New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-10-13
PART II.
OCT. 10, 1892.
THE TRAMP OF ARMED MEN.
SOLDIERS FILL THE STREETS
MILLIONS TURN OUT TO VIEW TIE MILL
TARY PAGEANT
TROOPS AND UNIFORMED BATTALONS MARCH,
FOR SIX HOURS PAST THE RE-
VIEWING STAND.

Age will not dim aud years cannot efface the
recollection of the sights and sounds of ycstcr-
days pageant from the mind of any one Of its
two millions of beholders. COlors cannot paint and
words cannot describe the glorirs of the scene.
II was day of surging multtudes and marching
troops, of stirring music and of rolling drums of
struggling policemen and of sufocating crowds.
Through the great arteries of traffic poured the
legions of the State and National power. while
every adjacent thoroughfare was blocked with
gaping, cheering thousands.
With the earliest dawn began the gathering of
the clans. Every incoming boat and train had
IFS load OF eXpectant sightseers or Of uniformed
participants in the parade. They quickly glutted
every means Of transit and choked up every
street. Frozen cascades of citizen soldiery hung
in arrested progress upon the staroases of uptown
railway stations, and ioreign regiments bivOuaccd
in the narrow streets of the lower city. There
was u galloping of aids and running TO and
fro of orderlieS Slowly the tangled masses en-
tangled themselves. Cut Of disorder grew order.
Cut of chaos came cosmos. Battalion fell into
line after battalion and with waving pumes and
nuttcring cnsgns the finest military parade New
York ever saw moved up Manhattan Island.
EVEN THE POLICE LOOKED DIsMAyED.
Then the fun began with the crowds. APP
parentN every man. woman and child in the met
ropotan district had started out early with the
idea of getting a position in the front rank OF
spectators. From Bowling Green to Fifty-ninth-
st the crush was indescribabe. Into The narrow
gorge Of the citys central thorouehiare had
poured the living torrent of its entire population
The police looked in dismay upon the overrunnin&
multitude. which could not be wthstood For
every small boy who was put back III the lines
a dozen more popped out. These formed an end
less mass that eddied up and down the open
channel of the street.
When the officers formed IN line and sought TO
drive these stragglers back, there was no outlet
through which to drive then. The lines formed
along the curb were as unyielding as were the
British squares at Waterloo. The trucks at the
cross streets left no means 0: cgress there. AT
various places along the line of march the pro
cesson was brought to d stop by the impeding
multtudeS.
As the head of the column swept up Fifth
ave, with all tho pOnp and circumstance OF
war, a dense black multitude that daIkened Muir
ray Hill awaited and opposed them with the
inert HELPLESS resistance of a peaceful mob
Slowly the head of the glitterng column ate
into the field of black as the mounted police rode
boot 10 boot into the crowd. Burly patrolmen
formed in rush lines and charged the rampant of
humanity with the tactics of the football field
The frequent spectacle Of stalwart officer
leaning I'D against a laughing crowd at an angle
Of forty-fve degrees. and striving 10 dig has toes
into the pavement in the effort 10 get foot
hold, was unique If not denihcd and much to
he preferred over the old spectacle of waving
clubs and threatening fists.
OBSERVATION STANDS EVERYWHERE.
Along the five miles OF the line of march there
were observation stands and observation stands
little and biz, high and low, long and short
broad and narrow: and every inch of each was
occupied. A million people sat on the soft side
of pine board the greater part OF the DAY. lheir
eyes we're on the glittering stream of dancing
plumes ard polished steel that passed before
them. Their ears were ringing with the booming
of a thousand drums. Their backs were AGAINST
the knees of the people in the next row, and
their dollars were in the pockets Of the ticket
spectators
Another million sat or stood upon the sidewalks
and in the streets In the front rank were those
who sat upon the curbstOnc. Then came tile
occupants Of a row Of campstoos ana chairs.
Next a row of people standing up. Behind these
2 lire of men standing on soap boxes ana Oh
barrels and back Of all the helpless, hopeless
ones who had been left in the race pushed -
the wall. and doomed to pass the day in olscurltJ
and Ignorance save for the occasional crumbs oil
information dropped from some fortunate friend
who could see the passing glOlleS from HIS hlShci
level
And vet they were happys and they sat ana
s,ood IN. show out to the lingering end. There
was not cross or uEintcrcsted face anywhere IN
that vast island of spectators about which the
cr,rent Of the procession swirled at Union Square.
Tlcre WAS not a frown OveIshadowing any Of the
long valley of bright eyes through which the
soldier hovs marched their prettlest at Madison
Square Nowhere there an unhappy atom
in the hundreds Of cstaractS OF humanity 'hat
we're seemingly pouring dswn every S'oop ana
over every balcony along each one OF the weary
niles of street and avenue
NOT A VACANT SEAT ALONG THE LINE.
Tint architectural parasite, the observation
stand. throve everywhere and chung t. everything
thai had the necessary sOlidity. They OVciSpread
every Omen space and city square. They hung ten
aciously TO every balcony and bay wihdo" WIN
the consistency of ivy. They nourIShch ike inc
proycrbjal green bay tree in the most crampcd OF
front Yards Not seat was vacant. Not a cupic
inch of space was unoccupicd
At last the surgng crowds were beited III "l'I'
rome and wire The last belated woman ha1 pceh
squeezed through the crowds TO the char, or step
Ladder. or SOAP box that had been reserved Tor
her Every eye turned toward the direction
from which the marching thousands were to come
Every ear listened for the martial music ana inc
measured tread of armed men. Before that migh'S
mass of eager spectators, through these waiting
hosts that outnumbcred any that ever cheered the
triumphal car of Roman emperor or consul, thpre
marched for six long hours the flower OF the Va
tonal troops, the picked militia of four great
States. and an endless variety of uniformed or
CARNATIONS of every character and type swelling
the grand total TO $1,000 men.
At TIE head of the column rode Grand Marshal
Martin T. Mcmahon, escorted by his ghttcrinG aids
and the cavalry troop of the city. Then came the
firm straight ranks of the ay-coated cadets from
West Point, led by their commandant mounted
on a most magnificent charger After these