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Show m TRIBUTE 10 VERA CBUZHEBOES CL'HINESS SUSPENDED IN NEW YORK WHILE FUNERAL CORTEGE COR-TEGE TRAVERSES STREETS. President Wilson Voices the Nation's Grief at the Sacrifice of the Lives of Nineteen American Bluejackets Blue-jackets and Marines. New York. .More than a million persons in New York City .joined the nation on .Monday in memorializing with simple dignity the heroism ol the nineteen bluejackets and marines who gave their lives at Vera Cruz. As the impressive funeral pageant started on its solemn route from the battery to the Brooklyn navy yard, it was as if the pulse of the city had temporarily stopped. All business was suspended and over the commercial commer-cial section of the city there fell a reverential suspense. In the line of mourners that followed follow-ed the artillery caissons bearing the dead were the chiefs of state and city government and many more distinguished distin-guished men of nearly every calling, but every eye in the throng turned lirst to the carriage in which President Presi-dent Wilson rode close behind the last funeral car. The president came from Washington during the night and was with the procession from the time It left the battery until the end of the ceremony. On the stand with the president at the Brooklyn navy yard were rela tives of the dead sailors and marines, mothers, sisters and wives, but in all the throng of mourners none seemed more deeply touched than the man ; whose word sent the lads of the navy to fight for their country's honor at Vera Cruz. And to the president was left the privilege of voicing the nation's griet and the nation's belief that those whe died in' the performance of duty had done for their country a service not to be measured by their individual deeds. "The feeling that is uppermost," he said, "is one of profound grief, anq yet there is mixed with that grief a profound pride that they should have gone as they did, and if I may say it out of my heart, a touch of envy ol those who were permitted so quietly, bo nobly to do their duty." . The head of the nation looked out over the thousands massed about the coffins on the parade ground and his Voice 6hook with emotion as he declared de-clared his creed. "We have gone down to Mexico." he said, "to serve mankind if we can find out a way. We do not want to fight the Mexicans. We want to serve them." There was a wistful note in his voice es he added: "I never was under fire, but I fancy there are some things just as hard to do as to go under fire. 1 fancy that it is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at, you as when they are shooting at you. When they shoot at you they can only take your natural life; when they 6neer as you they can wound your heart." |