St. Paul daily globe., 1889-02-28
INAUGURATION CEREMONIES.


INAUGURATION CEREMONIES.
To-day the tide of travel will set in
towards Washington, and from now
until Tuesday next the highways lead
ing in the direction of the national cap
ital will be filled with political devotees
making their quadrennial pilgrimage to
the Mecca of the officeSeekerS.
What are all these people going there
for? There are not Offices enough to go
around. Possibly only one in four of
all those on their way to Washington is
an Offieeseeker. The others are simply
going to the Inauguration to see, the
new president inducted into Office and
to hear him deliver his inaugural adj
dress. And yet not one in twenty of the
vast throng that will gather around the
capitol building next Tuesday may get
glimpse of Gen. HARRISON as he
stands on the east portico and lays his
hand Oh the Bible that Chief Justice
FULLER will hold. Not more than one
in hundred of the great crowd will
hear even single sentence of the in
augural address,. But it will be salts
faction to them to know that they were
at the Inauguration.
There will be great parade on Penn
sylvania avenue of soldiers and citizens
that all can see. There will be ball at
night, to which one in thousand
of the visitors to Washington will
get a ticket. The hotels will be
packed like sardine boxes. and still thou
sands will be without accommodation.
There will be noise and hustle and ex-
element; there will be beating of drums
and blowing of horns; the tramp of citi-,
zen soldiery will be heard on the streets;
the swaying crowds will JOsile and
surge and crush until everybody is
worn ont, and will be glad to get away
from the din and the jam. Yet they
will all come back satisfied that they
were at the Inauguration.
And yet, with all their discomforts,
these Inauguration ceremonies have
beneficial effects. In the olden times
presidential Inauguration was a very
simple affair. as when Mr.. JEFFERSON
rode in the capital, hitched his horse to
fence and walked up to the capitol
and took the oath of Office without any
noise or parade about it. But in these
latter days, when the railroads can carry
people to and from all parts of the
country at such exceedingly low rates,
it is an easy matter to congregate a big
crowd at the national capital on Inaugu-
ration day. And as long as the crowd
is to be there, the local authorities deem
it proper to do something to entertain
them, so the parade and the bail are
made features of the Inauguration cere
monies.
But aside from the qualification parti
sans enjoy in seeing their choice for
president installed i'll his high Office,
these Inauguration ceremonies serve
useful purpose in familiariZing the peo-
pie with the practical workings of their
government. When they go to Wash
ington and see with their own eyes
what a simple method it is to install
president; when they look upon the
great men of the nation, and observe
that they are not different from other
citizens, they are impressed with the
conviction that republican government
is a condition and not theory. There
the citizen of the West meets the citl-
zen of the East, the man from the South
shakes hands with the man from the
North, and all experience the proud
consciousness OF joint sovereignty.
Each man is a ruler. and the president,
in whose honor this demonstration
is made, is his servant. Each visitor
to Washington next Tuesday will look
upon the magnificent capitol building,
upon the costly department buildings,
and even upon the White house and its
lovely grounds, with the knowledge
that he is a stockholder III all this
valuable property. He is proprietor
here, though he be a pauper at home.
A visit to the national capital never
fails to give every American citizen an
exalted appreciation of his citizenship;
and above all, if he visits it on inaugu-
ration day. Then he feels his impor-
tance as ruler, for he and they who
stand by him say to the president go
and he goeth, and to another come and
he cometh.