The Republican., 1925-07-30
0ODY OF The COMMONER
TO REST AT ARLINGTON
Man Who Spent Life Fighting
For Peace Will Be Inferred
Beside Warriors.

where sleep a great company of the
dead of many wars, the American
government Monday marked out in
Arlington National Cemetery a final
resting place for William Jennings
Bryan, the announcement of whose
sudden death at Dayton, Tenn, Sun
day afternoon, shocked the entire ma
ton.
His burial there late Friday after
noon, with simple ceremony, will full
fill his own oft-repeated wish. In life
a crusader for peace, he chose in
death to lie where the tombs of mill
tary men look down upon the Capital
amid the beauties of the Virginia
hills, but yet nearby the towering me-
MORALS reared to Washington and
Lincoln.
The right he thus asserted to a
place in the nations citadel of mill
tary dead was his by virtue of those
stirring days in '98, when he wore the
uniform of a colonel of volunteers.
His grave will be in that community
of death where sleep many comrades
of the Spanish-American war, not far
from the Dewey mausoleum and the
monument that honors those who
died on the Maine.
Not all of the plans for Fridays
funeral services had been arranged
when this was written, but it seemed
certain that the body of the Com
moner would be committed to the
tomb with only those ceremonies
which are fitting for a plain and hum
bic citizen of the republic. No plans
have been made to sound for him the
bugle call that bids last farwell to
the soldier, nor to heap upon his bier
the pompous tribute of a great gov
ernment for fallen leader of the pe0-
pie. Those of his friends who are do
ing for him the last earthly service
believe he would approve Of no fun
sraI out the simplest.
III n other ways, however, the gov
@nment and the nation will do what
they are permitted to do to honor him.
By direction Of President Coolidge,
flags on the government buildings will
float at half-mast on the funeral day.
His body viii lay in state for time,
too, after its arrival in Washington,
but it is doubtful whether this final
public tribute will be paid in any pub
lie building.
Not until Friday will the family
circle be complete and the funeral
services that afternoon probably will
be held in the Washington place of
worship where MIR. Bryan was a con-
slant attendant during the porten-
tious days of his service in the cabi-
net.
The place of his entombment at Ar
lington was chosen by a friend of
many years, Ben G. Davis, to whom
the former secretary had expressed
more than once his desire to sleep in
the historic national burying ground,
He loved the serenity of the sweep of
wooded ridge rising in gentle foi,
from the Potomac. He wanted, too,
to lie close by the nations memorial
to Abraham Lincoln, whom he loved !;
and that wish will be fulfilled.
The chosen place is one of the most
beautiful in Arlington. Within a
stones throw of the summit of the
highest ridge, his grave will be upon
the bosom of a wide, unshaded sweep,
grass-grown and fringed far-off with
old oaks. Clearly visible across the
placid river, lies the Capital City, a
panorama of historic landmarks; the
shore shafe of the Washington mon
ument; the austere collonade of the
Lincoln Memorial and the majestic,
gray-white dome of the Capitol.
Nearby rise in beauty the great and
small stones of remembrance set
above the dust of those who have
served their country in high places
and low, at home and in far corners
of the world, on land and sea, long
since and yesterday. Within sight of
the central memorial of them all, the
tomb of the Unknown Soldier, rising
before the marble facade of the me-
mortal amphitheatre stands in bold
outline. Only few steps away is the
vault where Dewey rested until but
-scently. Further along the crest
ridan sleeps almost at the door
scep of the old Memorial Mansion that
was once the home of Lee Each in
his appointed place of bivouac, Joe
Wheeler, Phil Kearney, Porter, Samp-
son, Miles and Crook keep the watch
Of eternity. There is among them
one other, General Walter @. Gresh-
am, who in his time was both soldier
and secretary of state