The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-11
Impressive Funeral SerV-
ices at Durham.
DR.. KILGO'S EULOGY
Business Suspended and Entire City,
of All Glasses of People, Combines
to Pay Respect to Dead Mil
IiOnaire's MemOrY--.Signifi-
cant Scenes,
cant Scenes.
BY II. L. GRAY.

by IL. IL. OI(AA.
Durham, N. c., May 1O.-A stran-
ger visiting Durham today for the
first time would learn one thing: that
Washington Duke is dead.
Never did a city mourn so complete
ly and universally for a citizen as
Durham is mourning today for the
plain boy of the farm whose works
of inherent force have made him
seem a wizard to his day, who in his
old age had won through personal
kindness, transformations bearing ana
simple life the regard of the whole
people of one of the busiest communi-
ties on earth.
Washington Duke, perhaps in a
fuller sense than any other one man.
had made Durham move by his life;
his death stopped it's activities like
the wheels of a rundown clock. For
several hours all stores were closed.
factories were silent, the streets eX-
cept as they teemed adjacent to the
residence and the church, We're prac-
tically deserted.
There the people came in thous-
ands. They overlowed the great
house and its large grounds. They
packed the church to the doors. They
filled the adjoining streets. Every
where was silent humanity, paying
the dumb respect of it's presence at
or near the funeral rites of the strong
old man who had passed away There
was an impressive quality about this
popular out-pouring, in keeping with
the large and simple lines on which
the life of the dead man had been
cast. Except for its magnitude, there
was nothing of display about the fun
eral or the crowd
Durham had simply passed from
the epoch made by one man into the
new season made necessary by his
death; and the city and the people.
appreciating the transition, expressed
themselves in both civic and personal
capacities, the one in recognition of
the event. the other in honor of the
memory of the man.
The Scenes at The Home.
The scenes at the Duke home were
deeply significant Thousands filed
the grounds, citizens of Durham, visi-
tors from other towns of the State
and from a greater distance, college
professors, ministers of the gospel
Trinity College trustees, factory hands
and negroes by the hundred. The
house was open as the heart and the
sympathy of the dead man had been
in life. The people filed silently
through the halls in hundreds, the
strange hush about them that waits
on the houses of death, following one
another closely, silently, to view the
remains of the old man, rich but dear
to the town, that every one seemed
to have known in life.
Within the house, everywhere, were
flowers. Their odors weighed heavily
on the air. The walls, the stands, the
bric-a-brac teemed with them. There
was the profusion that comes from
multitude of individual thoughts. And
yet, as one of the throng that went It's
slow way past the door, ] looked in
vain for the expression of idle curlos-
ity. Respect and the vague, imper-
Sonal sense of awe and sorrow that
clings about public calamities. were
the dominant notes in the faces OF the
crowd. The company was mixed
with the true democracy made possi-
Bile by the life of the man. Rising as
he had he had never lost the touch
and, in his death, ne came back as II
were for simple tokens at the peoples
hands. Even the color line vanished
in this house of death. Social strata
went by the board. All citizens were
there, rich and poor, white and black
taking their places in the line. Down
the hall and one turned into door
on the left and landed in a room that
was walled with even more flowers
Here sat the casket, black and heavy,
around which, taking each a glance
at the features of the dead, the peo-
pie passed.
Under the glass; the closed eye-lids
of the dead looked up benignantly
The features held the pallor of death,
the quiet dignity that had marked
them in life. Peaceful as was the
sight of the brave old body that had
capitulated at last there was a sugges-
ton of the struggle that his will had
made in the look of the calmly un-
blinking face. Death fought for this
prize" one thought: "it was no easy
victory" Emaciation was there, not
intense but as incident to the fight
for life his strength and courage had
made. The long, down-curved mouth
still seemed to hold the sign of battle
courageous of defeat undaunted at
the end. The great nose more prom
inent by reason of the thinness of the
face, told at a glance the power that
had been, explained the mans crea-
fully human in death, scanned with the
lines of the full life it had been called
upon to act, yet in this remarkable
that it bore no trace either of passion
or of pain. From behind the veil OF
the dark its message went home at
glance. pointed with the half-guessed
wisdom we cede to those already gone
before: TO do is a duty only so far
as it the better enables one to be-
And among his people it was easy to
see what Washington Duke had been.
(Continued on Pare Three0