Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-09-21
LEAVING THE CAPITAL
Exodus from the G. A. R. Re.
 Union Begun.
VISITORS HAVE NUMBERED 300, 900

Feature of the Encampment--The Fire
 works and Electric nluminatIons Last
 Night Surpassed Anything of the Kind Ever Witnessed In Washington. WASHINGTON, Sep. 21.-The great event of the 26th annual reunion of the Nation al G. A. R. is over, and the visitors, who yesterday were numbered at S00,U00, are fast leaving the city. By tomorrow the. exodus will be in full blast. The spectacular feature of to-day will be the concert by the consolidated bands in the city, under the leadership of John Philip Sousa. formerly director of the Marine Band. One thousand pieces will render a number of National airs. There will be many reunions during the day.
 Last night was even more glorious than the day. Shortly after dark, which was of a most favorable density, owing to the lowering crowds, the multitudinous thousands who lined the avenue while the parade was in progress, repaired, SO far as possible, to the vicinity of the monu- ment. Here the elaborate display of fireworks provided by the committee and Pain, the pyrotechnic king, was made. It was magnificent show, in some re- spects unequalled, and was worthy of a
  events.
 Succeeding the fireworks display, there was an electric illumination, on Q scale never before attempted In this coun- try. It was one of the attractions of the reunion provided by the citizens com mittee, and was a complete success. Pennsylvania avenue, from the Capitol to Seventeenth street, was ablaze with | colored lights. Every available dynamo in the city, public and private, was | brought into acquisition, and numbers were shipped here especially for the dis l play.
 The feature of the illumination was the display along both sides of the avenue of brilliant presentations of corps badges. Seventy of these had been placed on sup | ports at convenient distances in three colors, red, white and blue, the respective colors of the first, second and third divi- l sions. Each of these was outlined in in | candescent lights of the same color as the badge.
 At the head of Fifteenth street, at the | entrance to Executive avenue, was 8 | monster fac-simile of the G. A. R. badge, | IS feet in height. It was made up of in tion colors of the badge, and produced a | grand effect. A duplicate of the piece was l also shown at the corner of Pennsylvania | avenue and Seventh street.
 A fine display, and something entirely new in Washington, was shown in the | White House grounds in front of the 1 Mansion. Here innumerable lights were half hidden in the shrubbery, all of them changeable in character, disappearing and reappearing in the most bewildering l manner.
 The illumination of the Treasury build ing with colored electric lights was especi- ally fine and notable, as also were num- Der of large set pieces at intervals along the avenue, the most conspicuous being a great anchor of blazing light placed at the corner of Tenth street. Powerful search lights, thrown from the tops of high buildings, produced 8 dazzling eff feet.
 The display continued until midnight, and was witnessed by countless thou sands, who respectfully disappeared in the darkness that succeeded the turning of of the dynamos.
 Nearly half as many old soldiers were in line yesterday as passed up the avenue on the historic days of 1865 | The procession moved under the or ders of the Commander-in-Chi in double column rows of 12, one on either side oi the car tracks platoons being F paces apart, and between departments 24 | paces.
 This procession was, as far as possible, | and. last divisions containing the only 1 non-solders.
 Heading the procession was the citizens committee on parade. They were mounted ,and with the aides appointed by the Chairman, numbered a hundred or | more.
 The rear of the procession was brought | up by the Naval Veterans Association.
 Times ravages in its ranks made ii
 possible to attempt in one day what ii required two long days to accomplish in 1865. To the survivors of the 100, ,00C men of the armies of the Potomac and
 the West, who on the memorable 2Srd and 24th of May, 1865, passed in review
 before the President and his Cabinet, Gin, cluding Secretary Seward, just recovering
 from the assassin's knife), the foreign
 Ministers, the military attaches of all the
 great powers of Europe, and their own
 beloved and illustrious generals, Grant
 Sherman and Sheridan, the contrasts and f "reminiscences called out were necessarily
 striking.
 It took seven hours-from Ito 4-eacl
 day for the armies of 1865 to pass tn !. reviewing stand, and the estimated
 length of the two days procession was B , miles.
 c Washington was 8 very different city
 then. The Capitol in 1865 was walled
 in and surrounded by heavy timbers
 Neither of the present stately marbl
 wings now occupied by Senate and Hous
 was then completed. The cobbleston , pavement of Pennsylvania avenue was
 worn into alternate ravines and hillock
 by the passage of heavy commissaria
 wagons and artillery.
 = Many of those in the march yesterda
 were there in 1885, and not a few of thu
 present spectators saw that other histori II scene of ftwenty-seven years past. l. The parade of 1865 was the first grea l. national review the country had eve seen. At the close of the war there wer
 two armies in and near this city.
 All of the soldiers composing it dwel
 at the North, and Washington was bel
 ter place than any other for their dispeI
 sion. The fortitude of the men and tn
 struggles in which they had borne S
 brave a part deserved commemoratior 1t and out of this sentiment grew th 90 march which was repeated yesterday. | Tw~ aAa rursn zNo nd o