P. R. R. to Carry President’s Body

Funeral Train Will Be Under Supervision of George W. Boyd

     President McKinley’s body will be conveyed to Washington for the State funeral in a funeral train of six cars provided by the Pennsylvania Railroad. All the details and arrangements for the trip will be under the personal supervision of George W. Boyd, assistant general passenger agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, he having been appointed to be the representative of the railroad yesterday afternoon.
     After the ceremonies in Washington are completed, the same train, still under Mr. Boyd’s charge, will take the remains to the President’s home, at Canton, Ohio, for final interment. That the directors realize the honor of the sorrowful duty assigned to them is shown in the appointment of such a high official to represent them. The train, which will leave Buffalo on Monday morning, will take about twelve hours in reaching Washington, it being necessary to make four stops on the way to the capital.
     Three times the assassin’s bullet has cut short the life of a President of the United States, and plunged the country into mourning. On each of these occasions it has devolved upon the Pennsylvania Railroad to move the remains of the martyrs. The first was in 1865, when Lincoln’s body was brought to Philadelphia to lie in state in the State House; the second was in 1881, when Garfield was shot; the third, and as Mr. Boyd expressed it, “it is hoped the last,” will be to-morrow, when the body of our late President will be [taken?] from Buffalo.
     The train will have six cars, as follows: One combination car, one dining car, two drawing-room and sleeping cars, the private car “Olympia,” and an observation car. In the last, the observation car, will be placed the body of the Chief Magistrate. “The Olympia” will be placed at the disposal of Mrs. McKinley and the immediate family of the dead President. Others on the train will be the members of the dead President’s Cabinet, Secretary Cortelyou and such other officials of the Government as Mrs. McKinley shall invite. The train will stop in order to make the necessary connections at Olean, New York; Williamsport and Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, in Maryland. The stops will be for no longer than is absolutely necessary to make the changes, as those in charge of the trip wish to avoid any demonstration.
     Immediately following the ceremonies at the Nation’s capital the body will again be placed in the observation car and the trip to Canton begun. Senator Hanna will in all probability be one of the party.
     George W. Boyd said last night that most of the arrangements for the trip were outlined and that many of them were completed. He said he would start for Buffalo at once and take charge of the train. Mr. Boyd mentioned that besides having charge of the removal of the bodies of the three assassinated Presidents, the Pennsylvania Railroad also conveyed the body of the wife of President Benjamin Harrison from Washington to Minneapolis, where she was buried.