AFTER THREE KNOCKS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 681, 14 April 1923, Page 10

AFTER THREE KNOCKS.

BERNHARDT’S SIMPLE FUNERAL

SERVICE

PARIS PAYS HOMAGE

LONDON, March 30

With three knocks, which is the signal in Parisian theatres for the raising of the curtain, the usher of the little church of St. Frauds do Sales inaugurated the simple service at Madame Sarah Bernhardt’s funeral. The coffin rested on a bier near the altar. The wails of the church were hung with sombre draperies, against which masses of flowers showed up sharply. All the leaders of artistic and literary Paris seemed to be present. The day being Holy Thursday the service was restricted to a few. prayers and chants, at the conclusion of which actors from the Bernhardt Theatre boro the colliu to its black and silver hoarse.

Several carriages heaped with (lowers, included tributes from many countries, followed. Then came Madame Bernhardt’s domestics and a group or orphan children bearing palms. Distinguished personages, including Cabinet Ministers, walked in the procession. After them came 50 carriages, and, finally, a multitude of mourners, principally of the theatrical profession. The cortege, half a mile long, passed through the densest crowds seen in Paris since the armistice celebrations. It halted for a minute at the Bernhardt Theatre, where Madame Bernhardt’s boi: was draped with crepe.