Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-04-30
COXEY AT WASHINGTON.
Intends to March to the Capitol
 Steps Tomorrow.
THOUSANDS VISITING HIS CAMP.
The General Says That if the Army Is shut Out of the Capitol Grounds by the Courts a Revolution Will FO!Iow-Camp Locks Like a Circus Ground.

1 WASHINGTON, April 30.-Citizen James | Slecher COxey, commander-iu-chiefo of the ! good roads army of the cOmmOnweal standing on rickety wagon in the corner | of the Brightwood Driving park, waving ! aloft his Alpine hat to one of the most cos l mopolitan and extensive audiences ever l gathered in Washington, announced that the greatest march of the nineteenth cen, tury had been accomplished.
 The march had been accomplished, as ! Citizen CoXey said, but its ending was in 1 pitiful contrast to the massing of the thousands of unemployed that its pro | jector had prophesied. Three hundred and a half of misera,rly dressed, woebegOne ! grUmbling, out-at-the-elbOw and run | down-at-the-heels specimens of humanity who bore a striking though perhaps un- | deserved resemblance to the familiar genus tramp, marched into the park, led by a 1 wheezing apology for a band, pitched tents and stretched themselves in the sun Thousands from the city turned out to I make holiday of it and inspect the curi- ous aggregation. They listened to the weird talk of Marshal Carl Browne and the populistic speech of COXey. Then they turned toward home in haze of mental wonderment at the whole queer perform ance, the perseverance with which it had been carried out and the notOriety it had l attained.
 Thousands Viewed the Army.
 Thick clouds of dust Overhung the two roads leading to Brightwood from the cit y all day long. and they were plowed with more travel than customarily beats them in months. Two endless processiOns swept along he roads all day, with such variety of travellers as had never turned out in Washington since war times. There were plenty of carriages bowling along with senators, representatives and their fami- lies: swells of the foreign legations, mono cled, with their legs incused in long riding boots. astride of steeds with closely crop, ped tails: darkies with their draft mules hitched to the most unique vehicles, into which they had piled friends and neigh. hOrs of their own color; stages and grocers wagons carrying picnic parties of young people; tallyhOs with clubmen packed like sardines on the tops; pedestrians, young and old black and white, plodding through the three miles of dust, and darting among the crowds were bicyclers galore.
 Lining the entrances to the park enter prising colored citizens had established their booths for traffic in gingerbread and sweetened water, which passed current un- der the guise of lemonade. The semblance to circus layout was further enforced by the thim bleriggers and shellmen skulking about the outskirts of the crowd.
 When the people poured into the park inclOsure, the suggestion of circus day was full blown. In the center of the half mile race track Tapped the canvas inclosure which encircles the quarters of the com monweal army.
 Half a dozen weather beaten army tents stood about the canvas drawn circle wit h several canvas covered commissary wag- ons Tents and wagons were covered with black painted daubs-legends which were a queer mixture of good roads, reincarna- tion and finance. The great Percheron horses, with shaggy fetlocks, were tethered about the wagons. Near by were fastened two large American flags. and the em- blematic banners were piled on the grounds. Most interesting of the sights, however, were the human elements-the rank and file of the Quixote army, the men who had marched and borne the brunt of mud and storms and cold. They were the most unique and ineXplicable aggregation ever brought together Some of them were at work about the tents and wagons, others curled up on the damp ground munching great chunks of bread, and many more stretched sleeping in the sun, with their heads pillowed on rolled up | I about surveying the men and commenting upon their appearance. with no apparent realization of the fact that the subjects of their comments were human beings who could hear and understand them.
 Coxey In Creased Trousers.
 Over in the most pretentious tent, which bore the sign Headquarters painted across it. were found the leaders of the army, General CoXey and Marshal Browne. | The marshal, whose personality has been | made familiar to the country. busted him. l self in changing his buckskin suit for a | more conventional black cutaway in prep | aration for the "inCarnatiOn services which were about to begin. He was eE- | trely oblivious to the presence of the la 1 dies who stood at the entrance viewing his 1 toilet
 Clad in a fashionable spring suit of light drab hue, with as perfectly creased trou- sers as could be seen on Fifth avenue, with 1 cup of coffee in one hand and boiled l egg in the other. from which he alternate | ly took refreshment and sustenance, sat General CoXey, as mild a hammered man Us ever headed an army of peace.
 The question which has most agitated | Washington of late was propOunded to l him by your correspondent. "What dc you intend to do when the police prevent you from holding your meeting in the cap itol grounds:' he was asked.
 No one will prevent us" replied the seer from Massillon, with great p-ompt- ness. Does not the constitution guaran- tee the right to peaceably assemble and pc | tition cOngress?"
 But there is police regulation passed by congress which forbids processions and assemblages on the capitol grounds, and the police will stop your army if it at tempts to trespass."
 The constitution was written before any police regulations replied the gen. eral. If they come in conflict with the constitution, they are void. We stand squarely upon the constitution. That is our platform"
 How do you intend to force your rights?'
 There is but one way-by an appeal to the courts. We will go before the highest court in the land if necessary. Meanwhile we will wait here in Washington if it takes all summer. If the courts refuse us our rights, there will be revolution. donot advocate revolution, nor do desire it, but it will be irresistible, and it will be the greatest revolution of history if the Amer Ican people are once thoroughly aroused"
 4 Miserable Meal.
 While Coxey and Browne were speaking the army inside the canvas had been dis posing of a miserable meal. The men lined up before a commissary wagon, from which the squares of bread which they call punk were dealt out to them. Thi! they took over to the campfire. where sev eral buckets of uninviting looking mea stew had been concocted. Each wealer re ceived a big spoonful of the stew on hi
 bread, and they sat about on the ground gnawing this ration in a famished way.
 Although there is much humor abou
 the affair, the sight of such Sunday din ner and the ravenous way the men tough
 over it was not a humorous one. It wa
 pitiful, too. to see the unhappy looking wretches stretched out on the bare ground
 in the blazing sun poorly clad althougl
 all of them were clean shaven. A mucl