Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-08-10
Back with Home Folks
Continued from Page O1e)

\SOnIlHueu from rage wv
they were always Jack" and tom"
and Billy" while he had been wv.
c." and The Boss in the glad,
wholesome. simple days before the
| people claimed him for highest SER
! vice to the flag. 1t was thus he
would have hailed them today had
! the big kindly heart still stirred with
| life. Time was when he t'ld them
face to face of the heavy heart"
with which he realized that they held
back from Harding the President as
theNSad never kept aloof from Hard
ing the man.
| But it was Harding the man, not
| the President, who came home to-
day. And it is Harding the man,
who will be laid to sleep tomorrow
within a stones throw from the plot
where his mother lies. Although his
final resting place is still undecided,
take him from the close vicinity of
his own dead in that pleasant, quiet
! burial ground.
A thronged home town waited in ST.
lence today for this second coming of
u neighbor, called by destiny since he
went out, two years ago, amid shout
ing and joyous acclaim to take his
place in Washington and guide a
mighty nation through troubled wa
/ ters. Only one brief visit to help the
| home folks celebrate Marion's CEN
! tennial had been possible for. him be-
| fore. but now he came in the added
| dignity of death and weighted with
scrrowful honors from all the world.
AS the funeral car rolled in, a few
national guardsmen lined the way
ahead to keep the crowd back. The
guard of honor lifted the heavy bur-
den down again and placed the casket
! in a gray hearse for the short trip to
! the boyhood home of the dead man.
i The cabinet members stepped down
i to the platform and then Mrs. Hard
ing, coming thus again to Marion. in
deep sorrow. for the second time
since she left so blithely at her hus-
bands side to share with him the ma
tons highest honor.
The resolute carriage that has
! kept Mrs. Harding firm and calm
! through the long ordeal of the home
ward journey and the trying days in
Washington while the nation, with
| fullest circumstance said its mourn
full yet proud farewell to the dead.
sustained her in the closing moments
| of her trials. She walked to the
waiting motor car with head erect
and leaning on Secretary Chris tians
arm.
DR.. Harding's home is only few
short blocks away from the station.
There the father waited TO receive
! his great son at the modest thrcs-
hold, bowed but still unbroken by
the weight of years and sorrows.
| There is strong, quiet strain of
courage and endurance in adversely
in the Harding blood.
Ahead of the hearse as 1t drew
away from the sta ton at last up the
silent aisle, the men and women and
children of Marion had made for this
sad homecoming, walked the dead
presidents aides, Major Baldinger
and Captain Andrews. Then came
the cars with the cabinet and the
others who had been with the flu
neral train all the way from San
Francico and who came to Marion
at Mrs. Harding's personal request.
Thanking the hearse on either side,
the soldiers an dsailors and marines
of the guard of honor named for this
Office in San Francisco, walked in
column. Their uniforms and those
OF the two officers leading them gave
the only touch of military pageantry
to the scene. Otherwise it might
have been the homecoming of any