Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1921-11-24
Harding Shows Emotion.

0hV"S 4AAuVtAUns
MIR. Harding showed strong emo
ton as his lips formed the last
words Of the address. He paused,
then with raised hand and head
bowed went on in the measured,
rolling period of the Lords prayer.
The response that came back to him
from the thousands he faced, from
| the other thousands out over the
slopes beyond, perhaps from still
other thousands near the Pacific or
close packed in the heart of the ma
tons greatest city, rose like a chant
/ The marble arches hummed with
! the solemn sound.
Then the foreign officers who
stand highest among the soldiers
! or sailors of their flags came one by
one to the bier to place gold and
| ieweled emblems for the brave
above the breast of the sleeper. Al
ready, as the great prayer ended,
! the President had set the American
seal of admiration for the valiant,
| the nations love for brave deeds
and the courage that defies death,
upon the casket. Side by side he
laid the medal of honor and the dis
tinguished service cross.
And below, set in place with rev.
erent hands, grew the long line OF
foreign honors, the Victor a cross,
never before laid on the breast OF
any but those who had served the
English flag; all the highest honors
of France, Belgium, Italy, houma'
MIA, Czccho-Slavakia and Poland.
Belgium's Tribute.
ITO General Jacques of Belgium ii
remained to add his own touch to
these honors. He tore from the
breast of his own tunic the medal OF
valor pinned tt.rre by the Belgian
king, tore it with a sweeping gesture
and tenderly bestowed it on the UNI
known American warrior.
Through tie religious service
that followed and the prayers, the
: swelling crowd sat motionless until
it rose to Join in the old, tonsolin9
words of Rock of Ages and the last
rite for the dead was at hand
Lifted by his hero bearers from the
stage, the unknown was carried IN
his fiag-wrapped, simple cctfiu Out
to the wide sweep oI the terrace.
THE bearers laid the sleeper down
above the crypt il. which had been
=. placed a little d the soil OF France
The dust his flood helped redeem
from alien hands will mlngie with
his dust as time marches by.
The Casket Lowered.
THE simple words of the burial
ritual were said by Bishop Brent
, flowers from war mothers of Amer
, ica and England were laid in place
: For the Indians of America, CHEZ
) Plenty Coos came to call upon tht
| Great Spirit of the red men WITT
: gesture and chant and tribal tongue
: that the dead should not have dlec
} in vain, that war might end, peace
l he purchased by such blood as this
f JTnon the casket he laid the coul
e stick of his tribal office and TIT
feathcred war bonnet from his owl
e head Then the Casket with IL
/ weight of honors was lowered lnt'
}, the crypt.
e "A rocking blast Of gunfire ranI
n ont from the woods.
e "The glittering circle OF bayonet
0 stiffened to salute to the dead.
i Again the gun shouted their mes
S sage of honor and farewell, agali
d thew doomed out; a loyal conrad
was being laid to his last rest
High and clear and true in tn
a echoes of the guns, bugle lifte'
s the old. notes of taps, the luliab
n for the living soldier, in death hi
# requiem. Long ago some forgotten
soldier poet caught its meanin
: clear and set it down that soldier
r everywhere might know It's messag
S as they sink to rest:
It Fades the light;
IS And afar
Isl "Goeth day, cometh night,
h "And star
"Leadeth all, speedeth all
L ITO their rest.
nj THE guns roared out again in tn
d national salute.
n HE was home, the unknown,
sleep forever among his own.