Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-01
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE D1sPArcH.r

present, ana responded 10 tne IOdSbs 70 WAlcn
they were assigned.
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE D1sPATcH.l
NEW YORK, April 3O.-If Monday night
beheld the greatest ball of the century, the
banquet tonight was away ahead of the
ball. 1t was a spectacle from the very
start, and the picturesque scene took on new
changes at every step. In the first place,
there were seats for sos feasters, including
the particularly favored ones at the Presi-
dents table, presided over by Mayor Grant
not, it will be remembered, without a
modest display of the stesdy-going young
Mayors self-assertion. There were about
100 absent ones, tired out and Indifferent to
any further official or quasi-official efforts to
glorify the great day when Washington be-
gan 20 make things hum for us.
Can anybody who reads The DISPATCH
tomorrow morning recall an event in mod
ern times when over zoo, most of them men
whose names are familiar to a nation of Co.
10000, have sat down together? There is
more meant in this query than at first ap-
pears. With all consideration to the great
number at the 26 tables in the Metropolitan
Opera House tonight, can any of THE DIS
PATcH's friends recall an event where
SO MANY INTERESTS WERE FORGOTTEN
for the moment? Where so many widely
diversified and inexpIicable characteristics
were blended in calm contemplation of
salads and fzz? Where dogmas diametri-
cally opposite from the first to the last letter
were momentarily set aside for the consid-
Grafton of foies gras? Where every COM
plexion of politics, and where every social
difference were stilled, and where every
neighb r. President Senator, Congressman,
Mayor, banker, merchant, scholar, chimed
in with free and uniform harmony.
These were some CT the interesting and
suggestive things to be seen at the great
feast tonight, and it was the result of the
desire to make the event memorable and
honorable to the great man who sleeps at
Mt Vernon. 1t was about the nearest ap-
proach to the millennium that one hears of
nowadays. 1t started at the very door of
the Opera House an hour before O'Clock.
the time set for the dinner. Where on the
night before there was a string of carriages
from the door down Broadway and Sixth
avenue to Twenty-eighth street, there was
tonight a string of representative men, all
waiting to get their hats checked.
TRYING TO BE IN TIME.
1t was not yet dusk, and the great parade
was only then drawing to close. Presi-
dent Harrison and Vice President Morton
and Mayor Grant and Governor Hill had
not begun to think Of putting on their dress
suits, and vet here was great line of bank
ers and merchants waiting. patiently or
otherwise, for all the world like the gamins
at Bowery theater on Saturday night, to be
accommodated.
The men in the line were Il accustomed
to await any subordinates convenience, but
they did this with only the casual glumbling
of men used to having their nod and wink re-
garded. The line increased as dusk closed in
and a view Of the procession walking close up
almost at lock-step was not by any means the
least interesting bit of incident in the great
event.
Then the carriages of the more fastidious
began to roll up. There were scores of men in
the line who own dappled grays to draw them
but there is nothing so wearisome to the rich
man as to sit in his carriage as it Greens laziIy
toward the entrance on opera night or to the
swell society events where the unwritten law
commands that homage from him. The men in
the line were much happier, therefore, for the
novel experience.
LATE IN GETTING STARTED.
1t was now after o'clock and there was
every indication that dinner would be late in
getting started. A few hundred walters stood
around or wandered through the velvet car
p6l6u anu GQe early mlllellalt1eS
noticed that the floral decorations at the ball
the night before were beginning to 90 the way
Of all the earth. The beautiful hvdraneeas
were all abloom, and the bunting was as bright
and variegated as fast dye could make it but
the foliage and shrubs gave indications of
the effect of the glare and blaze of
light the night before. There were evidences
that some of them had been freshened and the
unwhOlesome indications of departed splendor
were checked by the great banks of new flow
ers strewn about most generously on the 26 long
and winding tables There were banks of
tulips of every hue that light can form, ascen-
sion lilies whose enhancing perfume asserted
itself almost equally with that of the huge vases
of red and white roses New fields of hvd-
rangeas and daisies mingled with nignonette
and violets and lilies of the valley, and one
great vase of trailing arbutas were on the other
tables.
READY FOR THE WORD TO BEGIN.
At about o'clock most of those who were to
be there had arrived. Lander's Band was in
the uppermost balcony ready to turn on the
MELODY. and the guests roamed through the
corridors and viewed the beautiful floral dis
play on the tables The folks who went TO see
and not to eat began to I'LL the balconies Alta
few minutes after it was known In the main
corridor that the Presidential party was at the
door and Edmund G. Stanton who sncceeded
Ward McAllister. was at the carriage door ar
almost the same instant.
Mayor Grant Hamilton Fish, Elbridpe T.
Gerry. Clarence W Bowen and Stuyvesant
Fish Chairman of the Entertainment Commit
tee were quickly in their places ready to well
come the chief guest of the evening. Mayor
Grant took the President under his wing Mr.
Gerry did the same for Governor Hill Mr.
Bowen walked in with Vice President Morton
and Stuyvesant Fish corralled Chief Justice
Fuller.
There was no further delay. With tie Mayor
and the President leading the way the little |
procession moved to their places at the bic OBJ |
long "a Bile in the oenter of the greatest dining
room that the average citizen has ever seem
The members of the Cabinet were ready to fol- |
low and the other 700 we're soon in their places |
All remained standing while Bishop Potter said |
grace and then the feast begar.
IN FOR MILK AND HONEY.
There were plenty Of evidences In the ar. /
rangement Of the guests that milk and honey |
time was desired. Speaker Cole and Sunset
Cox we're apparently two of the wearied ones,
as they were not in their places at the Presi-
dents table, 80 the Hon. Chauncey NJ. Depew |
was invited 70 sit on the left of ex-President
Cleveland. while Mr. Hisc0ck sat on his right
Mr. Cleveland thus had for next-sest-
neighbors the Adonis Senator and the elo-
quent orator who contributed their share toward /
his defeat last fall but the three chatted !
away IS II II had been only game Of mumblety
peg Thomas F. Bayard looked aorcss the