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On
Saturday afternoon, June 8, Kennedy's body, as President Lincoln's
103 years before, was carried by a funeral train from New York
to Washington. As they had for Lincoln, many thousands - perhaps,
for RFK, a million people - lined the tracks. The coffin, on
a bier close to the floor of the observation car, could not
be seen by bystanders. So Kennedy's pallbearers lifted it up
and placed it, a bit precariously, on chairs. Along the route
of the train, Boy Scouts and firemen braced at attention; nuns,
some wearing dark glasses, stood witness; housewives wept. Thousands
and thousands of black people waited quietly in the heat, perhaps
because they lived close to the tracks, but also because they
had felt for Kennedy, and knew they would miss him. "Marvelous
crowds," said Arthur Schlesinger, staring out the window
as the train slowly rocked south. "Yes," said Kenny
O'Donnell. "But what are they good for now?"
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