The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-02-12
Washington Will Be ElabOrately Decorated,
and Forty to Fifty Thousand Men Will
Participate in the Great Procession.
Indiana Democratic Congressman Indig-
nant Over the Removal of EdgertOn.
A Resolution Providing for an Investigation
in the Second Arkansas District-Rumors
About the Harrison Cabinet.
THE COMING INAUGURATION.
The Parade Will Be the Largest Ever Known
arrangements for Seating Spectators.

The Parade Will BE the Largest Ever Known
arrangements for Seating Spectators.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal
WASHINGTON, Feb. u.-Fifteen hundred
men from the regular army and the militia
of the District will llescort the President and
Vice-president-elect to the Capitol on in
auguration day. Between forty and fifty
thousand men will be in line when the chief
executive and the Vice-president are es-
corted from the Capitol to the White House.
1t is to be the proudest pageant ever wit
messed in this country, or any other, not
excepting the military and civic displays
upon the coronation of the Car of Russia
or the crowning of king or an emperor.
Immense stands of seats, from which the
public will view the parade
(by paying from S1.50 to So
head) are being erected all along Penn
sylvania avenue wherever vacant plot Of
ground can be found; also, around the
Treasury and other buildings occupied by
the government. Hundreds of carpenters
are employed putting up the seats, which
resemble those at baseball park or fair
ground. If the weather three weeks from
to-day should be pleasant here, the seat
dealers will make a fortune. The police
arrangements for keeping Pennsylvania av-
enue clear are complete. and there will be
gorgeous decorations along the line OF pa
rade, which is fifteen squares In length
about a mile and a half.
Will Supass Any Previous Displays.
Philadelphia Press.
Accounts of the preparations under way
in Washington and elsewhere for the
inaugural parade of March make it ap-
parent that the event will be the most
imposing of the kind the country has yet
seen. The size of the procession will
probably be limited only by the width and
length of Pennsylvania avenue. Fifty
thousand soldiers and civilians at least will
be in line, and this number would be
largely increased if the managers had not
decided to vigorously exclude all organiza-
tions of an Objectionable character and
everything which might tend to lower the
dignity of the occasion.
The American people are not much given
to parades. During the first century of the
government, which is now soon to close.
there have been only few professions
that will become historical. Among these
the chief places will be held by the inaug-
New York, the celebrations which marked
the fiftieth anniversary of American indie
pendence in 1896 the grand review OF the
army in Washington in 1866 at the close of
the war of the Rebellion, the centennial
celebration of the Battle of Bunker Hill in
Boston in 1875, the two great centennials
held in this city, of American independence
in 1876 and of the United States Constitu-
tion in 1897 and the inaugural parade of
President Garfield in 1880.
The chief reasons for this lack of great
public shows have been the newness of the
country and the absence of important
events worthy of being commemorated IN
this way. Other reasons are the absorption
of the people in business and the heat and
aspeEity which has marked marked AT American an
subdued, state governments organized.
thousands of miles of railroads built, the
gold and silver mines of California and
Nevada made to yield VI. their precious
stores. the great granary OF the Northwest
opened, 4,00O,0 slaves freed and more mil
lions of emigrants from the old world re-
ceived and made part and parcel of the
American people. 1t is not strange that
while these tasks were being accomplished
there was little time for pomps and dis
plays.
But the Nation has grown rich and great
in the century since George Washington
was inaugurated President. 1t has more
than doubled it's area and has multiplied
it's population by twenty, and events
worthy of being celebrated are crowding
thick and fast upon each other. There is
less hurry in business and less asperity in
politics and the harsher traits of the peo-
pie are evidently being softened by the
arts of civilized life. This change is to be
welcomed, though it is to be hoped this
country will never see the day when its
citizens will become SO enervated that they
will be eager to climb 'tO walls and bat
Elements, to towers and windows, yea to
chimney tops" to see some great P0mpey
pass the streets of Rome"
There is too much to be accomplished,
however, too many victories to be gained
over the material forces of nature, to war
rant any present fear that the American
people are degenerating to the level of the
Romans of julius C2sar's time. So, putting
politics and pessimism aside for the day,
every American can. ON the 4th of March,
look with pride and satisfaction on the
procession which will sweep from Capitol
Hill up Pennsylvania avenue and past the
White House, and which will probably be
SO grand in its proportions as to form 9
point of comparison for all future inaugural