Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-06
MAKES BURIAL
ROBE; DIES AS
She PROPHESIEO
Woman SeeSHer End;
Reaper Comes
Wife in Good Health, with Kind Hus-
band and Baby Girl, Has Pre-
sentiment Of Coming
Doom
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald.
ST. LOUIS, Feb A presentment
OF her own death came to Mrs. Alma
LarlSin of East st. Louis months ago.
She was not i'll, and to others there
seemed no reason why she should not
live many years to bless her husband
and baby girl. But she had read what
was to be, and. week after week. busted
herself in preparations for the fanl
chapter-death and burial.
A week ago she was taken ILL., Satur-
day she died and Monday, attired in
white robes, fashioned by her own
hands, she was borne to her grave by
pallbearers she herself selected weeks
ago.
She was the wife of Thomas Larkin,
well-to-do coal and ice dealer of East
st. Louis. They had n pretty home at
920 Lake avenue and one child, a little
daughter, was the darling of both
parents.
Several months ago Mrs. Larkin
passed the thrty-fifth anniversary of
her birth. And with that event came
the presentiment of death. Something,
she knew not what, told her she would
not live through the year. She was not
frightened nor excited by this knowl-
edge. 1t only deepened the tenderness
of all she said and did as wife and
mother.
Asked Husband to Buy Burial Lot
Her husband did not share her conf
dence in the presentiment. She asked
him to go to Mount Hope cemetery and
select a pretty lot. But he would not.
Thine enough" he said, Ito do that
when the lot is needed God grant that
will be many year yet
She answered only with a smile, sad
and yet SERENE and pressed him no
further at that time, though later her
request was repeated and denied That
was three months ago.
For a time following this incident she
kept her thought of death locked in her
own bosom. No one else, she knew,
could understand the certainty she felt,
so she waited TRANQUILITY until the day
should all but arrive.
A month ago she went to Quincy, H.,
on a visits to her sister, Mrs. Enochs.
Before leaving she asked her husband
for money with which to buy clothes.
Thinking she had abandoned her brood
ing over death, the happy husband gave
her the money she asked for.
1t was grave clothes she wanted
clothes for her burial They were all
to be white, pure and dazzling and
snowy. Nothing about them, not a rib
bon or so much as a fragment of lace
that was black. Nothing somber
Neither was there to be any gayer COL
ors. Only the white, typical of purity
and of peace.
These garments We're made in Quincy
by the sisters Mrs. Enochs humoring
the mood of Mrs. Larkin.
Affectonate Parting with Sister
At last the wardrobe of death was
complete and the sisters said farewell.
Their parting was affecting, tender, but
tranquil, just as Mrs. Larlin's deport-
ment all had been ever since the day
when she realized first that death had
set his seal upon her. Only tears shone
in the sisters eyes as they clung to
each other in a last embrace. Mrs.
Larkin came back to East st. Louis
with the white funeral garments, laun-
dered and folded carefully, packed in
her trunk.
She knew then that there must be no
more delay. The time was growing
short and death was just ahead Again
she asked her husband to buy the ceme-
terry lot Again he refused. She asked
him, too, to purchase a coffin for her
and described the kind she wanted
white VelVet-all white, like the clothes
she had made at Quincy. But Mr..
Larkin, grief-stricken at the thought,
would not buy the coffin either.
But, firm in her own foreknOWledge
of the future, she told him in detail of
her wishes regarding the funeral These
We're the pallbearers she named
E. f. Coddington, Miss Myers, George
Ridgely, r. c. Rudecil, DR.. A. Code
jain, George Bates, F. B. Smith and
M. Millard.
She was a member of the Pythian
sisters and she requested that they
have charge of the funeral.
She was a devoted member of the
First Methodist church, prominent in
religious work and devoted to the
church itself She requested that Rev.
j. e. Harmon, pastor of that church,
be asked to conduct the funeral eX-
ercises
About a week ago, after days of pa
tiert waiting for the summons, she was
taken Ill. Her husband caused her to
be removed to the Henrietta hospital
in East St, Louis. There day by day,
she grew weaker Life was ebbing
away
on Saturday the premonition that
came in the autumn rs fulfilled.
She was taken home and robod in
the white garments she herself had
made at Quincy. The white coffin was
purchased, and, fair, lily fair she was
laid in it's satin depths. The pallbear-
ers and the minister We're summoned
The funeral took place from the
stricken home To the church she loved
and thence to Mount Hope cemetery
where they laid her i'm a grave in a
peaceful spot, where i'm summer time
the sunshine causes wild flowers tC
twinkle in the velvet turf,
The Minstrel
Behold in me "A minstrel old anC
gray
DIT blitba ,,itbo1 tho North Win