Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-11
MARION BIDS LAST
GO0D-BY To FRIEND
AND FIRST CITIZEN
thousands File Past Harding
Casket as Hour of Services
NearS Home City Crowd
ed as Never Before I


of Marions first citizen was laid
today in place of rest.
Warren Harding passed through
the quiet streets of his home town,
and with IL ceremony as simple and
brief as though he never had been
ought save an honored citizen of the
town, was given to God for eternity,
The nations greatest were at the
tomb, but they stood there no high
er than the lowliest man in Marion
Warren G. Harding was the ma
TONS; today he was Marions, and
with loves privilege, his widow and
aged father and his friends and
neighbors claimed the right to lay
his body away with their own hands.
At p. m. the house doors were
closed. All the world, even Marion,
was shut out for an hour, while
Mrs. Harding and the aged father
looked their last upon the still face
When they left the silent room
the other relatives, George #. Har
ding, Jr, the brother; Mrs. E. e.
Remsberg, Miss Abigail Harding and
Mrs. Heber Votaw, the sisters, with
their families, were admitted fol
their farewels.
Softly then the casket was shut
foreevr.
The Last Journey
The members of the cabinet, Presi
dent Coolidge, and the party that
went from Washington to Alaska
with Mr.. Harding, gathered and the
coffin was carried for the last time
from the fathers house, by the same
honor guard of young men of .ifs
army, navy and marine corps, who
have borne it since it was carried
from the Palace hotel in San Fran.
cisco a week ago to be placed on the !
funeral train for Washington.
The cortege moved through the
still tree-shaded streets, between tho
lines of friends and neighbors. On
TO the opened gates Of the Marion
cemetery, it took its stately way
There There was no.. ponaps.--- no brilliant
trappings or display of grief. For
he who passes by was just Warren
G. Harding, citizen of Marion.
Behind the gray hearse in which
the casket was borne, came the
honorary pallbearers, who were
President Coolidge and Chief Jus
tice Taft, the members of the cabi-
net, Senator Cummins, president Of
the senate, Speaker Gillett, of the
house. Other members Of the SUI
preme court, the wives of cabinet
officers, and a great host of men and
women occupying humber positions
under the government, or having 10
official position at all, followed.
The vast majority of the thou.
sands who accompanied that grey
hearse were just the plain folks
Warren Harding loved and who, be.
cause he loved them and so plain-
ly showed it., loved him in return.
Changes in Program
Rope barriers In the cemetery
held back the crowd, which was not
allowed nearer than about fifty yards
back from the UNCOVERED receiving
vault, Within the barriers, a space
has been roped off for the chief
mourners. Then there was a place
for the hundreds of floral tributes,
rendering homage in the name of
foreign governments and millions OF
Americans.
Slight changes in the funeral pro-
gram were made.
A prayer at the house, before the
start for the cemetery, was uttered
by the Rev. Walter A. King, of Co.
lumbus, former pastor of Mr.. Har-s
ding's Baptist church here.
The Rev. w. F. Anderson, bishop
of the Methodist Episcopal diocese
of Cincinnati, delivered the benedic-
ton at the vault.
The choir of Trinity Baptist church
sang Lead Kindly Light" one of
the hymns Mr. Harding learned to
know and to love when he lived in
Marion. Rev. George M. Lands.
pastor of Trinity church, then read
from the scriptures, and DIR. Jesse
Swank, pastor Of Epworth Method
ist Episcopal church, offered prayer.
The choir sang Nearer, My God,
to Thee"
Warren Harding was at rest.
Doors Are Closed
At 1 p. m. with line of peapl@
more tnan four miles .cG-
the Harding house, the order was
issued that no more would be adj
mitted. A Gordon of troops was
thrown across the column cutting it
off short.
The last of the mourners passed
the casliet and the doors were closed.
At this time a dense crowd was
r1assed on all sides of the residence.
Boy Scouts aided the troops in hold
ing back the people. Troops began
clearing persons without passes, out
of the drives and yards around the
house in preparation for the coming
of President Coolidge.
A Red Cross detachment was busy
administering first aid to those who
collapsed from the heat which was
growing more intense.
CROWD MARION
FOR PRESIDENTIAL FUNERAL
MARION. O., Aug. 10.-By the
Associated Press.) = Slow moving
Lhrongs crowded the streets of
Marion again today in the last pub
ic honors Warren Harding was 10
know before the doors of the ivy
grown vault close upon him.
If seemed that NOT a1ono DI1io 1Iyf
avery surrounding state from whioh
Marion could be reached before tee
md had sent legions here to pass
beside the bier or to stand s;&eN'
is the dead president was carried
% his rest Congested sidewalks
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