Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-06-20
THE CONVENTION IN DETAIL.
A Vivid Description or the First Session
OF the Big Circus.

A Vivid Description or the FIrst Session
OF the Big Circus.
When Chairman Jones, OF the National
Republican Committee, assembled the plat
form of the great audit Orium hall, at noon
to call the National Convention to order,
he looked upon q scene unparalleled in the
history of public gatherings in this coun-
try. Larger sssemblages have been held
in more spacious halls, but at none have
the ocular properties been 70 effective, or
the brilliancy of illumination and pic
turesque coloring been so splendid. Every
face can he seen without effort, and an
audience of less than ten thousand appears
to he an almost countless multitude. The
magnificent sweep of the great gallery
alone, which seats nearly 8. 900 persons, is
a picture which impresses even those
familiar with great audiences, and the
whole scene bathed in food of electric
light, shed by $500 ipcandescent lamps,
thrills even the most sluggish heart. The
auditorium is $50 feet long and 100 feet
wide, with two side b 'lconies and great
gallery, the seats in which rise tier on tier
at an angle of forty degrees.
The stage, which is but slightly raised
above the floor of the ball, commands
mot, hut of large balcony in the rear,
and tier of boss at either side. This
stage stretches from the sides 81 toe nal aad
accommodates, IN addition to the Presi-
dents platform, which is in the centre,
seyeral hundred newspaper representatives
There are iust 800 seats 10 the hall, and
"A the convention is called to order proba-
Div 9, 900 people are within the glance o.
Chairman Jones eye.
The decorations appear
A TRIFLE BEwILDERING
a. first. The walls. esiling and every post
pillar and panel is covered with flags
bunting and streamers in varied artistic
designs and colors, and portraits and paint
ipgs of historic designs meet the eye every
where. The red, white and blue is con
snicuous, of course, everywhere, but
great sheet of terra Gotta bunting hangs a
a roof between the sunlight which pour
through it from q great open space JUS
above the great gallery, and relieves th'
otherwise monotony OF 80 prOdigsl dis
nlay of the national colors. But even TIT
sunlight shines but dimly in the great hall
the electric illumination being depended
upon because of the impossibility OF pro
tecting the audience in the present unhn
ished state of the building and letting II
the daylight st tie same time. The ar
rappement of the electric lamps In grea
stars suspended from the roof and WALL
of the hall, is one of the most effective anC
beautiful features Of the scene which greet'
Chairman Jones as he stands, himself
striking fgure-tall, erect with the
APPEARANCE AND AIR OF A PATRIARCH
With suspended gsvel to hush the gres'
stir and hustle before him, to present
clergyman who is to ask the divine bene
diction upon the deliberations OF the con
yentiop. Some of the details Of the audi
torinm decorations are worth specisl men
tiop. At the apex in front OF the chair
mans desk is gilded American Eagle,
and beneath it, u portrait OF Washington
On the right of the cbairman's desk Is
plaster bust of the late Gen. John A. Lo
gan, in heroic size, draped with an Ameri
can dag. Hanging from one Of the boxes
at the right is large painting Of Logan's
charge Of the battle Of Atlanta. On tns
facs of the north and south walls Of the
auditorium, framed in festoons O large
American flags and surrounded by . circie
of, electric stars, are poftraits OF Lincoln
and Grant, the design bsing mammoth ~
proportion and form, the
TWO MOST srslkING DETAILS
of the decorations. Flashing its parti-
colorsd brilliapcy full into the face Of the
audience and aslsgates, is a suspended
American shield, formed of different col