Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-05-06
Written for the Sunday Rs0is'sr.
At THITIIER'S FUNERAL
BY MCCLURE MASON.

A brief account of the funeral OF
Whittier by one present on that occa-
sion may not be unintereSting to lovers
OF his poetry.
Love and veneration brought friends
humble and great. The farmer member
of the Amesbury Church drove in out OF
brotherly love for devont member OF
the congregation, while from distance
came those with 10 We no less sincere
because inspired by "Maud Muller"
Eternal Goodness" and "At Last"
None ever on earth had sung more
beautifully about "the life for which be
longed," and how present it was in our
minds that day that death had newly
opened the gates and he had entered the
realities of his dreams.
The season, summer blushing into
Autumn, the quiet pastoral landscape
lying around Ames0ury, the family
heard wash OF the distant seashore, the
subdued significant greeting Of the citi-
zen to ARRIVING stranger all furnished
sad and appropriate influences for
poets burial day,
The body lay at the elm EMPOWERED
home on Friend street and was viewed
by the public passing from the portico
at the front and oun through the study
at the side. The bier was almost buried
pnder floral tributes among which was
q mat of white rosebuds corresponding
ia numbers with the years OF the poets
life, sent by Oliver Wendell Holmes
now indeed the last leaf Death Uhe
arasng all human emotions makes the
face blank white page seemed to have
left illumed on Whittiers the peaceful
sunset Of a pure life.
In the little orchard back OF the
house were held the funeral services.
1t was fitting that the obseQuies OF one
OF her holiest worshippers be held in
natures own temple. IL was deco
rated with the finished work OF the
seasons, tina purple grape, the painted
apple, the bronzed pear amid their
leaves. Their was short plain sermon
by Friend preacher, after which the
Hutchinsons sang Lay Him Low"
Then Mrs. Cortland, an elderly COUSIN
OF the poet, tall and slender and dressed
in the plain garb OF a Quakeress, arose
and read CAT Last" On no other &C.
casion could this poem be read with
such significance. The readers voice
was tremulous with the sentiment OF
the poem, but rich and distinct. The
author had spent much of his time at
her home. Might be not have been
thinking of that household in this
verse:
Be with me when all elseis from me drifting,
Earth. sky, home pictures, days of shade and
shine,
And kindly faces to my own uplifting
The love which answered mine.
There were brief remarks by differ
ent members of the asSenblage. We
especially remember Edmund Clarence
Steadman'S beautiful tribute to broth
er poet. After more singing by the
once famous Hutchinsons, the services
closed with demolition, and soon after
the body, followed by the relatives and
immediate friends, was placed in the
tomb prepared in the little Quaker
church yard.
But Whittier, thy life lived in such
rare consistency with thy written lines,
takes not away in its closing its inspira-
ton for mankind. 1t taught the
strength that lies in gentleness. The
great warrior we admire and honor, but
to the poet we give our love. Mingled
with our regard for the former may be
distrust that not his own greatness,
but the work Of many men, has gained
him his brilliant page in history. 1t
cannot be 80 with the latter. In com
parison Of this kind none could repre-
sent the poets better than our own
Whittier