The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-09
HIS LAST MARCH.
Followed by Three Thousand
Men of the Army
General Lawton Goes to His
Final Resting Place.
NOTHING WASLACKING
Which Could Do Further Honor
To His Memory.
Beautiful and Eloquent Words
of President Stryker.

Washington, Feb. 9.-Maior General
Henry w. Lawton was buried today
in the National cemetery at Arlington.
The services at the grave were pre-
ceded by those at the Church of the
Covenant in this city, where Presi-
dent H NJ Stryker of Hamilton Col
lege, New York, delivered a funeral ora
ton that has seldom been equalled in
beauty of expression, nor could it have
been in more perfect accord with the
spirit of the solemn occasion that
called it forth.
Never in the history of the capital
has there been a more representative
gathering of the nations official life
to pay a last tribute to the nation
| honored dead. No mark of military
pomp and ceremony that the regula-
tiOns could provide was wanting to
| render the occasion solemn and impress
sive. Nearly all the available troops of
| the regular establishment remaining
! in this country were called out. Three
thousand men, infantry, cavalry, and
artillery. followed the fag-draped cais-
son to the grave.
| But mere official formulae were
| dwarfed beside the deep popular DEM
| onstration that the burial of the dead
soldier called forth Every department
| paid it's official tribute. Flags hung at
| half mast. The president and his cabi-
! net, representatives of the supreme
| court, of the house and senate and of
! the army and navy, all combined to
! fill the darkened church to its utmost
| But these official representatives of the
| people were lost in the great crowds
| that surrounded the church and lined
the streets along which the procession
passed
Lawton was to the people the ideal
American soldier whose exploits in
! three wars made his name a house
/ hold word and who, being soldier
| first and only, died in the line of duty,
leaving 1-othing to his children but the
| heritage of an honored name. 1t was
in tribute to this soldiers ideal that
/ American generosity for weeks past
| has swelled the Lawton fund.- beyond
/ all expectation of its originators, and in
further tribute today that the great
outpouring of citizens filled the streets
! long before the hour when the services
at the Church of the Covenant were
| to commence over the hero whose re-
/ mains had laid in state under military
| guard throughout the night.
! Soft lights burned above the chancel
where flowers were piled high, while
! the casket was buried beneath load
| of roses lilies and white carnations
| that overfiowed their narrow resting
| place and fell in perfumed avalanche
! to the floor. The guard-cavalrymen
| from Lawton's old communicated at
| each end of the catafalque, silent and
| motionless as uniformed statues, and
| the hush of the silent church was
| broken only by the soft tread of those
! who entered with bowed heads to pay
| their last tribute to the brave.
! President Mckinley was among the
! earlier comers, accompanied by the sec
retary Of war.
! They came to the church with Adult
| ant General Corbin, who assisted by
| Col. Bingham, had charge of the official
! arrangements. The secretary of the
ho n
! the postmaster general; the attorney
| general and the secretary of agricul-
! ture were also there. The supreme court
| was represented by Chief Justice Full
| Ter and several of the associate justices.
| Admiral Dewey is absent from Wash
! ington, but was represented by Capt.
| A. S. Barker.
| Ex-Secretary Alger was also present
! by proxy. having sent from Michigan
| Mr. Victor Mason. his secretary while
in the war department. who brought
] great wreath of flowers for the already
| over-laden casket.
| The military committees of both
| house and senate were present as well
| as all the senators and members who
| could gain access to the church. Army
| and navy officers in uniform filled most
| of the forward pews and a press Of cit
| izens stood up at the rear and in the
wide vestibule beyond the doors.
The Presbyterian burial service was
| read by Chaplain Pierce of Lawton's
| old command, assisted by Rev. Tennis
Hamlin, pastor of the church, and Pres
ident Stryker arose to deliver the ora
| tiOn.
PRESIDENT STRIKERS ADDRESS.
| Mr. Stryer said in part:
"Over the width of the earth a sold
! ier's household has brought its warrior
home. The dust that the nation fathers
| to its guarding is that of no common
man. We are met to celebrate and
mourn him. But while we recall the
record so compact with manliness and
| which the white blossom of modesty
| crowns withal. while we recite the
story of one who personified the best
| American traditions, first this day do
| we regard her sorrow VINO treads that
| solemn aisle of pain.
1.-The Sanctity of whose shadows are
! accessible only to her God.
''Hither we have come-the peoples
| chosen head and all authorities else
| from their high several sesSions-to pay
| our poor but tender aims of love to an
unblemished memory to thank him, who
| is our dwelling place in all generations,
| that the stout tree of liberty still yields
! such manner of fruitage and to pledge
| ourselves, consider that the issue of the
| lives of our renowned dead to initiate
| their unblenching and unblighted faith.
Station is secondary, humanity is
| primary. And whatever else any is. to-
| day we all are only men and women,
| brothers and sisters, lifting children
our wet faces toward the consultations
| of God. The stars of the spangled flag,
/ covering now this shape of it's noble
warden, shine multiplied upon the deWs
! of grief But, with a solemn joy it be-
| seems you, his comrades of the army to
| give thanks for the life whose end
must after this parenthesis of difficult
| farewells, be viewed not as a calamity,
| but as a, conquest.
Men unapt to weep are smitten
/ by the pathos of that courage we COM
/ memorate-courage most touching of
| all human graces; but let them also
smile with exalted hope as they lay up