The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-10-16
THE CELEBRATION.
How New York Honored the
Memory of Columbus.

NOW OrkS great gaia time Is over,
but the sounds of tramping feet, OF
drums, the bugle and tho shouts o. two
or three million people still echo in
ones ears, and the memory of October
10, 1882. will never be cffaced from tho
minds of those who witnessed it. Broad
way and Fifth avenue were Respondent
in silken array; miles Of beautiful flags,
OF bunting and electric lights met tho
eye on every side, but to discriminate
and describe the most beautiful portions
OF either fashionable thoroughfare, 1
should still be writing when the bugle
blows for our next Columbus celebration
in 2292.
The contrast was great whom one
passed through Fifth avenue to the
great arc at Fifty. ninth street, beheld
the homes of exMayor Hewitt, of tho
Vanderbilts and Astors, of the Fifth
Avenue Hotel or the several club houses,
and having taken in all tho rich beauty,
the arti site taste and beautiful architec-
ture, crossed over TO Third avenue and
took an open car back to the Battery.
JOuO WIN HAS CV6C VISlC9Q NOW
York knows that Third and Eighth ave-
nues consist OF moro small grocery
stores, more butcher shops on small
scale more peanut stands and every
kind of vender's business than any CITY
in America.
And was Third avenue to be outdone
by it's more pretentious aud wealthier
neighbors? 1 guess not. Every color
known to tho rainbow, in cheap bunt-
ings in calico and prints. floated and
waited it's patr! otism to the winds. yell
lows, greens and reds o. every shade
and hue were made to blend with Uncle
Sans stars and stripes.
| Every little son of Italy wore his
native flag, while Italian women in gay
est robes, hair black and sleek, with
| bare head and infant in arms, came and
went in myriads.
The patriotism was as great, the hand
as firm, the heart as big in the Bowery
and the side alleys as on Fifth avenue
The city was filled with strangers, but
| prices at the best hotels remained the
same.
Soap boxes, cracker boxes, barrels
and step ladders, to say nothing OF
kitchen tables, were at premium.
Every available space. stoops. private
and public, churches and places of bust
|
were built two stories high with seats
| Trucks and wagons and carts sent their
seats ten feet high in the air, and I'M
daunted men and women paid from fifty
| cents to 81 for seat on these insecure
| structures.
Now and then great commo ton
| would attract ones attention to some
| particular SPOT and when police would
arrive he would find only big fat Irish.
woman standing with piteous, long
drawn face in q barrel, the head having
given way and placed her out of sight.
1t was lucky for many that they camo
out alive.
Here's yer casino box; twonty Ave
cents s. seat to see the parade" yelled
thousands OF voices, and, Twenty ve
cents for this private box an I'll move
everybody from front of yez," called out
the urchin as he squeezed through tho
crowd with an old soap box that had
done service for years in the family
| kitchen.
This mans gos the cholera; mako
way called out a terror. stricken face
| as he came to dense throng, and the
people fell right and left; the man with
his cholera patient passed serenely
! through, and the two TUNED and grinned
at the people who now had the terror
|
conway to those not present better idea
Of the sea of faces than an immense
field of VIII eat swaying in brisk breeze.
The good nature of the crowd was
something extremely remarkable.
Every ones face, from the laughing
Growing baby to the glay-baired grand
sire, was full OF expectancy, of pleasure
and fun. The crowd was as one, and
national airs sung by thousands of
threats filled tho arr.
Early in the evening some enterpris.
ing New Workers., who knew how to
take time by the forelock," pl 4ced
wagons filled with stills at five cents q
pair on the streets and they went like
flash.
But having bought them they were
found to he useless, for where was the
| boy or girl who could stand on stills in
such Il crowd?
But the extravagant purchase must
be put to some account. and presently
there came all along tho line tunes from
Hail Columbia" to Boom de.ay,"
played by the "stilts chorus" tho stills
being used as pair OF cy N balls or bones
The soldiers perhaps Jared better than
any othor body of men. for at every halt
they we're fed from house tops, balloon
les and windows.
| Bananas and oranges followed sand.
wiches and cake, while manv of them
| leaped in the air to catch q we'll aimed
bottle of milk.
The spirit was infectious and soon
like great birds in the air came every
conceivable kind of faro. E..:h feature
OF each parade; each body Of men and
each float is a chapter in itself, for New
York spared neither brains, money nor
| time to mako the celebration a SUCCESS