Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1893 — BURIAL OF MR. BLAINE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BURIAL OF MR. BLAINE.

Thousands Pay Homage to the Memory of the Dead Statesman. America through its highest dignitaries has paid the last tribute of respect" to the remains of James G. Blaine, says a W ashington correspondent. Every effort was made to comply with the wish of the dead and his family and make the funeral a private one, but the surging wave of public interest swept over the barriers imposedand made his private funeral one of the most impressive of publio demonstrations in honor of the dead. The most eminent men in the nation

stood around his bier. All business In the nation’s capital was suspended while the funeral services were in progress. The presence of the President and his Cabinet and Supreme Judges and high officials of Congress and of the diplomatic corps was not more significant than the homage of the waiting crowds who in respectful silence lined the streets through which the funeral cortege passed. The body of the late ex-Secretary was removed Sunday evening at 5 o’clock and placed in the parlor on the north side of the second floor of the Blaine residence. The windows of this room open out upon Lafayette Square, one of most delightful spots In Washington. Across this plat of ground stands the State, War and Navy Building, where the dead man achieved his latest triumphs in statecraft and diplomacy, During the afternoon and evening a number of Mr. Blaine's friends called at the house and took a last look upon the face of the departed. The expression of the face was peaoeful, and the lineaments of that well-known countenance showed but few traces of the ravages of the disease that carried him off. The casket was almost buried undei the mass of floral tributes which were received, many of them from a distance. It lay in the room where the first prayers of the funeral service were said by the Bov. Dr. Tunis S. Hamlin, of the Church of the Covenant. Notwithstanding the fact that the funeral was a private one the attendants upon the services were as truly national in their representative character as if a President were being buried. The State of Maine sent a delegation of fourteen, headed by Gov. Cleaves; Massachusetts had a delegation of five niembers; the Union League Club of New York sent twentyfive of its members to represent the organization, and the Union League Club of Philadelphia twonty. From various other points in Pennsylvania came delegations of societies and organizations. Altogether a hundred or more of these representatives were E resent. Personal friends to the numer of sixty-flve came from various parts of the country. Mrs. Garfield was there, and others from cities as widely spp,rated as Portland and Omaha. The Maine delegation was invited to attend the services at the house. Services at the House. The ceremonies inside the house were impressively simple. Before the hour of 10 the invited guests began to arrive and take their seats in the front part of the mansion. There were no chairs reserved, except for the President and for the iirmediate family of the deceased. Eleven o’clock was the hour named for the simple service of prayer which was to precede the removal of the body to the church for the more public rite 3. It was only a few minutes after that hour when the mourners entered, and the

President and all the distinguished concourse rose to pay fitting honor and sympathy to the sorrow of the deceased statesman’s relatives. The family was followed by Rev. Dr. Hamlin of the Church of the Covenant, who, standing beside the casket, in a low tone delivered the Presbyterian service for the departed soul. As he did so, Walter Damrosch touched the keys of the , piano to a slow dirge, and the scene was an impressive one. Dr. Hamlin returned thanks to God that by his power this life was ended only that the life of immortality might be begun. He besought the Almighty that comfort might come to every member of the stricken household, because the one that had gone out of this life had gone to immortality. Let the consolation that came from above fall tenderly and sweetly upon them. “Speak to them words of comfort such as Thou alone can teach. This we ask in the name of our Saviour, amen.” This completed the brief and impressive services, and the casket was closed and tenderly borne to the hearse. Solemnly and in silence the family and the mourning guests left the house which has been so frequently invaded by the angel of death, and the procession, wended its way slowly to the church. Outside the house the street was thronged with spectators, who rever-

ently doffed their hats as the pall-bear-ers deposited their s.acred burden in the hearse, and while the attendants temporarily buried it under as many flowers as could be placed therein. The cortege then started for the church. At the Church. The interior of the church was appropriately draped; all about the pulpit and chair rail were banked huge masses of flowers, below which the casket rested. The services, which were brief, were delayed somewhat by the rush of the people in the street preventing the mourners from getting into their seats on time. At 1:30 the funeral procession took up its march to Oak Hill Cemetery, in Georgetown, where the body was interred beside those of the dead man’s son Walker and his daughter, Mrs. Coppinger. Mr. Blaine left a will bestowing all of his property upon Mrs. Blaine, and making her -sole executrix without bonds. The total value of the estate is estimated at SBOO,OOO.

Bernardo Hoenig, who recently died in Hamburg, Germany, has bequeathed the bulk of his fortune to charitable institutions in the City of Mexico. The Cincinnati charity ball netted $7,000.

CHURCH OF THE COVENANT.