visitors passed be-
tween them and the casket on either
side. All within the gloomy corridors
was in readiness. Outside, on the top
step of the City Hall and in the middle
of the channel of officers to the fountain,
stood big, brawny police officer. He
II a.
| of people and send them in lesser
streams through the gates, where they
| should flow past the casket, as detailed.
The clocks pointed 6:06 o'clock, and at
the inspectors orders the
| IRON GATES WERE THROWN OPEN.
Ten or twelve hundred people had
formed up against the officers who barred
the channel at the edge of the fountain
circle, but when the gates swung open
the officers ceased to hold the people in
check, and the stream began to flow past
the remains and through the building
The first person to view the remains to-
| day was a spare-built, sweet-faced little
woman who led with each hand little
boy. She wGs anxious that her children
should see the generals face, and the
children were permitted to halt an in
slant and gaze over the side of the cas-
ket and peep into it, 1t was yet early
The police refrainsd from pushing the
very first visitor, and she woman. The
police had not yet begun that annoying
prS ctice Of humping persons forward
upon the heels and neck of their imme-
diate predecessors. In the first minute
only eighty-four persons passed the cas-
ket. This rate of passage wGc"!d never
answer when the dense crowd should tHA
waiting outside. People were fastened
they were hurried through at 101 a min
ute. Then the pressure was increased
to 104 minute. This was better. The
procession was almost lock-step.
| THE TRAMP WAS QUICK.
| The tide was easily formed of persons
who came from cars or who, passing
through Mail street. were drawn into
| the stream by desire to see the dead
1t was 5:25 o'clock am, and the pulse
of curiosity had sunk to fifty six to the
minute. At 6:2S o'clock the rate was
ffty-two. A little bootblack, with his
box on his shoulder, came along to see
the dead general. His face shone and
his hair had been freshly wet and
smoothed out by the fountain. Many
women came, too, and they caused delay.
| They must needs examine every detail,
and would fain put their noses to the
flowers Men and boys and wau-faced
women with lunch baskets and dinner
pals filed along At 6:46 o'clock the
running average per minute was ninety
one, and the total then passed was be-
mel was ever full, with no cloggiDg or
crowding.
woRKINGMES VIEWING THE REMAINS.
The hour from to ] O. clock was en-
4 al hwy orb m
and girls in viewing the remains. They
| were on their way to work, the day was
young and their opportunity better than
at any other hour OF the day. All through
the hour the formation of the line was at
a point near the fountain, and the time
of waiting was not more than ter min
utes from the point where the iiae
| formed to the place where the remains
rested After clock the line changed
| as &c its personnel. There were less
women and girls. They had gone through
and were at work. When the limo began
to lengthen, at o'clock, there was an-
other change taking place in the COM
plexion of the visitors, The laborers
had gone, and the clerks coming down
town were stepping from the elevated
and surface cars into the line that was
moving then at the rate of 10 and 120
per minute. The police were reinforced
at 8 o'clock Details under sergeants
and roundsmen had been arriving re-
porting TO the inspector from o'clock.
, At s o'clock there were 4S7 men on duty.
The channel with walls Of police was ex-
tended in Y shape around the sides of
the fountain circle, which, like a hop
per, received the people, and from which
J they were Strengthened out in line of
twos ana threes up to the City Hall steps.
I'll THE GUAkCS AT THE cAsKET
were Fastening the people, $50 per min
ute being hurled through. The hands
on the clock dials marked O'Clock and
the fountain circle was no longer the
} point of formation of the line. Every
car and train coming down town added
its quota to those anxious to look upon
the face of Gen. Grant. By the remains
the U. S. Grant post hGd mounted an-
other detail of thirteen mes, and the
men Of Wheeler post of Saratoga, which
, first mounted guard about the Mount
| McGregor cottage after the general S
, death, were standing at the foot of the
casket, while members of the military
order of the Loyal Legion we're likewise
| represented Rapidly the people were
am rmenting, the crowd was fast becoming
, tbyons. the line was being hurried
through the nall at the rate C. l40 pei
minute, and for little while the pace
was 170 per minute, which rate if main
tanned for an hour, would have passed
iO,2 200 persons. But this could not be
done. To accomplish it the visitors must
be hurried through and past the remains
. in trot. The rate of speed compared
lily with the dignity of the occasion, and
more time was given, but the accretions
were too rapid to b. cared for, and the
line of waiting people stretched out
: finally at s o'clock around the bend al
the Registers Office and down Centre
street.
FLORAL Tributes.
At IL o'clock between 10000 and 81 :
600 persons had passed the caslet and
, looked toward the remains, though
t many, coming rapidly in from tie bright
: sunlight, were scarcely able to distin
guish them in the somber shadows of the
black -draped corridor. The floral offer.
ing Of tbs Board of Aldermen was set VI
I during the morning beneath the rotunds
/ dome, where the light streamed dowr
y upon it. The central column rose ter
. feet, and was flanked by stands of colors
while the base was made up of ferns anG
: palms, among which were placed .hugt
: rows of white buds. An incident wa,
occasioned by the attempt of an old LADY