Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/450

400 In the New York Herald for December 5, the unusual experience of the medical examiner is described in these words:

The request to Dr. West that he go to the magnificent home of Mrs. Eddy in Chestnut Hill and view the body with the idea of granting a certificate of death was received about nine o’clock in the morning from Edward F. Woods, an alderman of Newton Centre, and Dr. West departed at once for the house in Brookline. On reaching there Dr. West was ushered at once into an upper front room in which on the bed, and clad in a heavy white robe, was the body of the Leader of the Christian Science cult. There were several persons in the room at the time, and several others were observed moving about other parts of the house by Dr. West as he entered and as he left. They were members of the Christian Science faith.

“To me it merely was the performance of a perfunctory duty,” said Dr. West in comment. “Although, had I realized at the moment that I was in the presence of the body of a woman who had ruled thousands for many years, I might have been impressed with the importance of the official service I was performing. What struck me most as I looked into the dead face was its extraordinary beauty. She must have been a beautiful child, a beautiful maiden, and extraordinarily beautiful when in the full flower of womanhood. There still were substantial traces of beauty left in the white face reposing on the pillow. Time indeed had laid its hand lightly on her all through the years. Wrinkles there were, of course, but they were not the wrinkles that come with age, after a life fraught with the cares of a home, of the