The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-20
Vast Throng of People Attended the
 Funeral. THE PROCESSION
 ONE NILE LONG Largest Attendance on Similar Occasion in History of
 Montgomery. Citizens of High and Low Degree Gathered to Honor Memory of Remarkable Charactep---ser- vices Conducted by Rev. pr. Rice.

The stone cutters may now go to oakwood and finish the task they left uncompleted. The tenant has gone to his house. The builder has gone to the home he prepared Adolphus San | ford Gerald has ended his long, his strong and his useful life and he rests from his labors in the narrow home he had prepared.
 gathered to pay tribute to any other one of Montgomerys dead as assemb- led in oakwood cemetery and saw laid strong and gentle man who had play ed % great part in the affairs of the city of Montgomery Men, old and Eray haired. red 1y Who had livsd fnlly as chief, over whom the grave closed yes tsrday, say that it was the largest as- ssmbly that ever attended funeral in
 Grief of the Poor.
 In the sunlight of yesterday morn- | ing two aged and tottering women ca came ts to & the locked & doors of the office will never swing open again to the towering figure of the man, who for twenty seven years. passed back and apsna Sn its t saor how Gi women, poor and irffrm, caressed and fondled the crape with their hands and wept aloud. Indifferens to any curious mourning in their hands as if 1t was something near and close to the kind ", the human, tho charitable man who had ministered to their wants anu leaning their heads against the door they sobbed aloud.
 There was no ned to fear that they would starve when he was alive. He Cold and hunger could not claim them so long as his generous heart beat in life. But he was gone and the future had no certain stay and support for such as they. The friend of the poor hac gone and would not come back In the unstudied sorrow of the poor and helpless was reflected the general feeling of T strange loss,sense of loss that was confined to no one class. In it was reflected the fnournfuIiness of Montgomery's people. the distressing knowledge that some one had gone out of the life of the city and left place that would not be filled.
 Vast ThrOnE' st Funeral. Perhaps the sudden and spontaneous ontpurst af grief from the iowiy and Adolphus Sanford Gerald called for the largest outpouring of mourners loe any funeral held in the city. It that blocked the streets about the he me, where he had spent so many of the years of his life, It was this paz thetic but. almost unnotiesd incldsnts sembIy at Oakwood Cemetery, which made the burial of the Chief. appear as one of the April memorials to the fallen soldiers of the South.
 All day long in the Gerald home on the corner of Washington and Jackson streets the people passed through the quiet and darkened room where lay the black casket with it's shining silver the boot black followed the banker, the merchant and the mechanic were near each other; wealth and poverty passed and the pride of one was for gotten with the misery of the other. Black and white had place in the quiet procession, and young and old, with stilled breathing and a queer sense of Keen loss, moved around the dark and somber bier that held all that was nor tai of the strong and kindly man who had filled so large a place in the affairs and in the love of his people.
 Many Negroes There.
 The services were in the afternoon at S:30 o'clock. Throughout the morning Montgomery people Of all conditions had been coming and going. But in the afternoon, when the hour drew near for the last look, for the last words, the streets about the house grew black with people and with vehicles. Hun street and looked mournfnlly at the house where the Chief was sleeping his last sleep. Many of them were aged and intirm, and they had come rom come to be present, to see the end. It was all they could do.
 There came presently, too, the Mayor of Montgomery, Hon. W. M. Teague. and with him were the Aldermen of the city of Montgomery. the heads of each department of the city government and the subordinates within the City Hall
 There came, too, the veteran soldiers of the Confederate army with whom he had gone out strong and sturdy youth, It was forty-odd years ago, and how much of history since then had been writteni What triumphs had been achieved, what spirit of happiness had made itself felt. what sorrow had been endured and what charity had been done in the forty odd years!
 PatrOlmen at the Services.
 Solemnly and in swinging stride the men the dead Chief had Commanded. marched to do their last service for him. to whom 1t was their pleasure al- ways to render service. He had com manded them, not only by vested au- thority, but in the superiority of tenacious will and in the pre-eminence of a wonderful native intellect. Had the law set out no difference between the Chief and the patrolmen, his will would have ruled;- his way would have been done, for he was a man nature had set apart to control other men.