Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and PatriotEverett, Marshall
History
Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and Patriot
The tension in the room was great. Every one seemed to be waiting. The
minister of the gospel stood with the holy book in his hand ready to
begin.
Perhaps it might have been sixty seconds. It seemed longer. Then the
President turned and advanced one step. He bowed his head and looked.
Long he gazed, standing immovable, save for a twitching of the muscles
of the chin. At last he stepped back. Tears were in President
Roosevelt’s eyes as he went to the chair reserved for him.
Another dramatic scene came when the service was over and the Rev. Mr.
Locke had pronounced the benediction. Before any one had moved, and
while there was the same perfect stillness, Senator Hanna, who had not
before found courage to look upon the dead face of his friend, stepped
out from where he had been standing behind Governor Odell. It was his
last chance to see the features of President McKinley. There was a look
on his face that told more than sobs would have done. It was the look of
a man whose grief was pent up within him.
The Senator had quite a few steps to take to get to the head of the
casket. When he got to the head of the bier, by President Roosevelt, he
stood with his head resting on his breast and his hands clasped behind
his back, looking down on the face of his friend. He stood there
possibly a minute, but to every one it seemed more like five. No one
stirred while he stood. The scene was beyond expression.
As the Senator turned his head around those in the room saw his face,
and there were tears trickling down it. One of the Cabinet members put
out his arm and the Senator instinctively seemed to follow it. He went
between Senator Long and Attorney-General Knox and sat down in a chair
near the wall; then he bowed his head.
To most of those present at the services at the Milburn house, the dead
President had been friend and comrade, a relationship beside which that
of President seemed for the moment to sink into insignificance. It was
as his friends that they heard the two hymns sung and the passage from
the Bible read.
It was so impressive that the people who were there stood silent, with
something tugging at their throats and making sobs impossible. There
were no sobs heard, and yet there were those there who had known the
dead President all his life. Many eyes were filled with tears, but they
were shed softly. While the services proceeded there was no audible
sound of grief.
But in the faces of every one, from President and the Cabinet Ministers
down to soldier and servant, grief of the deepest kind was written too
plainly to be mistaken, and the tears stole silently down the furrows in
the faces of gray-haired friends who had known intimately the man whose
funeral it was.
The service at the Milburn house began a few minutes after 11 o’clock
and it was over in about fifteen minutes.
The entire military and naval force formed in company front near the
house and there awaited the time for the services to begin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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