Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-26

i
PRESIDENT HOOD.
Inside the house was a dense. swaying
throng. Every nook and corner of the large
edifce was packed, every room occupied, all
the corridors and stairways made solid by
humanity. The main staircase, in the north
west corner of the building, was cOmpactly
filed from the start to the finish by people
coming and going and the appearance pre-
sented TO a spectator standing at the top and
looking down was very bewildering. Neatly
uniformed servants stood in the corners, out of
the line of the currents, and tried to furnish
directions to the newcomers and advice to
those thinking of departing, but their voices
were lost in the hum of so many admiring
voices, as the folks came upon new surprises
in the finish Of the building at nearly every
step. Then the posts of instruction were taken
by some Of the members of the reception COM
mittee, who were indefatigable in their efforts
to keep the crowd moving. They called out
directions at the tops of their voices until they
became hoarse and their collars began to grow
limp and damp. Occasionally some one would
invent q new order, which he would begin to
shout forth in the hope that it would prevent
the erowdlng upon the staircase, but this only
increased the confusion, as there were often
two, three and sometimes four directions being
given at the same time. There was trifing
lack OF system about this part of the arrange
ments for the reception of the enormous crowd,
but the people were SO good-natured about it
that no serious jamming resulted.
THE SCENE.
The scene in the building was beautiful al
most beyond description, flowers being used in
profusion yet with elegant taste in arrange
ment Great pots Of roses and baskets of other
cut flowers stood on tables and on the mantels
TO give the air a soft, heavy perfume that soon
gave the rooms q heavy, dollhouse atmosphere
The gas was lighted all the evening, the cleo
trio lights being turned on at about 10 o'clock,
when the current could be spared from the
night exhibition at the art gallery. When the
thin diaments of the incandescents, inciosed
in their neatly nodded shades of opal glass,
began to glow with clearer brilliancy there
was hum Of applause went shooting through
the rooms as if controlled by the same electric
current. In the early part of the evening, the
very earliest, it was quite possible to move
around with some degree of comfort and even
some speed, but as the crowd grew denser and
denser passing through the building became q
difficult task.
THE MUSIC.
1t was worse than elsewhere in the main par
lors on the second floor, where the chief at
traction was in the Marine Band which, half hid
den In a small room at tine rear of the suite. the
entrance into which was closed with great
palm plants, rendered a program of music of
the kind that always delights Washington
audience, from the earliest hour Of the recep-
ton TO the last.
The program was as follows: l. Conseera-
ton of the temple. overture, kele-Bee; 2 Sc
lections from the Drum Major, Ofenbach; g.
Fantasia, Tannhauser, Wagner; 4. Waltz. Love
Dreamiand, Roeder; ). Collocation. Erminie.
Jaeobowski; 6. Caprice, The Coquette, Sousa;
2; Mosaic. La GiOcOnda, Ponchialli; s. Ballad.
Little Annie Rooney, Nolan; y. Gems from the
Gondoliers, Sullivan; 10. advertisement. D,
Listen to Ny Tale of Woe, Smith; H. Caprice,
The Oolah, LecOcq; IL. March, The Thunderer,
Sousa.
THE CRUSH.
The passageways just outside of these par
Tors and the band room were packed with peo-
pie at all times, this being the objective point
of all who wanted to stow away their wraps
and hats At first this was quite possible, al
though the gentlemen had TO stand in line for
u long time IN order to be waited on without
confusion. while the ladies were taken into
another room. Members of the club used
their new lockers as hat boxes, and thus re-
heyed the pressure around the little hole IN the
wall that swallowed hundreds of pieces of head
gear and yards upon yards of coat cloth To-
ward the end of the reception, when folks
began TO want to go home, IT became next To
Impossible to get anywhere near the cloak
room without the most patient waiting and
the most frightful crowding Occasion
ally some one over anxious and not
over polite would begin to push and
shove, TO the great danger of creating
rush anu stampede, but the mem
bers of the reception committee, who
were stationed In all parts of the build
ing, managed, by nippIng these tenden-
cies in the bud, to keep the crowd in order and
TO prevent anything that looked like an acct
Dent Here and there q lady became slightly
overcome by the heat. the crowd, and the
heavy atmosphere, and there a momentary
confusion, but prompt measures were always
taken.
The reception" consisted merely in the
struUUllnr iItn "a bnuaa Iii
around so as to see its beauties and comforts
and eonyenlences, and then struggling GU,
again There was no receiving done TO any
great extent, although there was a line of a
dozen ladies or SO standing IN the entry of the
main parior, who were supposed to be the re-
:siVing party. They were Mrs. Jas. L. Hood
Mrs. John d. rlton, Mrs. VIM. 8. Thompson,
Mrs. Dean. Mrs. Haswell, Mrs. EmmOns, Mrs
;; e. hondrup, Mrs Ohley, Mrs. W. B. Hibbs,
Mira u. 5. Barry. Mrs. J. West Wagner, Mrs.
Wm- X. heyworth; but the crowd went by them
without seeing them and thew were left stand
ing to shake hands with their friends who might
know that they were there as the hostesses OF
the evening.
IN THE GYMNAsIuM
Everybody went up into the gymnasium. O,
course, and there the ladies gave a full vent 70
their ordinations and admirations and curiosi.
les. They wanted to know how everything
vas worked, what everything was for and ali
about IL. The punching bag in one corner OF
he gallery made them feel as though they
sould like to try their hitting qualities. bn,
they were afraid. They had strong desires to
swing the cluos, and to pull at the oars of the
rowing machine and to run races on the canva.
rack around the gallery rail, but they con-
:luded that they would not do il Just then
Most of them wanted to know IL the gymna-
ium was not ever going TO be opened to the
aides, as 10 would be Q pity, they said if il
sere kept for the men all the time.
N the billiard room there vas . comparative