Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1901 — DEAD CHIF IS HONORED [ARTICLE]

DEAD CHIF IS HONORED

Thousands Take Last Look at McKinley’s Face, PUBLIC VIEW THE REMAINS. Impressive Services at Buffalo Sunday— Mrs. McKinley Remains Upstairs at Milburn House While Religious Ceremonies Are Ilelng Conducted. As the daily life of William McKinley was marked by the greatest simplicity, so were the last rites and services over his casket Sunday at Buffalo. Solemn and impressive, full of the lessons that the President had sought to live out in their fullness, there was no pomp or circumstance to the closing scenes in the now famous Milburn house. With the sacred hymns that had been his favorite music, with the loving words of those who had known him only to love him, with just a few of the nearest and the dearest of the countless men and women who had been proud to call him their friend gathered at the side of his bier, the noble victim of a wanton wretch was prepared for his last journey. Then the casket was closed over its precious burden and borne through the streets of the city to where the multiture might pass in one long, sad procession for the last view of the kindly face. Scenes at the House. In the library of the Milburn house, where the rays of the sun fell softly through the shaded windows, the last words were spoken. Outside soldiers passed back and forth, guarding the house of death and sorrow; inside a sweet-voiced choir sang songs that had lingered on the sufferer’s lips as the last bit of consciousness fled from him. Upstairs the widowed invalid sat and listened to it all, scarce knowing what it meant, but with the mark of a great sorrow on her sweet face. Eleven'o’clock was the hour for the solemn ceremony, and just as the chimes in a distant belfry rang out it was begun. For an hour before the appointed time the pavement in Delaware avenue had echoed the clatter of the carriages bearing the distinguished statesmen and men of public affairs who were to take part in these closing rites. Soldiers stood in grim array before the door of the Ivy-cov-ered mansion, groups of watching newspaper correspondents lingered in the road and waited for what was to come.

Covered by Old Glory. The casket had been carried down from the upper room where Mr. McKinley had breathed his last and was placed between two windows in the library. The silken folds of an American flag were drawn about the bier. The upper lid was drawn back and the face bared for the parting gaze of those who were soon to assemble. Red roses, white chrysanthemums and wreathes of purple violets lay at the foot of the bier. At the doors and windows opening into the library stood soldiers and marines, the guardians of the dead. The invited few began to arrive. Senator Hanna was among the first.. Then the carriages rolled up, one close upon the other. Little groups gathered on the lawn before the house, waiting for the signal to enter. President Roosevelt, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Ansley Wilcox, arrived just before the time appointed for the services. His coming was the summons to those on the lawns to make ready for the ceremonies. Widow Remains Upatalrs. The Immediate members of the McKinley family and their-closest friends assembled in a small room adjoining the library. Mrs. McKinley was not with them. Surrounded by Mrs. Barber, Miss Barber, Mrs. Garret Hobart and Dr. Rixey, she was seated in the upper hallway at the top of a flight of stairs, where every word that was pronounced over the casket which contained all that she held dear in the world could reach her. The strains of hymns rendered by the choir reached her there in her seclusion and brought the slow, sad tears to her eyes. Not once did she break down, but through it ail she sat with head bowed as though her great grief had exhausted her powers for suffering. Her anguish was buried deep in a broken heart. The body was taken to the Buffalo city hall for the public funeral. As the funeral cortege passed slowly down Delaware avenue the little host that had listened to the services filed quietly out of the house. The original plans provided for no lying; In state. At a late hour Saturday too late for wide knowledge of It to be disseminated, the public was conceded the hours from 1 until 6 o’clock Sunday afternoon. More than twice as many as could hope to get through the lines in that time came from all over western New York until fully 200,000 were massed during the morning. In the face of such a concourse the limit was extended, but the patient thousands did not know it. They merely stayed on through the storms and hoped. For

nearly ten hours v’hey streamed through the city hall corridor where the President lay, passing in two lines which formed faster than they melted. Ten thousand an hour flowed past until weather and physical collapse wore out other thousands and the thinned lines ended at 11 o’clock Sunday night. President Roosevelt accompanied the funeral party on the train from Buffalo to Washington Monday. The body of the late President McKinley lay in state at the national capitol building Tuesday. Mrs. Roosevelt hurried to Washington from the Adirondacks, arriving with her family Monday.