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MG 1 vol 2124 number 282b

The Enclosure.

In the picketed enclosure, confusion reigned. The civic and mortuary officials argued over the arrangement of the cortege. The principal mourners, the Governor, the Navel and Military Representatives &ct. wandered aimlessly about. It could be plainly discerned that they grudged so much time to the dead when the living needed attention. Soldiers, clergymen, Salvation Armyists, and gloating Newspaper-women dripping platitudes, were mixed in an incoherent mass.

Bringing out the Coffins.

Suddenly two soldiers appeared with a coffin, and laid it close to the fence over which the crowd was hanging. Otheres followed until there was a double line stretching the entire length of the school yard. As each was carried out, it was checked off on the list. Some were brown-black, some white, others and insipid blue: they were of all sizes, as they contained fragments, rather than intact bodies. Some caskets contained the ashes of as many as six human beings. On each was nailed a wooden slab, on which lay a stake with the corresponding number, and a small spray of flowers which the committee had obtained from a Kentville Florist.

Although identification was impossible the coffins were divided into two sections, one which was allotted to the Catholics for a special service.

The Service.

Before all the coffins had been laid upon the ground, the band began the Dead March. Somehow in the open, their music sounded strained and thin. The blue sky faded into a neutral grey. The sun shone palely through the gnarled limbs of the naked trees.

Representatives of the different denominations ascended the dais,