Connecticut western news., 1897-08-26
q. A. R. ENCAMPMENT.
THE VETERANS GREET PRESIDENT
 M'klNlEY AT A BANQUET.
Many Noted Orators Make Postprandial Speeches-Ex-Prisoner of War and the Naval Veterans Meet and Elect Officers RegimentaI and Brigade Campfires.

Buffalo. Aug. 25.-The thirty-frst an-
 nual encampment of the Grand Army
 of the Republic will go down in history
 as the greatest in the life of the or
 ganization. The Grand Army has turn
 ed out more men than ever before at
 tended a national encampment, and this
 is true also of the ex-Prisoners of War
 association. the naval veterans and the
 women's auxiliary bodies. Just as the
 sweet songs of victory fioated up from
 the triumphant hosts of sherman as
 they marched to the sea so from the
 old soldiers gathered in Buffalo wells
 up mighty mingling of thankfulness,
 of happiness and of joy.
 It is this glad cry of joy that is echo- ing through every incident of the en-
 campment. Thousands clasp hands once
 year wherever the G. A. R. gathers,
 but the unanimous voice of the old sol
 diers is that they meet more men they
 knew, that they see more of each other,
 that they meet larger numbers than at
 any past encampment. Camp Jewett in a large measure aids in this. It is the grand stamping ground of all the veterans.
 There is more music there than any one expected. There is more melody in hearts and voices as well as bands What man did not thrill as he saw men, women and children marching up from the stations side by side, hand in hand, behind the village band or the country drum corps? There were griz- zled old warriors with gray haired wo- men and children even to the third and fourth generations.
 This was no exception. Not post came in but what it brought women and girls and boys with 1t. They were not ashamed of their colors. Proudly they marched through the streets, wav- ing responses to the welcoming shouts. Main street holds a continuous pro- cession of posts. Scores of them brought bands. and few indeed had no music. The throb of the drums. the shrin cries. of the flies, the storm of light from the arches and arcs, the crash and flare of the bands, the echoes and re-echoes of the music, the cheers of welcome, the shouts of appreciation, the whole colossal experimentation of the chorus of the carnival of the coun- trys heroes rose over the city and sped away that the outside world might catch some echo of the exultation. The local posts have done noble work \ in bringing the old boys close together and in breaking down all bars of back wdrdneSS, ShyneSS or reserve.
 I Presentation of Camp Jewett. Camp Jewett. the city of tents. over I looking Lake Erie. where the veterans are cared for, was officially opened by General Clarkson, commander in chief I of the Grand Army, at o'clock Mon I day afternoon.
 1 The commander in chief was escorted from his headquarters at the Iroqouis | hotel by Mayor Jewett, former Mayor 1 Bishop, MT. Justice White of the su- preme court, Chairman Scheu and mem- I bers of the citizens committee and Bidwell Wilkeson post of Buffalo and Columbia post of Chicago, headed by N the regimental band of the Thirteenth United States infantry. which is assign | ed to Fort Porter during the encanp- ment
 AS the commander in chief entered the 1 camp, salute of 15 guns was fired in his honor by the Federal troops of the l fort. The general was escorted to the | piazza of a park pavilion situated in l the center of the camp, about which thousands of veterans and citizens form-