A block away ropes had been stretched across the streets leading to the city hall, and behind these the crowd was massed in thousands. Its mere weight pushed the ropes out of place, and the police were constantly overpowered in trying to hold the crowd in line against the patient multitude which neither threat of rain nor the storm itself could disturb.
The head of the funeral line reached the city hall a few minutes after noon. The military escort marched down past the main entrance, wheeled into line and came to “present arms” at the moment the storm which had been threatening broke. Rain fell in torrents and belated thunder peals mingled detonations through it.
The carriages carrying President Roosevelt and the Cabinet members rolled up and were discharged. Then the hearse came, and four sergeants of the United States army and four quartermasters from the naval detachment lifted the casket on their shoulders and bore it within, while the band played “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”
Directly above the spot where the coffin was to lie there was a dome of black bunting, within which hung straight down above the coffin four American flags, forming with their lower edges a cross which pointed to the four points of the compass.
President Roosevelt and the Cabinet ranged themselves about the spot where the body was to rest. Mr. Roosevelt stood at the foot of the coffin on its right hand, with Secretary Root opposite and facing him. On President Roosevelt’s left were Attorney-General Knox, Secretary Long and Secretary Wilson. On Mr. Root’s right hand were Postmaster-General Smith, Secretary Hitchcock and Mr. Cortelyou, the President’s private secretary.
The casket’s upper half was open. The lower half was draped in a flag upon which were masses of red and white roses. The body of the President lay on its back and was clad in a black frock coat, with the left hand resting across the breast. One glance at the face, startlingly changed from its appearance in life, told the story of the suffering which had been endured before death came.
Not a word was said. As soon as the coffin had been arranged, President Roosevelt and Mr. Root, followed by the other secretaries, led the way past the coffin on either side, each glancing for a moment at the dead face. They then passed quickly out of the western entrance. Behind them came Senator Hanna, Senator Fairbanks and about one hundred more men and women who had been waiting in the city hall or who had accompanied the body from the Milburn residence.
President Roosevelt and those who immediately followed him had passed out of the building at eighteen minutes after one o’clock, and there was a slight delay while the guard was posted. At the head of the coffin stood Sergeant Galway of the Seventy-fourth Infantry Regiment of the regular army. Chief Master at Arms Luze of the Indiana stood facing him at the foot with his drawn cutlass at his shoulder. On the south, facing the coffin, stood Sergeant Gunther of the Fourteenth Regiment, and Coburn, a sailor from the Indiana, stood facing him on the north.
The lines approached the eastern entrance from Eagle street on the north and Church street on the south. They were formed by the police, two abreast, and approached the hall in a wide sweeping curve of humanity, which was drawn in constantly at the entrance of the building where the currents joined. Between files of police the stream from the north passed by on the north side of the coffin, while the southern stream flowed by on the south. Both passed quickly out at the western entrance and down the steps, dispersing in various directions.
Nothing was heard in the building but the tread of feet on the marble floor as the crowd passed through without stopping at the rate of about one hundred and sixty a minute. Each individual had time only for a hasty glance as he was urged forward by the police and by those who followed. The plan was so arranged that four persons could pass the coffin, two abreast on each side, at the same moment.