The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-06-02

May.Dav at Plymouth Church.
The special correspondents of the
Cincinnati Commercial, under date OF
May 26, gives the following interest
ing description of the ''Children's
Day. at Brooklyn:
There is a beautiful custom in
Brooklyn of annually celebrating the
26th of May as Children S Day The
city and all its streets are surrendered
to the children. The Sunday school
children, numbering 10000, who en-
Joy what is known as their May
walk" when they parade about. deco
rated with flowers and carrying little
flags, hold festivals ut the parks and
in .he churches, singing hymns, list
ening to addresses and eating nice
things. I believe it was Beecher who
invented the 'Children's May Day, of
Brooklyn. But l guess he borrowed
the idea from the customs of ancient
times and other countries. 4. al
events the three thousand children
of the Sunday-schools connected with
his church have the gayest time on
their May day, and Beecher is always
particularly exuberant as he receives
their floral and affectionate homage.
At clock, | went down to Beech
er's church A crowd of children
surrounded it, and the vast edifice
itself presented the most picturesque
spectacle. 1t was filled with, boys
and girls, most of them gaily dressed,
| though there were many poor ones
among them, and hundreds OF chem
| holding aloft their bannerets or gon
falons. There were small toddlers of
! four or five, lads and lasses from ten
to fifteen, young men and maidens
| from fifteen to nineteen or twenty, all
of whom had marched in procession
| through the streets to this place On
| their flags were pictures or in Grip
| tions, such as Jesus, our Shepherd,
| Christ, our Captain, God is Love
| and SO forth. When [ entered the
| church they were on their feet, sing
ing a hymn, and a more beautiful
| spectacle you never saw. After this
g short prayer was offered by Deacon
Bell, who recently appeared as one of
Tiltop's witnesses in the trial Then
brief and lively address was made
to them When the speaker began
telling of his love for Beechcr, the
three thousand children cheered,
waved their flags, and could hardly
| restrain their enthusiasm. Their rip
ping laughter at his good points was
! like that of Xenoohon's Greeks when
he caught sight of the Hellespont.
From the church the children
marched to Beecher's house, headed
by baud of music, which planted
itself before his door. Beecher stood
bareheaded on the front steps, sur
rounded by his wife and all his family
for the hour the long line Of children
moved past him, waving their flags,
cheering and throwing their flowers
at him. The good little ones threw
them at his feet, others tossed them
so that he could catch them The
very good ones walked up the steps
and handed them to him; the very
wicked ones threw them at his nose
as he shook with laughter, and guard
ed his face with his hands Beecher
stood deep in flowers. and held arms
| full Of flowers The more splendid
and colossal ones were carried UP and
| handed to his old wife, who was soon
almost hidden from sight by flowers
as tall as herself. Still the band play
ed, and the flags waved. till the Mar
| ried Women's Bible Glass, formerly
| IN charge of Mrs. Tliton, came along
and then the Married Men s Bible
| Glass. from whom arose loud cheer
for Beecher, and the procession wa
over.
Mr.. Beecher himself then began to
| distribute the floral tributes among
the mas OF ragamuffins who had gath
cred to see the sight He threw them
to the big fellows, handed them to the
| girls, and kept everybody laughing in
sympathetic jollity. Ibelieve the chill
dren marched from his house to Q
! park, and then to his church, where
they got feast, but did not see this
part of the business. Beecher had Z
happy day of it. Tens of thousands
of other children besides those OF his
church were. cut, and all the streets
| of the city We're picturesque with THEN
professions.