| From the Atlanta Constitution |
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| January 18, 1913 |
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| "Send Flowers to Poor and Not to My
Funeral," Said Raoul on Deathbed |
|
"Don't wait to heap your tear-stained flowers above
your friend's cold brow.
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| But give him a
smile and a word of cheer and toss him a posy now." |
| This was the altruistic
philosophy of Captain William Greene Raoul, the eminent Atlanta
business man, railroad builder and philanthropist who died Friday
morning at his home, 708 Peachtree street, in the seventieth year of
his life. |
| Smiles and posies and words of
cheer he had tossed around him during his years of worldly service. He
had worked nobly for the uplift of social conditions. And his friends
he had always treated like princes. And yet, when he lay on his
deathbed and realized that soon he must "beneath the couch of
earth descent," and he called his lovely ones to his bedside and
made one request -- that no flowers be permitted at his funeral or
laid upon his grave. |
| Accordingly, when his funeral
is held at the Peachtree residence Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock,
the scores of floral offerings that his friends would have desired to
send will be lacking. |
| Somehow this old soldier of
the war and the battle of life just wanted to sleep under the simple
green sod. He wanted grass, not "tear-stained flowers," to
o'erspread his last resting place. The flowers he wanted sent to the
poor, the sick, whose living souls would be uplifted by the fragrance.
Such was the philosophy of this business philanthropist. |
| Captain Raoul was a
confederate veteran, serving the entire four years of the civil war.
He was a member of the Washington artillery, of New Orleans, and he
was made captain in the confederate railroad bureau. |
| He entered upon the railroad
service in March, 1872, as assistant roadmaster of the Central of
Georgia. He served as president of that railroad from 1883 to 1887.
From April, 1887, to September, 1905, he was president of the Mexican
National railway and he was president of the Atlantic &
Birmingham, from its organization until September, 1905. At this time
he retired from all active business. |
| Lived in Atlanta Since 1892 |
| Since 1892 Captain Raoul has
lived in Atlanta. He was a member of the Capital City and the Piedmont
Driving clubs. He was active in the formation and management of the
Associated Charities, serving as president of that organization in
1908, 1909 and 1910. He was a prime factor in the organization of the
local Anti-Tuberculosis association, and largely through his efforts
the State Tuberculosis sanitarium at Alto was built, as well and the
Battle Hill Sanitarium. |
| Captain Raoul is survived by
his wife, who was Miss Mary Miller Wadley, of Savannah, and by the
following ten children: Mrs. Mary Raoul Millis, William Greene Raoul,
Jr., Gaston C. Raoul, Thomas Wadley Raoul, Mrs. Rebecca Raoul
Altstaetter, Mrs. Agnes Raoul Glenn, Miss Rosine Raoul, Loring Raoul,
Miss Eleanor Raoul and Norman Raoul. He also leaves a sister, Mrs.
Ambrose Smith, of New Orleans. At the funeral Saturday afternoon,
Captain Raoul's sons will act as pallbearers, carrying the body to its
grave in West View cemetery. |
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