The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-04-15
smoked and talked.

Breakfast was at an early hour,
dinner at II o'clock sharp, ard sup
per came few minutes later, they
had all the evening in which they
could visit their neighbors.
The school girls of the Old Ma
sonic Institute who boarded among
the families of the town-and the
town girls would meet after supper
and take a long stroll, sometimes
over to the great spring under the
oaks at "The renars," or down to
the old Hannum mill to be weighed
just any old place where they
thought they might catch glimpse
of a college boy. This was not
very hard to do, for the college
boys were always on the lookout,
and as every college boy had a
sweetheart among them, They
would often join the girls and
merry good time they would have.
There were some beautiful girls
living there then. The daughters
of the Rev. Fielding Pope the
younger ones, as / remember them
were all beautiful women. Miss
Parthenia Pope-Miss "Teny" she
was called-was my childish ideab
of ,beauty,-a fairy like, ethereal
young creature she was, and too
frail and beautiful for this earth.
The same description would apply
to her that Ford Byron once gave
of his young cousin Margaret Park
er--that she looked like she was
made out of rainbow. The first
May day cele bration that can re-
member she was selected by the
Institute girls as their queen, and
her maids of honor were chosen
from among the number--were to
represent the zephyrs and advance
to the throne before her scattering
flowers and singing, but before the
day arrived Miss "reny" was con-
fined to her bed by severe illness
SO another queen had to be selected
Miss Teny was on the grounds
however on That day, to the delight
of her many friends, but she con-
tracted a severe cold, and for a few
weeks she fingered and then the
angels came and bore that sweet,
pure spirit upward and onward"
to her home above. Her death was
the first sorrow / can remember.
In those days we had no underta-
ker's establishments nor fine her.
SEES, and the coffin (the word casket
was not then used) was made by a
cabinet maker of the place, and 1t
was very plain and unpretentious,
and fashioned in that old style
wide across the breast and sloping
toward the head and feet, and it
was covered with some kind Of
black cloth. There was no glass
over the face. mo silver handles nor
tablet, and am sure I never saw a
flower upon the corpse, nor upon
the coffin, nor placed upon the
grave.
In these days a funeral is certain
ly thing of beauty 50 far as flow
ers can render it. A funeral pro-
cession then, was nothing like
what it is to-day. When the sor-
rowing friends had taken their last
sad farewell to their loved one, the
cabinet maker came in and placed
the cover upon the coffin, and can
hear now, and with. the same shiv-
ering horpor that filed my young
soul then, the metallic screech,
screech, screech of the screw as it
was turned down and down by the
screw-driver, until the last one was
fastened in its place. Then kind
friends bore the coffin out of the
house upon wooden bars placed be-
meath it, and held by strong men on
either side. Then came the mourn
ers just behind the coffin, and then
the assembled friends joined quiet.
ly into the possession-two and two
and followed the loved one up to
that old graveyard, where genera
tons have buried generations in
the graves of the long forgotten
dead, and where the dead sleep,
we'll under the silent sunshine,
and the winters storms; and thus
they bore my beautiful queen of
May to her last earthly resting
place.
I'm those days the funeral services
were always held at the home of
the departed.
! do not remember of ever seeing