The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1899-08-03
READ HIS LAST POEM.
Brief Services Held Over Re-
mains of Robt. IngersoII.
WAS AN ABSENCE OF PRAYERS.
Wife and Children Remain by Side Of
Corpse-Tribute of q Blind Friend.

NC" AOAA, y IA gu ne IlHSE6I
OF the late Robert G. Ingerscll took
place yesterday afternoon from
Walston, Dobb's Ferry, where he
died on Friday last
No clergyman was present to con
duct the service; there was go music
and there was no pallbearers The
body lay on cot in the room where
he died. It was enshrouded IN
white and just one red rose on his
breast. About the cot were banks
of floral tributes sent by friends,
wreathes and punches of blossoms.
The services were held at / clock.
Mrs. Ingersoll sat beside her dead,
and beside her were her daughters,
Mrs. Walston H. Brown and Miss
Maud Ingersol They were very
much agitated and wept almost con
tinuously. Dir aud Mrs. G 2. Far
rell were present and Charles Broad
way Rouse, Colonel Ingersolfs eldest
friend, occupied chair by the side
Of the bier. There were some forty
others present and they remained
standing throughout.
The intense silence was then bro.
ken by DR.. John Clark Ridpath, who
in voice full of emotion said:
MY friends, it is very sad duty |
to read in the presence of the dead
the last poem written by Colonel
Robert G.. Ingersoll, entitled Dec
laration of the Free This poem
Colonel IDgersoll had read and al
tered in some of its parts only few
hours before he was stricken down
Major o. J. Smith, who resides at
Dobb's Ferry, and who was a close
personal friend of Colonel Ingersoll.
then, without preliminary words,
read another extract from Colonel
Ingersoll's writings, entitled "My
Religion"
DR.. John Elliott of New York,
read the funeral Grafton delivered
by Colonel Ingersoll over his br 9th
er's dead body. This concluded the
short and simple services Nearly
all present took a parting look at
the dead and then passed out. After
they had gone MIR. Rouse arose from
his chair, and as he Is totally blind,
passed his hand over the face of his !
departed friend and said:
Perhaps he is better now. No
one can understand it." :
Mrs. IDgersell said to him: "The :
colonel wanted you to put your hand
upon his heart, and suiting the &C
ton of the word, she directs d his
hand to the left breast of the de
ceased.
Mr.. Rouse asked what she was
going to do with the remains. 7
81 can't give him up" said she
Il can't put him in the ground. 1 a
can't bear to think of it. We're going
10 bring him back home" Il
The body will probably be taken 4
to Fresh Pond, Long Island, on H
Thursday and cremated, but this ar q
is subject to change. D
During the morning there were :,
many visitors to look upon the face al
Of the deceased. Among them were o.
several old negro servants of the n
amily who mad come from Washing
:on and took four days eff or paid
heir expenses to do honor to their
oenefactor. Among them were two :
ormer buffers of the family. One !
I'D man who was baggageman on
he railroad came from down on N
Lsng Island, others came from Chi Il
,sgo, Syracuse and Buffalo. il
Many additional kilograms of is
were received to day, one fe
If them being from General Miles. II
Floral tributes we're received all :.
he morning and there are two
ooms full of them o.
A photograph of the body was Lii
AIKEN this afternoon, just as it Law. oil
urrounded by these flowers. It h,
ook three quarter view of the face. At