Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1865-06-10
MISCELLANY.
rIlltary Pagean.. n gI.tory.

Military Pageants ia History.
IRON tho Philadelphia Inquirer.J
The spectacle Just passed away has
had no equal IN the history of our con-
tinent. The witnesses and representa-
tIves OF the greatest conflicts of the cen
turv have closed their labors and rem
dered their accounts here, In the sacred
seat OF popular government! Henceforth
they are 10 be neighbors and citizens.
The tattered uniforms they wore viii
give place to the plain garb of US, who
rendered them homage; the rent and
faded standards they carried will be pre-
served like pressed leaves of the au-
tumn, treasured tresses of the dead,
among the keepsakes of the good and
the grateful The music their faithful
bands discoursed shall be trilled by
plough boys afeld, in answer to the
songs OF dairy maids, aud not in the
thrilling hush of mighty camps, or the
swift advance of the devoted columns.
With this intensely vivid pageant be the
days of soldering numbered, and may
the cadence CT their feet, as they pass
ed the White House, be the transition
intonation between grim-visaged war
and the piping times of brotherly order,
and good, old-fashioned, civil justicel
THE GRAND REVIEW THROUGH EUROPEAN
sPECTACLES.
While vet this tremendous and ex-
piring exhalation OF armed men flies In
our sight, by its many diverging roads,
away from the city, let us wonder
whether the contemporary world has
had anything Ike it to show. We our
selves have had wars, but no reviews.
We planted our flag over the sleeps OF
Mexico, but came home separately like
folks from church. We saved our orig
inal boundaries from British grasping-
ness, but thought 1T useless TO do any
congratulatory parading. We redeem
ed our gage of independence, but our
forefathers melted away staidly, with
only the little sunburSt of Washington
Farewell to his assembled officers. That
first of Colonial Generals held but one
review IN time o. peace.
In November. I79S, Just before the
end of his life, Washington made an in
spection of Captain Percy's Independ-
emit blues, m Alexandra, Va, from the
steps of the City Hotel. The last mil
itary order he ever issued wss upon
that occasion, telling the hundred or Sc
militia men that he had found them ex-
cellent in drill and capitally handled
Sixty-six years have interviewed. Those
hundred men are two hundred thousand;
the City Hotel can see through its
dormer eyes the dome of a Capitol to
rival the palace OF the Caesars, and thir-
ty-hve millions of people can drink once
more Washington's only toast, as be
drank it at the Alexandria review:
"To ALL FRIENDsw
TIE REVIEW OF MARENeo.
On May 5, 1903, thirty-four battalions
and seven squadrons FLED before the
Emperor Napoleon, on the field of Ma
rengo. The Empress was drawn by
twenty horses on a movable throne, and
the entire battle of Marengo was re-en-
acted, ending with repetition of Ma
poleon's entry to Milan, through an i'm
provised arch, so beautiful in design
that it has since been reconstructed In
marble. Then the whole city was given
over to n week of gayety, which Knocked
the sublime mirage of Tie Alps under
which it was illustrated.
THE REVIEW OF THE PAsTLE.
On July II, 1890, tie falI Of the Bas-
tile was celebrated in Paris by ire
mendous gathering, where Lpuis XVI.
reviewed a hundred thousand armed
men, and four hundred thousand spec
tators- on the field of the Champs de
Mars. La Fayette had charge of the
Garde National on this occasion, but the
Champs de Mars Is only a level plain,
and there were few sites whence the
spectacle could be seen. This was the
first great republican review ever held
III Europe.
TEE REVIEW OF GENOA.
On the Both of Jnne, 1906, Napoleon
entered the gates of Genoa. A. fete, the
most splendid ever witnessed on the
Mediterranean, followed the imposing
military entry, and the inuminations
eclipsed the fabulous Arabic and Celes-
tial entertainments. Cannon thunder
ed Upon the solemn music OF hundred
solemn masses, and the port was block
AIDED by floating hre-slsips and lines of
gilded lamps hung in the sky, as if from
star to star. This review was the hollow
device whereby the ancient liberty OF
Genoa was wrested away.
REVIEW OF THE ARNY OF AusrERLTTz.
On November 25, 1907, the Imperial
Guard entered Paris, after the Prussian
and Polish conquests, through splendid
arches, and passing In review before
the Emperor in the grand court of the
Tuileries, where a hundred thousand
men could be seen at coup d'eiL
Here the splendid arch of Austerlitz,
capped "a the exile lions of. Saint
Mark, had been prepared, and the
troops, in the most brilliant uniforms,
fled under it with uncovered heads.
Their standards were freshly gilded
with Gallo eagles, and their arms and
accoutrements We're entirely new.