COL. AND MRS. WILLIAM H. McCURDY

I want you to know, though I have not hastily extended condolence, that I deeply sympathize with you in your great bereavement. I have hoped and prayed that your boys might both be spared. The news of Paul's death coming at this late hour, when your hopes of his safe return were at the pinnacle, makes the shock and sorrow doubly hard to bear, but the Lord will sustain you if you but lean upon him.

MISS BESSIE McCUTCHEAN

Words so poorly express the comfort we long to give at a time like this, so won't you please accept the flowers as a token of my deepest sympathy, because I, too, loved Paul.

The same boyish charm and sweetness of personality that so endeared him to me must have clung to him in manhood, so wide does his circle of friends seem to be.

And though the burden is heavy it must be a great consolation to be the mother and father of such a boy.

JUDGE ORVILLE W. McGINNIS

Permit me to extend to you and your family my sympathy in your bereavement at the death of your son Paul. It is with hesitation that I try to convey to you my grief and regret at your misfortune, considering that it may be somewhat of an intrusion upon the sanctity of your sorrow, and I appreciating that the most that can be said or done by friends cannot lessen your grief and loss. Still, from my experience, I have learned that were it not for the sympathy of our friends, such an ordeal as yours would be almost unbearable.

I have observed with pleasure the pride which you have taken in your son Paul's character and career and with what solicitude you have followed him and the love with which you have cherished him. I hoped that he might return to you unmaimed and with the honors he so richly deserved and so heroically earned.

As a father I can understand your plans and hopes for his future, and how you dreamed that he would live a full, rich, honorable life of service, affording to you all the joys and re wards of fatherhood; and I can, therefore, understand your despair at having all your hopes blasted by his untimely death. Yet, it has seemed to me as I have contemplated your son s death that if I, as a father, were afforded an opportunity to choose whether my own son made the supreme sacrifice, or to live his life to its natural end in the usual, ordinary ways of life, I would find the choice not altogether one-sided, for certainly there is a measure of compensation for the loss and sacrifice, in having a son with a character and spirit which is willing to make the sacrifice in the cause for which your boy gave his all.

While my heart goes out to you and Mrs. Funkhouser in deepest compassion, still I congratulate you in having such a hero for a son.

With my deepest sympathy in your bereavement and my heartiest congratulations that the honors and glories of the true and the brave were given unto your son and through him unto you, and with hope that Divine consolation may be vouch safed unto you, I beg to remain, sincerely yours.

MRS. N. CORNELIA MEADOWS

Accept my deep sympathy for you in this, your great sor row. Your son gave his life that others may live. Can any thing be more noble? He is in the care of our God, who is Love. We trust Him, yet we ever long to have our departed loved ones with us.

MR. GUS A. MILLER

It is with a sincere feeling of sympathy that I address this to you, realizing that only those who have passed through similar sorrows can appreciate and understand the heartache that comes through the loss of a dear one. Be assured that I want to be numbered among your many friends who sorrow with you.

Let this be your consolation, that your son gave his life in a cause that future generations will call holy and will bless the names of those who offered up their lives to gain.

MRS. MARGARET H. NEIMAN AND MISS MARY E. NEIMAN

I cannot tell you how sorry I am, for I know words cannot comfort you at this time.

Time alone can help you bear this great sorrow. Paul gave his sweet, young life for his country and us, and we are very proud to know he was our friend.

Accept our deepest sympathy, and God help you to bear this great sorrow.

MRS. WILLIAM E. OSBORNE

News came to me while visiting Hazel here in Chicago of your bereavement. It came to me as a great shock as it did to all the many friends and acquaintances of your boy.

Paul was a good boy and his loss will be felt keenly by those who knew and loved him, but his particular mission in life he accomplished early, even though he gave his life as a pawn for Freedom and peace.

His sacrifice was great and I know yours was doubly so, but I know how proud you must be of Paul.

I realize how little one can say to lessen grief like yours, hut I am sending my heartfelt sympathy to yourself and family.

MR. AND MRS. MURPHY REDDIX

What can we do but weep with you! We can only guess what this sorrow is to you and Mrs. F. He looked so happy when last we saw him!

We are looking back this morning upon long memories of soul trials, years of groping and stumbling and longing, sinning and sorrowing of heart, weariness and faintness, temptation and failure; all these things which we suppose every one must pass through, more or less, at some stage or other on the road of life; but the first distinct thought which comes to us is that Paul was a hero and gave his life well and now he is taken home without any more of these roughnesses of the way and we hope he is with Him forever, and waiting for you to come home.

Paul's letters were such an inspiration to us and we simply feasted on them, and it was our great desire to shake his hand on return, and we made the remark Peace Day celebration we would be so happy for you both. I never read a letter from him in the paper I did not cry and had great fear of his return. We were talking of friends, Masons and death the morning of the 19th, and Murphy said: "When I die I want Albert Funkhouser, Netter Worthington, Ed Roach and I. T. Carr to be four to help carry my remains, for I do sincerely love those men," and here in the evening came the sad news of Paul's death.

I know we cannot comfort - only Jesus can. He must be specially "touched" in such a sorrow, for He knows by actual experience what human love is.

We have greatly admired and loved your friendship for seventeen years, and we rejoiced with you in gladness and we weep with you in sorrow. We send you this letter of condolence for we know when we take your hand words will fail us, as our hearts are, Oh! so tender and sad.

ADJT. CHARLES J. STAIGER
C. O. SALVATION ARMY
Permit me to extend to Mrs. Funkhouser and yourself my sincere sympathy in the loss you have suffered in the death of your son Paul on the battlefield in France. Your son gave his life for others and died in defense of the highest ideals of humanity.

Look up; God lives to comfort and strengthen. God bless you.

