Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-08-08
TEARS SHED IN WASHINGTON
As PROCESSION PASSES
CONTINUED from Page u


Shortly after she awoke and while
the city was stirring itself in prep
aration for the great events of the
day, the widow of the great white
mansion, who had been so lately the
first lady of the land, had her break
fast alone in her room on the second
floor, across the hall from the bed
room which had belonged to him
who now slept at the foot of the
great stairway.
The morning sun, despite the h. >
thai gave a touch of u~nreality to the
funeral day, raked the great crystal
chandeliers in the East room with a
salvo of light and gave a new glory
10 the majesty amid which the dead
President was sleeping his last sleep
within the portals which had held
for him SO much of hope and prom
Use.
With the dawn the tale Of tribute
told by the floral offering that al
ready hid the walls of the great
room was taken up again by others
who desired to pay a need of praise
and gratitude to the kindly leader
ship of the sleeper. The first wreath
to arrive this morning was from the
Scouting Fleet-a great anchor f
asters, white on blue. 1t was laid
reverently among the offerings of
princes and of barefoot boys banked
about the casket in a great smoth-
ering profusion of beauty and
fragrance.
In a place of honor near the casket
was n wreath that would have
brought a tear of gratitude to the
kindly blue eyes of the President,
could they have been opened once
again to behold the grandeur of his
last rest amid the flowers. 1t was
from the government of Alaska, a
woven mass of purple and white
orchids, yellow roses, lilies-of-the-
valley and snapdragons, set there to
symbolic the appreciation of a far
land to whose interests the fallen
ch~ieftain had given his last hours of
health and strength.
Two hours before the sad march
from the White House to the Cap
itol was to begin, the crowds were
gathering along the way TO pay their
r-verent homage during the last jour-
ney of their leader along the ave-
nue. where he had passed so many
times before with the high light of
u~nselfsh endeavor in the eyes that
now were closed forever.
Outside the Capitol the watchers
came earlier than elsewhere, in the
vain hope that somehow some of
them might find a way into the ro-
tunda to see the simple funeral rites.
But the little enclosure beneath the
dome could hold only a handful of
the many thousands and the places
of honor there had been reserved
for the highest government and dip
lomatic officials and the friends who
in life had stood closest to Mr..
Harding.
As he would have desired, the
ceremonials chosen to express the
nations last loving farewell were of
the simplest. The pastor of his own
church in Washington and the chap
lain of the House of Representatives
were the officiating ministers. Ths
brief scripture reading selected in
cluded the verse he had kissed on his
inauguration day, as, with hands up
lifted, he took his oath OF duty and
pressed his lips against the Bible
that had been Washington's. I
was the eighth verse of the SIKH
chapter CT Micah:
HE hath showed thee, o man,
what is good: and what doth
the Lord require of thee, but to
do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy
God?"
The thousands who could not be
given places in the funeral hall
were formed in, line at a distance 50
that after the service they might iie
past the casket to pay their last
reverence, as other thousands be-
fore them had paid similar tribute
in the same chamber to Lincoln ard
Mckinley and more recently o the
unknown dead.
Hours beforehand the long line,
four abreast, began to form in the
deep shadows of the capitol grounds.
Profting by the sad lesson of the
last state funeral to a president,
when many were injured in the
crush of eagerness to pass in trib-
ute past the coffin OF Mckinley, a
wide space in front of the capitol
itself was kept. cleared of all except
those who had cards of admission.
Shortly after 9 o'clock the casket
was opened as it lay among the
flowers in the east room and the rel
atives an dclose friends said their
fearful goodbye to the dead. All the
/ White House employees. who had
loved him for his kindly thought