Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-11
LONG LIVE FORMED
IN NIGHT FOR LAST
VIEW Of PRESIDENT
Continued from Page y


home of his father, shelterin~ the
great son again, stands behind d
glowing wall Of flowers.
On the north side, down the tree
lined stone walk that leads to the
home, a close-crowded line, kept ir
place by guardsmen, stretched away
for blocks. The far end was down
beyond the draped courthouse and
it moved away from the house OF
sadness instead of toward it. Hun
dredS upon hundreds came to joir
the gathering every hour, came
faster than the slow movement past
the bier could absorb them. A thin
handful seemed the line of those
coming from the quiet room around
which the sorroWful thought of all
Americans centered today.
More Trains Arrive
Special trains came to Marion from,
all directions. Motor cars came roll
ing in over every road bringing added
scores to join the silent company
gathered sadly where so short d
time ago thousands similarly gath
cred in noisy acclaim to the man
who will hear no more cheering. Ur
every side street the machines were
massed at the curbs in almost end
less rows.
The streets themselves in all the
region about the home of the aged
physician that was the mecca OF
this silent pilgrimage were curiously
blank and still.
Here and there a car on business
that had to with the funeral rites
moved swiftly or a troop-laden truck
rumbled by to set its human freight
about some new task of watching
Against the curbs the young guards.
| men stood widely spaced to keep the
crowds on the sidewalks. Traffic
officers in khaki held the intersec.
lions and waved the necessary flow
of vehicles on it's. way.
A thin haze dimmed the sunlight
a little in the morning hours, but ii
was bright day for all that
| The town had the quiet and the lit
tie, lettering groups about it's count
less comfortable homes of a Sabbath
morning. The hush was there and
the utter cessation from work-a-day
affairs. Only the endless, silent
throngs that waited in the long line
! on the north walk Of Center street
inching slowly eastward to the boy.
hood home of the dead man, served
to break the illusion of Sunday calm.
Crowds View Tomb.
| Other hundreds walked among the
winding drives and many stones and
monuments of the field of the dead
where Warren Harding was soon to
sleep. They passed before the vault
deep in the tree-groWn recesses Of
the cemetry, to paus a little before
its iVy-clad front, where a handful
of the vast freight of flowers soon
to be placed there already lifted nod
ding, beautiful heads a clinging frag-
rance in the still air. They saw
the half-score tall white column rang
ed in half-circle before the entrance
to the tomb, columns that once graC-
ed the triumphal way up Mount Yer
non avenue to- the porch where the
dead president stood proudly just a
handful of hurrying months ago.
Famous Porch Vacant
The house where he had lived!
the comfortable, quiet home of a
respected citizen like a thousand
others about it, was graced with a
single flag and Il mourning band
The rallied and covered circle above
campaign" was planned and car
ried through, was vacant and IN
decorated except for the swinging
baskets Of ferns it has long known
On the sidewalk stood a little knO.
Of guardsmen to see that the stroll
ing hundreds who came to view the
place of Warren Harding's great
ness did not block and crowd toe
closely to mar the peace and quie!
of the day.
This was the day of the home
people who best knew and best
| loved the man who had gone from
them to greatness, only to cone
back so soon in death. Whatever OF
pomp and parade there was about
these last hours before he was car.
ried to the grass grown vault was
made by these thousands for them
| selves. No ceremonial of sorrow
filled the waiting hours before thu
funeral. The great ones who had
left the cares of the nation for al
| hour to be with their dead chief
at the end, did not leave their hotels
or the private homes that had TAX.
en- them in.
Around the casket with the sin.
gle line of mourners filtering by
with soft step and dimmed eyes
the motionless vigil of the armed
| men who have cease,essIy guarded
the dead through the long days an /
nights since his death, still was
! continued.
Hundreds of people walked the
streets all night unable or unwilling
| to go to bed. Many slept or
| benches about the courthouse or any
place where they might sit or liz
down in the open.
The Harding home was opened
again to the public at 8 o'clock this
morning. two hours before the tim
set for the public review to begin
again, and the long silent line be.
gan to move. A detachment of ar.
| tlllery troops was on duty at the
house directing the line. BY the
time the line had started to move
it had heightened to more than fif
teen blocks.
Pilgrimage to Home
Thousands, despairing of oppor,
tunity to see their dead president
and friend, made a solemn pilgrim.
age to the home where his body Law,
They went on the opposite side OF
| the street and would stand uncoy
cred in silence for a few minutes
| before being forced to move on that
others might take their places tc
pay their respects and a last fare
well.
The long line, six to eight abreast