Burial of the Unknown Soldier - 1921

America's Unknown Hero Is Laid to Rest As Harding Calls on World to End War



Such Sacrifice Never Must Be Asked Again, Nation's Chief Pleads in Solemn Ceremony at Arlington
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All Nation Silent As Grave Is Sealed
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Nameless One Entombed, Amid HIghest Honors in All History, as Symbol of the Country's Fallen
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By Boyden R. Sparkes

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11.--The unidentified body of an American who died in a battlefield in France was entombed to-day in Arlington Cemetery, to live forever in the hearts of patriotic countrymen as the Unknown Soldier. Perhaps he was a homesick boy on that day when his life faded out, but if his spirit eyes saw the spectacle on that Virginia hilltop, if he heard the cry against war uttered there to-day, he knows he did not die in vain.

If his mother, unknowing, was among the sorrowing women who wept as nations honored her son, she, too, must know that his life was not a wasted sacrifice, for the President of the United States, standing beside the Silent One, voiced a pledge that American energy be dedicated to the cause of everlasting peace.

Light-hearted, his spirit may have hovered over that funeral procession as it tramped to the slow cadence of a dirge the seven miles from the capital across the Potomac to the heights where America's dead heroes have their bivouac. Rushing on ahead, an impatient, glorious spirit, he could have looked down from above on all the ceremonies in that white, unroofed amphitheater…….

--New-York Tribune, November 12, 1921

By the end, the article was saying what the dead soldier's spirit DID know and see. Very weird stuff.

"His Sacrifice Shall Not Be in Vain"
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President Harding Calls for Commanding Voice of Civilization Against Warfare

President Harding, speaking at the burial of the Unknown Soldier yesterday, said:

"Standing to-day on hallowed ground, conscious that all America has halted to share in the tribute of heart and mind and soul to this fellow American, and knowing that the world is noting this expression of the Republic's mindfulness, it is fitting to say that his sacrifice, and that of the millions dead, shall not be in vain.

"There must be, there shall be, the commanding voice of a conscious civilization against armed warfare."

--New-York Tribune, November 12, 1921

President Harding took advantage of the day to spin the disarmament plan.

10 YEAR NAVAL HOLIDAY, U. S. PROPOSES TO POWERS

Hughes Surprises Conference With Concrete Plan for Ridding World of Huge Warship Burden
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Harding Says Humanity Cries Out for Relief
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Tells Armament Conference War-Wearied World Demands Assurances of Lasting Peace--Hopes for New Era

SCRAP 66 GREAT WARSHIPS NOW, HUGHES URGES
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Calls for Immediate Fleet Cut by Britain, Japan and America
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DISPLACEMENT AND NUMBER OF ARMED VESSELS FIXED
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Gives London and Washington Nearly Equal Figures, Tokio Less
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REDUCE IN THREE MONTHS
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Secretary Presents Detailed Plan Covering Wide Range of Sea Disarmament
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--Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA), November 12, 1921

All this would be work so well if no countries were ever bad.

A bit more info is at http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/A-D/Arms-Control-and-Disarmament-Between-the-world-wars-1919-1939.html

1920s Pet Cemetery, Liberty Bond Cat, and Comics

One of the top stories from a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1921! Warning, kind of sad/morbid, but certainly no worse than the murder stories that seem to be so common...

Dogs That Men Have Loved Honored in This Graveyard
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More Than 200 Canine Pets Rest in Peace in Francisvale Cemetery
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Marble Stones Bear Touching Epitaphs and Flowers Deck Many Graves
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Every dog has his traditional day and his day of death, but there is no next chapter to tell what becomes of him then.

Sometimes, there is merely a child's sob, a hurried telephone call and the none-too-tender hands of the gardener or ashman to remove a little body.

Occasionally a pathetic mound in the back yard tells how a youngster's plea won some recognition for his pet. That is about all.

But if any one interested in dogs will take a short trolley ride and a bit of a walk some day he may learn the sequel.

He should walk south on the old Gulph road from the Philadelphia and Western Railroad station and make one turn to the right and after a period of dust and sun and green meadows, he comes suddenly on a graveyard.

