The age-herald., 1900-01-18
PINE CoFFINS
 FOR GENERALS.

Edward B. Clark, in the Chicago Record.
 When the few remaining veteran officers of the old arm yas it was prior to the war of secession gather today at the funeral of the Confederate leader, General Dabney Herndon Maury. there will be mingled with their sorrow a not unnatural feeling of curiosity as to what manner of coffin is to contain the remains of the southern chief tain. General Maury was member of the famous West Point class of the year 1S46. From all data obtainable at this writing tho only survivor of that celebrated class is Colonel Parmenas Taylor Turney of High- land Park, the Chicago suburb In dark ened room in the little workshop attic on the grounds of Colonel Turnley's residence is a plain pine coffin painted the color of the dead oak leaves that the wind losses about the lawn without One day within this pine box will rest the remains of Col onel Turnley. Some years ago there met in New York city five men, all veterans of the war with Mexico and of the war of se- cession. They were all West Pointers, and while not all classmates had spent some time at the academy together. The discus sion turned upon ostentation at funerals. One of the veterans said that the widow and children were often impoverished in or der that the father might have a so-called fitting funeral. Colonel Turnley, who was one of those present, said:
 "Boys, I was a carpenter before I was cadet. If you will agree to use them will make with my own hands a coffin for eacn of you, and one for myself. I'll use pine boards, nails and a little paint, and some leather for the hinges of that which goes over the face. The cost for each coffin will be well within s5.''
 The old soldiers entered into a compact then and there to use the Turnley collins. They were all made by the colonels own hands, and shipped to their destinations, the maker retaining one for his own use.
 
 Colonel Turnley one day showed the wri- ter of this article the coffin which ne had made for himself, and told him the story of the making of the others. The veteran, however, refused to give the names of the fellow students for whom he had built their last earthly dwellings, saying that It would be a violation of confidence. It was pretty strongly intimaited however that there were ibut two as yet unused, his own and one other. General Maury and Turn ley were classmates and close friends at the military academy When the New York meeting took place there were but few of the old soldiers who had been ca- dets in the early '40s alive. Gen. George Stoneman, the cavalry leader, and aScass- mate of Turnley and Maury, 1t is well certained, was one of the i've and he went to his burial place in a coffin that cost something like s4.50. The chances strongly favor General Maury having been one of the party, and it is for that reason the veterans will glance with some pardonaIole curiosity at the coffin within which the re- mains will lie in state today in Richmond, the capital of the confederacy for which he fought It may be that the interven- ton of friends may prevent the carrying out of a compact entered into so many years ago, but if General Maury was one of the five, as it is believed, and his wishes are to be carried out, there will be today an object lesson in funeral simplicity
 
 It was stated at the outset that the West Point class of which General Maury wa. almost the last survivor was famous More than that, it may be said that soldiers north and south give the class credit for turning out more men of mark than any other class graduated from the old school on the Hudson In other classes there were a few cadets who achieved perhaps great CT fame than any man among those re- ceiving their diplomas in '46 but the class contained a greater percentage than any other of those who won military fame. It takes but a glance at some of the names to prove that there is foundation for what Colonel Turnley claims. He says: "For the sake of auld lang syne I will give a list of my classmates, for a larger number of them made their mark during the war be- tween the states than any other gradu- ating class"
 Some of the names that appear are George B. Mcclellan, Charles E. Blunt, Jesse l. Reno, Thomas J. (SjtonewalD Jack son, Samuel D. Sturgis, George Stoneman, Dabney H. Maury, Joseph N. G. Whistler, George s. Humphreys Samuel B. Maxey, and George E. (Gettysburg) Pickett
 Of Dabney H. Maury who died Thursday there is saying in the army that he is the only man who ever thrashed Grant and Sherman. There is no actual foundation in fact in the saying save that Maury, with Stephen D. Lee, did give Sherman all he could attend to at Chickasaw Bluff and that Maury alone checked one of Grants advances in northern Mississippi He was a favorite soldier of the Confectionery both with his men and with the government which fairly crowded honors upon him, though it fell to his lot to hold high com mand in a place from which the scene of heavy fighting had shifted.
 
 Thirteen Persons Killed
 Turin, January 17.-It is now announced