The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1881-03-09
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Inaugural Festiyities-Parade-
PickpOekets = Professions :
Balls Bills Rabel.
[From Our Regular Correspondent


WASHINGTON, d. c., Mar. 5, 1881.
We are just through with the in
auguration ceremonies, fetes, process.
sions, receptions, and balls, and every
householder and his wife, in Wash.
ington, is rejoiced that the agony is
over. / have seen the crowds that
flocked to Fairmont Park during the
days Of the Centennial Exhibition,
and in Paris at the international
Fair Of 1878. Ihave seen the two
largest:capitals of Europe en- tste, but
for well appointed aud well per.
formed programme Of celebration and
festivity, have neyerseen anything
that was equal, ab into dd fnem, to
the inauguration Of President Gar.
field. With the exception of Paris,
no other city has such wide, smooth,
and solid streets for professional dis.
play, and no city has such spacious
and well appointed building for re-
ceptions and balls, as the new Nation;
al Museum affords. /. was the re:
mark of many, that, if this spacious
system OF salons had been built with
special reference to such .fetes as was
witnessed there Friday night, itcould
not have been better planned. The
inauguration committee spared
neither labor nor expense to make
the ball successful, and the eclat Of
the occasion borrowed quite as much
from their work on the building,
and the perfection Of its appoint
ments, as from the brilliant assem-
blage that gathered in its halls. 1t
will be impossible, in the space Of
one short letter, TO go into details.
There were over four thousand guests,
among whom were tbs President Of
to-day and the President of yesterday;
Generals Hancock, Sherman, Sheri-
dan, and many other distinguished
army and naval officers in full uni
form; Ministers of foreign powers,
with their attaches, all in full court
dress; Senators and members of Con-
gress, Governors and ex-Governors Of
States; Ladies by the battalion, dis
tinguished, individually, as maid, or
wife, or mother, or for beauty of face,
form, or costume. 1t is impossible
to paint rainbow, or linn in words
the conclusion Of an earthquake.
This ball was stunning. The pro-
gramme had eighteen dances. AT
times, there were three hundred sets
dancing, in tune to score of bands.
Thousands Of walters and racqueters
glided TO the rapturous compositions
Of Strauss, or shot about like comets
to the wild music of the racquet.
There had been much talk about the
number Of colored people that would
be at the ball, but this variety was
exceedingly scarce, and, it must be
said to their credit, very well be-
havcd.
This morning, Saturday, thousands
of visitors are crowding the trains on
their return home, but it will be at
least week before the city will have
simmered dow n to its customary lev.
ell. What an opportunity was missed
in taking the city census before the
Inauguration week! Washington
might have risen to rivalry with
Chicago or st. Louis.
All,the Department buildings, the
Capitol, the Smithsonian Institution,
Corcoran's Gallery, the White House,
and other places open to the public
have been crowded, and thousands Of
citizens will return home, like the
average congressman, with super
fcial acquaintance with their coun
try's Capital. G. AS.