FUNERAL OF THE RAINHILL VICTIMS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 8156, 26 April 1892, Page 6

FUNERAL OF THE RAINHILL VICTIMS.

The funeral took place on March 18th, the remains being interred in St» Anne's Churchyard, Rainhiil An enormous crowd gathered round the house, Dinham Villa, and along the road, and the police had great difficulty in keeping the way for the cortege. Mrs Walter Deeming placed a beautiful wreath in the shape of a heart oa the coffin of the murdered woman. There was only one hearse for the five bodie3, and it was proposed to make two journeys to the churchyard, but the relatives of the deceased decided that they should all go at once, and the five coffins were, therefore, piled up in the hearse. A brougham followed with the relatives.- The mourners were:—Mr and Mrs Albert Deeming, Mr and Mrs Walter Deeming, Mr Philip Foster, and Mr Joseph Pickering. The melancholy procession wended its way to the churchyard with the greatest difficulty ia consequence of the enormous crowd Which surged along the road, and the churchyard was almost unapproachable. The inscriptions on the coffin lids besides the abovementioned were as follows:—"Bertha Deeming, aged eight years. This Lamb shall not perish." "Sydney P. Deeming, aged four years. This Lamb shall not .perish." " Marie Deeming, aged six and a half years. This Lamb shall not perish." Addressing some thousands of people st the graveside the Rev. T. G. Johnson, the curate, who performed the marriage between Williams and Miss Mather, said : Thus we have placed in their final resting place the victims of one of the most—if not the most—atrocious tragedies of modern times. Thus we have placed from human gaze the' discovered bodies Of the fivefold murder which; recently took place in our midst. To . warn those present against a similar crime would be an insult to their manhood, such crime being almost without parallel within the annals of brutality. The known details of the ghastly , event are now familiar to all, but surely the event has its lessons.. First, the danger of taking up with strangers. The more plausible the unknown are, and the more wealth exhibited the more cautious should we be. Diamonds are not. as common as pebbles; the boasted possession of wealth does not indicate riches. - The momentous functions of life should not be linked to boast and glitter. What. transformed the man into the monster ? Perhaps time will never reveal. The one who committed the brutal deeds was once, no doubt; a mother's pride and a father's joy, once manifested all the tenderness and innocence of ordinary brotherhood, and probably the ordinary qualitiesof a man. He must have under- | gone some marvellous moral transformation I before he became the monster that the sad and painful revelations of Wednesday,last proved him to be.