The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-09
HOW THEY BURIED HIM

'@rhe coffin was lifted into wagon drawn by pair of mules. and started for the cemetery followed by every soul in town. Business was entirely suspended.
 We went to the old cemetery, which had Il graves in row at that time, all of them occupied by men who had died with their boots on. except one, which was occupied by woman who died of smallpox.
 After the coffin had been so1emnly low cred into the grave by the pal1bearers, I backed up against a tree. got out the prayer book and was just about to begin reading the service when a carpenter named E. 8. Hawley, who was notorious for being contrary and for putting in on all occasions. stepped forward and said
 1" I'm not religious man myself, but my wife was. She was Methodist and she was a good woman3 and she thought the Methodist religion was the best re- ligion that there was, and as MT. Smith was a Methodist, I think he should be buried by that kind of religion instead of some foreign Episcopal kind of re- ligion which he didn't know anything about. When was a boy and went to Methodist funerals they always begun 'em by singing a hymn, and let's jine in Nearer, My God, to Thee"
 'Hawley led off in a high, trembling tone, and the committee, seeing that they were relieved of an awful respon- sibility, stepped into the background and joined in to the best of their ability. Everybody sang, whether he knew the tune or the words or not, for it was the most solemn occasion, and the most serious business that ever happened in the hills-a lot of wicked, illiterate mil ners burying minister-a man of God
 Tt was a scene worthy of the brush of great artist I do not know that it has a parallel in human history. There wasn't a man in that camp who had the slightest religious sentiment, there wasn't a man there who had ever uttered a prayer. at least not since he knelt at his mothers knee in childhood; yet, with that instinct, that reverence for sacred things which the Almighty has planted in the souls of all His creatures, we were trying to do what was right and proper and show our respect to the dead and our esteem for the man who had come out into that perilous country to teach us the way of salvation. As he had performed that same service for many a poor devil who had died by ac- cident or violence in the many mining camps that were scattered over the hills, we thought it was our duty to do the same by him, and we did it, to the best of our knowledge and ability. Each of us felt the same personal responsibility for the observance of the proprieties and the success of the ceremony, and, there fore, whether he could sing or not, every man Jack made a bluff at Nearer, My God, to Thee
 When the hymn was done Hawley. to the astouishment of everybody, stepped forward and handed out very fair brand of prayer. It was short and complicated He got mixed pretty bad several times, but came in head and tail up on the home stretch, and everybody said Amen"
 And that's the way we sent Parson Smith to heaven by the narrow Meth odist trail instead of by the broad-gauge Episcopal route, as originally intended by the committee of arrangements And when the new cemetery was laid out a few years later we changed his resting place to this beautiful hillside. It's steep climb, to be sure, but it's easier coming up than getting away.
 After Smith was killed the vigilance committee woke up to the dangers we were in and offered reward of $50 for every head of an Indian that was brought in, and when the county was organized one of the first things the commissioners did was to raise it to goo. But they never paid for but two scalps. The Indians heard of 1t and quit killing"