Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-01
Immense Throngs Crowd the
Streets as Body of Earl
Is Borne to Grave.
KHAKI-CLAD SOLDIERS
APICTURESQUE FEATURE
Great British General Died Under
Conditions That He Would
Have Chosen Himself.
Special Correspondence Of The star.

Special Correspondence Of The STIR.
LONDON. November 21-The funeral
of Lord Roberts was the most i'm
pressive sight Londoners have had
since the beginning Of the war The
fag-draped coffin on the plain South
African gun carriage passing through
the wet gray streets to the National
Cathedral aroused the intense patriot
ism Of the thousands Of spectators, and
in its very simplicity was grand and
betting the wonderful little man who
was the object Of a peoples admira-
ton and love.
No feature Of the ever memorable
spectacle more impressed me than the
mighty crowd that, Drawing Icy rain
and biting wind, hurried from every
corner of the empires capital to keep
q. last tryst with their patriot hero.
All Of London's great main arteries
were flooded with the tide Of mourners,
each intent on arriving at some point
of vantage. It was a sight never to
be forgotten. this de1uge Of mourning
Britons hurrying to bid farewell to
their well beloved "Bobs."
Thousands Of those who came to pay
their final tribute to the dead must
have seen little beyond the tops of
turbans and the CLINT of sword or bayo-
net. Every street converging on the
main route was packed with people.
The procession had not the pomp and
military funerals of the past. By COM
parison with the late Lord Wolseley's.
for instance, 1t was lacking in glamour
and in color.
For this time it was khaki, khaki
everywhere. the only really picturesque
feature being contributed by the quaint
spectacle of the Indian mountain ar
tillery. with their cannon bobbing along
on the backs of mules But the very
simplicity and baroness of today's cor
tege and the businesslike field &C
couterments of the men on duty were
all the more fitting in the case of a
great soldier who hated show and died
just behind the trenches to the roaring
of the guns.
Had Proved Worthy.
Everybody agrees that Lord Roberts
died under conditions that he himself
would have chosen. He must have died
happy, too, in the knowledge that the
nation has walked at last to the stark
truth, which. in spite of the sneers Of
little men, he had proclaimed in and out
of season since he retired from active
service in the field. He died knowing
that the British army had proved itself
worthy Of his work for it, and that the
nation was set irrevocably ON carrying
this struggle to inevitable victory at
whatever sacrifice
When he returned from India 1t seemed
that his career was finished. He went to
Ireland. He began-save for one memo
xable occasion in a great processlon-to
|&Ifop out of the memory Of a tickle ma
ton. Then came his departure to South
Africa under the shadow Of his sons
splendid death. and England woke to his
claim On her Most of US remember that
foggy day when he returned and drove
with King Edward. then Prince Of Wales.
Palace.
Then came the least happy part of
his career, his tenure of the office of
mander-in- chief. 1t is useless to
revive the old controversies, or the
story of the way in which he was
thwarted He, at least, did not COM
plain. The story that he came down
to his office one day and found let
ter practically dismissing him under
whether true or false-from anything
said by him
He passed silently out of the Office
and began what, in some aspects, was
the greatest period of his life, the ten
year struggle against national apathy.
Treated by those who had called him
the savior of his country as If he
when there came the fulfllment Of all
his prophecies he uttered no reproaches.
but went to work to assist in making
good deficiencies which ought never
to have existed.
Was Always Calm.
This self-control WAS characteristic