The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-10-25
PIER OF DEAD IS
INSPIRING SIGHT
Writer in New York Times Describes
Place Where keokuk Boys Bodies
arc Being Returned from
France.
'CoFFINs FLAG DRAPED
Armed Guards Pace Their Posts
Around This Hahlowed Spot
Where Simple Collins are
Placed in Long Rows.

| An interesting picture right now,
because of the number Of soldier
dead being brought back to Keokuk
! for burial, is given of the pier or
dead" by Paxton Hibben, writing in
| the New York Times magazine. Flag
draped coffins are placed in lines
! along the pier and guard solemnly
walks his post around this bivouac OF
the dead.
Mr.. Hibben's description is given
/ here:
! Stand at the door Of the great
| Hamburg American line pier at Ho-
| boken, to which the Leyiathan IS
made fast, and look eastward, down
| the pier. Nothing of the busy wharf
crowded with outging passengers and
their friends is left about the place.
Even the lofty rafters and the steel
supporting beams are hidden in a
| foliage of Stars and Stripes. 1t IS
| like the nave of vast cathedral
| And along the sides, in row upon
row, where in cathedral would be
clustered the tombs and monuments
| of famous dead, here are stretched as
| far as eye can reach the collins OF
| our soldier dead, come home at last.
| There seem to be thousands OF
them gathered there in formal rank
and file Indeed, there are thou
sands. And each coffin, raised a
little from the floor, is covered with
| new American flag, as squarely
placed as the service hat OF a GOOD
soldier is squarely set upon his head.
! Between the rows of dead, IN a still
ness strange and grateful in the busy
noisy, Indifferent city, there walks
sentinel, full armed, the last earthly
guardian Of those who have no longer
need Of guarding.
! AS you stand there, loking down
! the line of flags that stretch so far
| that your eye is lost among them,
| your hat comes off bysa will beyond
your own, and you feel quick tight
ening at your throat and a smarting
in your eyes, There they are, those
fellows you left over there at Beau.
mont or at St. Emelie or at Romagne,
under the warm French sun. The
navy took you over and the navy'll
bring you back" the gobs on the
transport used to chant. No. The
army brought these back.
There Is a little, insistent purr.
An electric truck slides by with its
burden of recruit for this army OF
the dead The coffin is very heavy
| in it's wooden box that covers and
protects the metal casket within
! 900 pounds each weighs. But the
men who handle it do it as if they
had known the chap inside. Perhaps
they did, for they, too, are ex-service
men, all Of them. And always they
keep the huge box level, as if some
sudden jolt might disturb eternal
sleep. Four of them lay it gently on
| its trestles The flag is stretched to
cover it. The electric truck purrs off
for new burden. Silence falls again.
! The sentry resumes his slow march,
bach; and forth.
-., Nc TinseI or Crepe.
What is finest about it-what is
most American about it's that
there is no tinsel, no crepe, no i'm
mortelles. Just the essential things:
the man who died, the flag he died
for-and the living soldier, walking
his post symbol of the tradition and
/ the purpose that we, the living, have
taken from the hands of those who
, died over there, as it were a flaming
| torch
Every few days a ship comes in
with its solemn load, and Brigadier
! General John J. Bradley, command
ing officer Of the port Of embarka-
ton, and his staff, meet the ship.
On September %, 6,2S1 bodies had
been received and had passed on to
their final resting place, in American
soil. approximately there are $4,000
more to come. AS they arrive at the
rate of about 1000 each week, it will
be well into next year before all of
those whose return has been re-
quested can have come home.
No formal honors are paid in Ho-
boken-it is regarded merely as a
point in transit. But the bodies are
kept in the flag-hung chamber Of
Pier 4, under military guard, night
and day, until the family can be mott
fled of the arrival of the body and
can give final instructions as to its
disposition. Between 1,SG0 and 1000
bodies are thus being kept constantly
in Hoboken. ,''
So soon as the bodies arrive, tele.
grams are sent to the next of kin
of each deceased soldier and final
instructions requested. Frequently
the family has moved since the origi-
nal request for the shipment of the
body was filed with the war depart
ment, and it has been found advisable
/ to make certain that the address first
given is still the address to which
the body Is to be sent before ship,
ment Is made. In number of in
stances, after the body had been ex.
| humed in France and brought all the
way to Hoboken, the family of the
dead soldier has altered it's plans and
requested that the body be permitted
/ to remain in France.
| This, of course, would involve a
reshipment Of the remains to France
and endless complications with the
French authorities. When this hap
pens, General Bradley orders the re
mains sent to Washington, where
burial takes place in the United