Chicago, Aug. 6—(By the Associated Press)—Father Bearborn bowed his head in mourning today as the nation’s burden of sorrow reached Chicago.
Through miles upon miles of people, the funeral train bearing the body of Warren G. Harding passed scarcely faster than a man might walk.
Slowly the black draped engine moved through the great throngs, at times so dense that they were crowded upon the tracks in front of the funeral cortege even as they tried to make a patch for the train of mourning.
Traffic Halted
Traffic was halted for blocks at every street intersection and the people were massed so densely along the right of way that the train could only creep and at times stopped altogether. It probably was the greatest demonstration for a public figure the city has ever witnessed and can compare only with the reception accorded the body of the only other chief executive of the nation ever brought here—Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Not only did people gather in the hot, dusty railroad yards and stand for hours wedged so tightly together that they could scarcely breathe, but they peered by the hundreds from windows and from house tops. Every point of vantage had its complement of mourners.
Due to the crowds that thronged about the funeral train as it reached the more densely populated sections of Iowa and Illinois, the cortege entered Chicago shortly before 6 o’clock, over 2 ½ hours behind schedule. It departed at 7:10 o’clock nearly four hours behind the estimated running time.
Delayed by Crowds
The train paused in its trans-continental flight only long enough for the change of engines and the necessary operating delays.
Due to the crowds, however, it was here more than an hour, moving along at a snail’s pace much of the time. Besides the city’s floral offerings, many other floral pieces were put aboard the train here.
As the train bearing the President’s body moved along, those watching from the train saw the sorrowful faces of thousands with all eyes directed toward the last coach where lay the body of the nation’s chief and where rode his widow.
Tears trickled down the cheeks of men and women as the funeral cortege passed. Little children followed the train as it moved down the tracks, some of them sobbing.
Despite the crowds, and it was estimated that those who saw the funeral cortege here numbered from 200,000 to 350,000 persons, there was scarce a sound as the train rolled by. People stood with heads uncovered and almost breathless. Through the great steel and industrial section, the packing plants and the lumber yards, machinery was stopped and the hum of commerce was stilled.
Seen by Mrs. Harding
Mrs. Harding, at a window near the casket of her husband, for a part of the time watched the sympathetic sorrowing faces of the crowds, the tear-stained cheeks of men, women and little children. She must have felt that no living President in the country’s history ever drew his countrymen to his side as did Warren G. Harding in death.
Two Pullman coaches laden with floral offerings to a point which made passage through them impossible gave mute testimony of the outpouring of love which has been America’s response to the death of its leader all the way from the Golden Gate to the city on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Tonight, far behind its schedule because a mourning people stood in front of it to pay their tribute of reverence, the funeral cortege wound its way around the tip of Lake Michigan and across the level stretches of Indiana. Before morning the train was expected to cross the borders of the President’s own Ohio.
The train was turned over to the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at 6:35 p.m., central time.
The funeral train, drawn by two powerful locomotives, left the Twenty-Second street station of the Baltimore and Ohio road at 7:15 p.m. heading southward and east toward the national capitol.
As the train picked up speed and began leaving the dense masses of persons who had followed it through its slow progress through the city, it was more than four hours late on the original schedule.
Under the present running time, it is estimated the train will not reach Washington before 6 p.m. tomorrow evening.
To Pass Through Ohio
With only smaller towns to pass through, Indiana trainmen estimated some time lost through Chicago might be regained there, but the large crowds expected through Ohio, President Harding’s home state, will more than offset this gain.
There were no accurate estimates of the number in the mass of humanity that was literally packed and jammed along the tracks for several miles. There were other thousands in smaller crowds assembled at other vantage points along the Chicago and Northwestern and Baltimore and Ohio railroads. Reports reaching Chicago stated that people by the thousands had been waiting virtually all afternoon at various Indiana towns. It was said nearly 10,000 persons had stood and watched at Gary, Indiana, since 1 p.m. They had about two hours waiting ahead of them, it was estimated.
From the front page of The Monroe Journal, August 7, 1923
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