MRS. ALLENA STINSON

At a time such as this I know that it is useless to try to say anything to comfort you, for it cannot be done. But I wanted you to know how our hearts ache for you, and if there is anything we could do for you how gladly we would do it. We are coming to see you soon, but I feel you would rather be alone for awhile. I will not say any more. Ed and Florence and my mother join me in love and deepest sympathy for you and your family. Believe me sincerely your friend.

MRS. HELEN STROUSE

I have thought of you and Mr. Funkhouser constantly ever since you received the sad news of Paul's death. Knowing him as I did, I can well appreciate your loss. Love and deepest sympathy.

MISS DEBBY TECKLENBURG

I wish to express my sympathy for you in the loss of your dear boy. Although my associations with you have only been in our Bible class, yet I need know you no more to know that such a good, sweet woman had a good and noble son, in whose loss the earth will be poorer, and we all share in the sorrow of the parents in their great loss. We are not at all prepared to lose the young; and the sorrow is keener, and it is harder to feel resigned than when the old pass away; although we miss the old as much as the young every day and wish them here again. The sorrow of parting is only relieved by the thought of the glorious meeting in the glad hereafter. These young heroes are now saints about the throne of God and on their heads He has placed a crown of immortal glory to take the place of the laurel gained here below by our dear boys.

May God help you, and comfort the parents and sisters and brother in the hour of their great need.

MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM J. TORRENCE

In this, the dark hour of sorrow, kindly remember that we mourn with you. I wrote my wife, who is in Indianapolis, this evening when I read of Paul's sacrifice in the greatest of all conquests. It shocked me as if it had been one of my own. She has often expressed how gratifying it was to her that she had been a teacher to the Funkhouser boys and the glorious records they were making as soldiers.

With the consolation that the Great Commander will not let go unrewarded the sacrifice of so noble a life in such a worthy and righteous cause, we recommend you to His mercy.

O. R. VAN DYKE

I have just received a letter from my wife stating that Paul was killed in action Oct. 20. This is a hard blow to you and your family. He was a boy I shall never forget and I cannot but extend my deepest sympathy and trust the blow will be softened by your knowledge of his fine character and manliness. He was such an appealing, likeable boy that I can never forget him, and I know his death will make others adhere more closely to the lines of duty. You can be doubly proud of him because he went as a volunteer. He gave up all he had.

A few days ago I was thinking of you and your two boys, and was so glad in the knowledge that you could have them back. Then I did not know.

I am certainly glad this war is practically ended. It has taken the lives of many of our finest young men. I wish I were home so I could pay more fitting respects to Paul's memory. The whole community is his debtor, and yours. It is such young men as Paul, Judson McGrew and Lige Worsham that make the rest of us ashamed of ourselves. They are heroes.

HON ALBERT J. VENEMANN

My present enforced spell of leisure enables me to do a number of things which I had purposed doing for some days but which were crowded out. Just about the time the death of Paul was announced in the Courier I, one evening, picked up in my library Father Ryan's poem and chanced across the lines I have copied on the accompanying card. I read them a second time and then remarked to Mrs. Venemann, "I am going to send those lines to Mr. Funkhouser." There was and still remains something in the lines comforting to those like your family who have a dear one buried in France. Symbolizing the grave as the footstool of Liberty's throne is one of the most beautiful figures of speech I think I ever came across. I trust that the tardiness with which I perform this little office will not detract from the sincerity of my sympathy in your late bereavement. Be assured you always had it.

MRS. DAISY POTTER VIELE

Since I have suffered in my Gethsemane I can feel the touch of the deep anguish that is yours over the loss of your splendid son, Paul. So I am following the inclination of my heart and am writing to tell you of my sympathy. There is not one word in all the world to say in the face of the heart breaking calamity which has befallen you. And while the lesson in sorrow I have had to learn gives me a clear understanding of the crushing might of your grief, I am utterly unable to send a word of comfort.

It has not been my privilege to meet you, Mrs. Funkhouser, but we have been called upon to bear the same kind of loss, and this kind of suffering has given me the wish to write to you and say that my heart aches for you. Mr. Viele joins me in the deep sympathy we both feel.

MRS. EDITH G. WELBORN

We are so grieved to hear of your very great sorrow. I want you to know that you have our warmest sympathy and hope that you may have comfort given you.

You have given so greatly towards the victory which is won that you will surely find a spiritual reward that will help the grief.

MR. ED D. WEMYSS

We were greatly shocked this morning when we learned of the very serious loss in one of your fine boys, who was killed in the service of his country. I know there is nothing any of your friends can do or say that would make your burden any lighter; however, there must be some consolation in your hour of sorrow in knowing that he gave his life for the future welfare of mankind.

I assure you that we deeply sympathize with you and Mrs. Funkhouser.

MRS. DR. LUDSON WORSHAM AND FAMILY

Shocked and grieved, our hearts go out to you all on account of your great loss.
Words are empty. Only a bleeding heart can feel.

May our Heavenly Father strengthen you in your great bereavement.

MR. NETTER WORTHINGTON

Although I had no personal acquaintance with your son Paul, I felt a deep interest in the boy because of his splendid achievements and of the fact that he was the son of one whom I am happy to call friend; and when I picked up the Courier yesterday morning and saw that Paul had won a gold star my heart grew faint.

I am penning these few lines to tell you that your boys in France have been the source of much thought and conversation on the part of Mrs. Worthington and myself, and we now write in expressing our deepest sympathy to both Mrs. Funkhouser and yourself.

In your sorrow you have the great consolation of knowing that your boy was a fine lad, brave and heroic, and that he died facing the enemy and in a most righteous cause. You and your good wife surely have made a supreme contribution to the cause of Christian humanity.

Our most heartfelt wish is that your remaining soldier boy may soon be restored to his loved ones.