Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-10-20
CHICAGO'S CELEBRATION
Festivities on a Grand Scale Preceding the Dedica-
 tory Exercises.
TO-DAY DEVOTED TO CIVIC PARADEs
 WATER PAGEANT TONIGHT.

Formal Inaugural Reception to the City's
 Guests of Honor at the Auditorium
 Last Night-A FriShtful Crush at the
 RalI-Trouble Over the Military Process
 sion To-morrow-Plan of the Exposition
 Grounds-sOme of the Buildings.
 CHICAGO, Oct. 20.-The civic celebra- tion in connection with the dedication of the Worlds Fair buildings is taking place to-day. Innumerable societies are to take part in the parade, which will be reviewed by the Vice. President, the Cabinet and other notables.
 This evening, at Jackson Park, amid myriads of electric lights and other dis plays, a water pageant, the Procession of the Centuries" will move through the waterways of the Exposition grounds.
 There have been few hitches in the orderly procession of events, but nothing that promises to interfere seriously with the success of the celebration. The peo- pie are anxious to see the big military parade tomorrow, but the line of march, as far as things are settled at present, is to be from Washington Park to Jackson, and every one who knows the geography of Chicago knows how far from the real city those points are.
 The citizens are signing petitions to have the soldiers go through the down town parade. Gen. Nelson A. Miles says that he does not think that it will be possible to take the troops through the city.
 "A parade Tn the city," he says, ''means that all roads to the Worlds Fair grounds will be swamped. The con gested traffic would interfere with the passage of the visitors carriages, to say nothing of the public"
 Chicago's Auditorium, the greatest as sembly hall of the continent, was ablaze with light and beauty last night. Lovely women were there whose presence would create a furore at a drawing room in Buckingham Palace, women in toilets that would put to shame the greatest creations of a Worth. And there were men who have made their imprint on the history of this and other nations, statesmen and diplomats, warriors that have faced the dusky foe in the jungles and tried conclusions with the enemy on the briny deep; men of letters and of law, of science and of art. Patriotism was the animative motive of the occasion and the event. So far as the officcal pro- gramme of the dedication week was con- cerned, last nights reception had no recognition, beyond the formal endorse ment of the Committee on Ceremonies of the Worlds Columbian Exposition.
 It was a scene of almost indescribable brilliancy that presented itself to the wis ion of the Vice-P President of the United States when, leaning upon the arm of President H. N. Higginbotham, of the Worlds Fair Directory, he appeared upon the floor of the ballroom. The steel cur tain of the stage had been raised, and in its place half fluttered the Spanish royal banner. To the right and left, above and below, were banners upon which were embroidered the initials of Queen Isabella and her consort, the rulers of Spain at the time of the great discoverer
 To the right and left, before and be- hind, above and below, fiuttering in the air from the balconies and hiding from view the primitive nakedness of the mar