Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-09-19
HARRISBURG TO PITTsBURG.

Night and Early Mornipg-Tbous-
ands Were Out to See the Flower
Covered Casket.
ON BOARD FUNERAL TRAIN,
PITTSBURG. Pa, September 1S.-The
train ran more slowly after leaving
Harrisburg shortly after midnight, and
daylight was .dawning as it arrived at
Altoona, at the foot of the eastern
slope of the Alleganies.
Within the depot vast throng,
numbering three or four thousand peo-
pie, surged up to the train. Many must
have been there all night, as the train
was originally scheduled to reach this
point at 1920 a. m. Extra engines
were coupled on here and the train was
pulled laboriously up the main track.
The morning was raw, foggy and
cherries. Mountainers with axes on
their shoulders came down from the
steep slopes to pay their homage with
uncovered heads. Passing the summit
at Cresson the descent began. Half
the population of Johnstown, the first
of these great steel manufacturing CEN
tiers through which the train was now
to pass on its way to the martyred
Presidents home, was at the track,
and a company of local militia stood
drawn up at attention. Men, women
and children all were there,
Miners with Lamps
in their caps, had rushed forth from
the tunnels at the trains approach and
the steel mills along the Counemaugh
river were emptied. These were men .
who felt that their prosperity was due
to the system for which the dead
statesman stood, and their loss seemed
OF personal character. Four women
with uplifted hands were noticed on
their knees and handkerchief were at
the lips of others. From the smoke
covered city came the sound of the
church bells changing out the universal
sorrow. The train slowed down that
the people might better see the impress
sive spectacle at the rear of the train
within the observation car the ele-
waited flag casket with it's bur-
den of flowers and two grim armed
sentries on guard at the head and foot
and outside on the platform a soldier
with his bayonetted gun and sailor
with drawn cutlass, both at salute.
So rigid they stood they might have
been carved out of stone. A little fur
Their on the train passed a string of
coke oven tenders at the mouths of
The Glowing Furnaces
with their hats in their hands. At
jeanette, were a thousand or more
glass workers with their families. At
Pitcairn, the end of the railroad divi-
sion train crews and engines were ex-
changed and the railroad men were out
in force.
At Wilmerding, the employees of the
Westinghouse Air Brake company were
at the track and at East Pittsburg,
where is located one of the largest
electric plants in the world. We're sew
eral thousand people. The train had
now practically entered the suburbs of
Pittsburg AT BesSemer the huge
stacks of the Carnegie steel plants
were pouring forth dense columns Of
smoke and flames, and under the black
canopy the toiers gathered in dense
throngs. standing mostly with uncoy-
cred heads. Just beyond the great
mills of Braddock gave forth another
multitude of grimy workmen, and to
the left, across the river, where is To-
Gated that other great hive of indus
try. Homestead. wharves were lined
with men and women.
Entering Pittsburg
a wonderfully impressive sight was
presented. Along both sides of the
track for miles people were solid walls
of humanity. In some places the peo-
pie stood twenty deep while the en-
bankments were black with them. On
the top of every freight car was
human hedge. The overhanging
bridges bent beneath their burden. The
roofs of houses were lined. All stood
with uncovered heads while the bells
of all the churches were tolling.