Not a large, iron-gated cemetery, with a bent care-taker, and perhaps a funeral cortege or so drawn up alongside. Just a little field with waving grass, dotted with mounts, over, which stand silent testimonials of some one's affection.

Some Marble Shafts

Most of the graves are marked with plain wooden crosses or shafts, with a name simply written thereon. Others have small marble markers, a few have elaborate shafts of marble, beautifully marked and beautifully decorated.

The tenants of all these graves are dogs, dogs big and little, pedigreed and common, who have gone to what a Philadelphia writer once called, in an immortal dog story :

"The Happy Hunting Grounds, because no one hunts you, and there is nothing to hunt; it just comes to you."

Don't climb over the fence and go to the little graveyard by its back entrance ; but walk on to the rambling old house where the care-takers live. In between the staccato barkings of some twenty or thirty "live" dogs, which are being boarded, and the numerous strays, you will be told that it is the Francisvale Home, founded about twenty-two years ago by Mrs. George McClelland. Follow the shady path pointed out to you, and you come upon the cemetery.

Strangely enough, the very first grave shelters no dog of any breed, but a cat instead. Huckleberry is the name, and he (or she) is designated as a Liberty Bond Cat, a term which no one seems able to explain.

Huckleberry died August 3, 1919, according to the simple inscription on the marble slab, which also bears the name of F. H. Chatfield, Huckleberry's owner. The grave has flowers growing around it.

The largest stone in the cemetery, five feet tall and nearly as wide, bears the following inscription:

This Stone is Erected by Arthur Peterson in memory of his two dogs, Sand, a Scotch collie, died August 17, 1914, and Mazambique, a St. Bernard, died March 11, 1912, for many years his affectionate companions and faithful friends."...

The founders of the cemetery have a large lot with four graves. Chief of the stones in this McClelland lot is the one in memory of Gobbo, born in 1875 and dying in 1889. No occupant of the cemetery goes back in time as far as this doggie, who was for fifteen years the pet of Harriet Hare and George McClelland, according to the inscription. Also in this lot is the grave of "Francis," for whom the cemetery is named. "Francis" died in 1910. "Quits" and "Carl" lie side by side in the same lot....

There are altogether 245 graves in the Francisvale Cemetery, and about thirty of them have shafts of stone and marble.... The funeral services are not elaborate; in fact, it is seldom that the owners accompany their pets out to the cemetery.

But it is not an uncommon thing, of a bright Sunday afternoon, for a motorcar to drive up, an occupant or two alight and go up to the cemetery to lay a bright flower or two in token of affection and undimmed memory for a faithful, dumb friend.

Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA) -- June 25, 1921 Page 1 and Page 2

The article itself has several more epitaphs. I had no idea pet cemeteries dated back to the late 1800s! Evidently Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in New York was the first in America.

The "Francisvale Home" described in the article is still around as a no-kill shelter and pet cemetery! You can read about it at http://francisvalehome.org/index.php/about/

You can even see the cemetery at findagrave.com!

(And along the lines of pet cemeteries, my friend/writing partner Maggie wrote an excellent blog entry on considering your pet's final resting place.)

Amazingly, the Internet has revealed to us exactly what a Liberty Bond Cat was! From The National Humane Review, Volumes 7-8--I believe this article is from November 1920:

LIBERTY BOND CAT

Blackberry Chatfield is an aristocratic cat who lives in the Arnold Apartments at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Blackberry is somewhat of a local celebrity, for during the war his mistress bought him a Liberty bond which is duly registered in his name and recently he has become a regular subscriber to THE NATIONAL HUMANE REVIEW. Unlike ordinary cats Blackberry has his own calling card. Originally Mrs. F. H. Chatfield had two black cats, the other named Huckleberry. However, Huckleberry died some time ago. That Blackberry is an exceedingly wise cat and that he appreciates his own importance can easily be seen from his picture.

--The National Humane Review, Volumes 7-8

And in much lighter news, the newspaper had nearly a page of comics...these were the only two I "got."

(Click to magnify.)


Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA) -- June 25, 1921