The Unmarked Funeral of a 'Prodigal Daughter'

The prodigal was at last home. A telegram from the brother of Mattie Simpson came to the house of Annie Walker last evening, saying they could not come and to 'bury her there.' Upon its receipt, Annie Walker gave orders to purchase a casket and conduct the funeral without regard to expense, saying she would pay it. So the body lay in the front room of the well-known house yesterday afternoon in a magnificent casket tastefully covered with flowers. Rev. Mr. Larson stood at the head of it and his wife sat at an organ nearby, while Mrs. Rev. MacLafferty and Mrs. St. John sat back of her and led the singing. The address of Mr. Larson was brief and in good taste, directed feelingly to his frail, painted and now tearful hearers, who filled this and all the adjoining rooms. 'I have no word of rebuke for you,' he said. 'But I am sure if this woman who lies here, called away so suddenly and in so terrible a manner, could have spoken in other than the language of the agony of that last moment, she would have cried, Oh, that I might lead my life over again! that I might lead it differently!' During the hymn that followed, many of the women joined without the assistance of books and nearly all repeated with the minister the Lord's prayer. As the funeral procession was about to start, it was found that but one closed carriage had been ordered, and this was taken by Annie Walker's husband and three girls, and the pall-bearers went in an open barouche.