Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1923-08-09
HEARTFELT MOURN
ING MARKS FUNERAL
RITES OF PRESIDENT
All Homage and Sorrow of the Coun-
try Laid at Feet of Silent Son

WASHINGTON, D. c., August 8
America spoke her grief Wednesday
at the passing of well beloved SON,
the twenty ninth Presid mt of the
United States-spoke it in a pageantry
OF sorrow, spoke it in an out-pouring
OF silent emotion. spoke it in tones of
majestic reverence such as the nation
has seldom heard.
All the homage and sorrow that is
in the nations heart was laid at his
silent feet. And in the performance
there was written a chapter across the
pages OF the republics history that
shall be forever green in the memoir
les of men.
Following the day of tribute at the
national capital, the body of the late
President again was placed aboard the
funeral train which, at o'clock be-
gan its final journey to Marion.
Government officials and represen-
tatives of the several states began as
sembling at the White House to form
the solemn cortege as early as 900
O'Clock. The first to arrive was Gov.
Pinchot of Pennsylvania with his aides.
Pinchot was followed by the Senate
committee of honorary pail bearers,
led by President Pro Tenn Albert M.
Cummins of Iowa.
By the time members of the diplo-
matte corps CARRIED in dress uniforms,
began to arrive there was a ceaseless
stream of officials moving into the
grounds.
Procession Starts
The actual start of the calvacade of
sorrow came at 1917 more than
quarter of an hour late. The delay was
caused by the labors of the military
pallbearers in strapping the flagdraped
casket With the crunch of wheels
on the gravel roadway, tic cdvalcade
swung slowly down through the ex-
ecut grounds and into the historic
avenue. viAE |
Hardly had torpid SIN swung quar-
ter way across the smoky sky .yhen the
White House swung wide and all that
remains of Warren G. Harding came
forth from his last night Under its
roof into the hands Of the people, and
thence through endless lanes of bow
ed and reverential citizenry 10 where
the dome of the Capitoi showed mist
lily against the foggy heavens
And there under the great dome
which has covered bu7 few CT the
nations heroes, reverentiai hands laid
his body, wrapped only in the glor-
1ous mantle of the flag, on its catafa1-
que that the rich and the poor, the
mighty and the small, might pass by
his bier and mourn him to his grave.
Historic Pennsylvania Avenue which
has echoed to the sadness of Lincoln's
cortege, the triumphant tramp of Gen.
Grants men, home from the wars: the
grief that attended the passing of Gar
field and Mckinley reverberated to-
day to the marching of those who did
honor to clearinghouse at last after
a 5000 mile journey that a Caesar
might wei. have envied
1t was down this same broad ave-
nue., but 90 months ago that Warren
q. Harding rode to the greatest honor
that can come to man, the presidency
of the greatest republic on earth. Then
he was filled with the flush of life,
vigorous. alert, keen and anxious to
get at the great tasks ahead of him.
beside him that bleak March day rode
a man who was relinquishing the same
honored position, shrunken, wh;te-fac-
ed, lame, victim of the terrible toll
that America exacts of her high serv-
ants. Today that same white faced
man, Woodrow Wilson rode behind
Warren G. Harding to the shrine of
the nations departed great.
Then the avenue had been gay, bois-
ferrous, its buildings afire with flags
and bunting, and the accAim that
came to Warren G. Harding brought
a rich red flush to his tanned face,
and twisted smile to the face of the
man who rode beside him.
All Manner of Men
In the great procession which mark
eded the final passing of Warren G.
Harding from the White House to the
Capitol, and his passing, too from the
stage of world affairs were all manner
of men. There were the great of the
nation and the small.
There was the new president, Calvin
Coolidge, slim, reddish-haired, his face
rejecting already the realization of
what awful burdens have suddenly
been set astride his narrow shoulders
by an inscrutable fate.
There were two past Presidents of
the Republic, Taft and Wilson. The
years have passed and but lightly
touched the former since he last went
UP the avenue. They have weighed
heavily on the lame, white-faced other
one.
There was saddened and utterly
griefstricken woman, Mrs. Harding
strangely small in her garb of heavy.
black mourning and yet pathetically
brave in manner that has challen-
ged the admiration of the nation. She
was the cynosure of tear-wet eyes by
all who could see and hear and feel.
Behind her carriage came other rela-
tives of the dead President. two sisters
Miss Abigail Harding, Daisy the
president called her, and Mrs. E. E.
Remsberg of California who made the
Journey across the continent on the
funeral train; nieces and others.