The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-29
The Reception to Their Hero.

r. d. Mussey's Montgomery Special.
The reception given to Jefferson Davis TO-
night was something unparalleled in the history
of the country. It seemed that the people had
gone wild. / have seen many events of the sort
and have chronicled them for the readers of the
Commercial Gazette but am free to say that
never saw such popular demonstration before
The street leading from the station MP to the
hotel was festoonad with thousands on thousands
of Chinese lanterns and covered with the ma
tional colors and drowned in red white and blue
bunting.
. The electric lights blazed overhead. From the
line of the curbstones shons the luridcolored
fires and innumerabls bonfires, and from the side
walks and every window and roof poured a steady
stream of Roman candles, rockets and bombs
making the roadway fairy scene in It's COM
mineiing of lights and colors, and dazzling
brilliancy. Through this magnificent combna-
tion of surroundings Mr. Davis passed in a car
riage drawn by four white horses. and band
marched in front playing Dixie The Union flag
hoated over him.
The tremendous crowd roared in cheers and
the forgotten rebel yell, and the people
appeared to be crazy. They ran in front of the
carriage; they stopped the horses; they pulled
them aside and grabbed the wheels of the CARR
age. In front marched company in confeder-
ate gray. and surrounding the carriage marched
company In Union blue. carrying the national
colors, and bearing on breast-plate and belt
buckle the letters ~. s." Let others comment
upon this wonderful incongruity as they can. 1t
is mine simply to give the facts and describe the
scene
When the carriage containing Mr. Davis and
General Gordon was pulled up in front of the
Exchange Hotel, the vast throng of ID. 900 peo-
ple who seemed not to notice that the rain WAS
falling and the mud deep joined in general ac-
clamation. Across the Fountain square was
stretched a gigantic piece of pyrotechnics. 1t
represented the eleven stars OF the Confederacy,
and the words ''Our Hero. and when this great
piece blazed forth to the music of Dixie and
the booming of the cannon that flashed against
the black and rainy sky and shook the ground
1t seemed that great people had lost their
senses, such were the demonstrations OF Joy and
mad excitement
AS Mr. Davis was hustled through the gayly
decorated rotunda of the Exchange, in the crowd
ing mass and hurried up the broad howercov-
cred staircases to his room, the women lining
the way covered him with caresses He walked
over flowers and into room in which his bed
and every article of furniture, and even the
floor, were strewn with roses, snatched from the
bouquets and baskets prepared for him.
Along the route of two hundred miles, from
Beauvor to Montgomery these scenes had
been repeated, and no mar in America has ever
iourneyed across the country amid such tokens
of homage and affection While the cannon
doomed and the streets were alive with the surg
ing crowd In the fetid smoke or the flre works,
the demand for Mr. Davis became irresistible
He appeared at last, coming from the same
room he occupied twenty-five years ago as Presi-
dent of the Confederacy. and stood forth upon
the balcony. Cheer upon cheer for jeff Davis
arose. and the lines of the military were utterly
broken and disorganizsd by the struggling mob.
When comparative silence was obtained he be-
gan to speak.
He said: with heart full of emotion"-and
that was as fat as he ever got A band struck
up ''Dixier-a brass band can always be depend
ed upon to get in its work in the wrong place
and after waiting moment, Mr.. Davis retired
with q gesture of Impotence, and went to his
room. When the facts were ascertained, the
inclination of the crowd was to lynch the stupid
band which had robbed them Of the opportunity
of hearing their hero. A few moments after
wards the rain, which had drizzled all day, be-
can to pour in torrents, and the crowd slowly
;aelted away Mr. Davis went to his room,
where crowd of ex confederates attended him
satil be expressed wish to retire.
The scenes and incidents of Mr.. Davis's recep-
f;en here tonight are of so extraordinary char
Ter that the sober-going people of the North
VII hardly be able to credit them until they I'M
of their Southern brothers, and the depth and
pathos of the affection and regret they feel in
regard to the 'lost cause
At II o'clock the corridors of the Exchange
Hotel are still solid mass of people. A band
is playing Dixie" and "Way Down Upon the
Swanee River" and 'Old Lang Syne," and the
cheers for jeff Davis are going up and the men
are getting about as enthusiastic as the women.
GEN. JOHN b. GORDON.
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