The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1919-01-17
SIMPLE SERV|CESAT
ROOSEVELT FUNERAL
FORMER PRESIDENT LAID At
REST AMID THE SCENES Or
HIS EARLY BoYHooD.
Last Sad Rites Surrounded With the
Simple Dignity That Might A.
tend the Passing Of
Private Citizen.


twenty-sixth president Of the United
States. lies at rest beneath cemetery
knoll near the rambling rural highway
along which he travelled so many times
in boyhood and in manhood between
the Sycamore, Hill house, which was
his home, and the quiet village Of
Oyster Bay.
Perhaps no other ex-president OF the
United States has been paid the trib-
ute Of so simple funeral as the one
which was given Colonel Roosevelt
Wednesday afternoon, January s, on
the shore Of Long Island sound. Mill
tary and naval honors We're not his
in death, only because it had been his
wish and that of his family that the
last rites be surrounded only with the
simple dignity THAI might attend the
passing away of private citizen.
But the American nation and foreign
governments, as well, sent representa-
tlves, as did also the state and city In
which he was born. These noted men
sat sorrowfully in the pews of the lit
tie red-gabled Christ Episcopal church,
while brief services Of prayer and
scripture readings were held without
a eulogy in which so much might have
been said There was no singing or
organ playing. Thousands of mourners
came from New York and all parts of
Long Island
1t was noon when, at the Sycamore
Hill homestead, all of Colonel Roose-
velt's family, except two of the sons,
Lieutenant Colonel Theodore ROose-
welt, Jr., and Lieutenant Kermit Roose-
welt, who are soldiers in Europe, as
sembled for a few moments of private
prayer at the side of the casket in
which lay the body. Draped over the
casket were battle flags under which
the colonel fought as a Rough Rider
on Cuban soil more than twenty years
ago. The Rev. DIR. George e. Talmage,
rector of Christ church, said the COM
forting words which We're the final
ones spoken for the colonel in the
presence of Mrs. Rooseyelt-for she
did not accompany the cortege to the
church or to the grave in YOung's
Memorial cemetery. At the Sycamore
Hill services only members Of the
immediate Roosevelt family were
present.
The body was then taken from the
famous Room of Trophies which
Colonel Roosevelt had assembled from
all quarters of the globe. and was
carried from Sycamore Hill ON its final
journey.
Many wreaths and floral tributes for
which there had not been room at the
Sycamore Hill home filled the church
with fragrance. One which was sent
to the Roosevelt home and then
brought to the altar was the tribute
of President Wilson.
DR.. Talmage, with Bishop Burgess
of Long Island, seated in the sanctu.
airy, read the sentences, Psalms and
scriptural lessons which are a part of
the Protestant Episcopal funeral sery.
ices. The former presidents fayorite
hymn, "How Firm a Foundation" was
recited by the rector, in conformance
to the Roosevelt familys desire that
all music, even the organ voluntary, be
omitted. When he came finally to the
Lords irayer, the congregation joined.
The scene at the grave-side was per-
haps the more impressive.
Here stood the Roosevelt family, ex-
cept the boys who are abroad and their
mother, as the casket, its historic flags
now removed, was lowered into the
ground. Near at hand, looking on rev.
,erently We're men in public and pri.
vate life who had been Intimately as
ISOLATED with Colonel Roosevelt in af-
fairs of state, politics, literature and
the army, Rough Riders, neighbors for
whom Sycamore Hill will ever be al
most hallowed ground, and children
from the village school to which the
colonel sent his own sons and daugb.
tiers. They formed a Sorrowiug circle
as DR.. Talmage read the brief com.
INITIAL