Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1897-03-13

been intermittcd-once when bluff John
Adams packed his gripsack and slipped
our at the white housa al daylight OK
the Attn OF March to avoid shaking hands
with his hated federalist successor, the
illustrlous jefferson, and once within !
living memory when General Grant bel
cause OF his strained relations with An
drew Johnson, drove in his buggy from
the old war department. to the capitol,
accompanied only by General John y.
Rawlins, his chief of staff-Were on this
occasion exercised to the full extent.
Mr.. Cleveland and Mr.. Mckinley rode
side by side to and from the capitol.
They had dined together at the white
house the day before. and they lunched
in each others company on the day In
which they transferred the governments
OF thisg great nation, the one to the other.
An additional act Of cordially was in
fused into The proceedings by the SINH
larity between the views entertained by
the retiring president and his cabinet ON
the financial questions and those upon
which the successful candidate of the
republican party was elected. Mr..
Cleveland in truth felt more gratifica-
ton probably in installing at the capl-
tol as his successor the leader of al OPP
posing political party han he would
have in escorting under Ike circum-
stances the leader chosen by his own po-
litical associates as their candidate for
the presidency. This innovation on the
usually closely drawn partisan lines OF
American politics gave added p~iquancy
TO the proceedings. Repeated, but UNI
successful, efforts have been made OF
late years to change by legislation the
date of inaugural ceremonies to a later
period of the season, so as TO avoid the
uncertainties and frequent inclemen-
cies of climate which prevail in Wash.
ington in the early part of March. In
1869, when President Grant was induct-
ed into Office for the first time, the
weather was so bitterly cold that the
soldiers froze at their posts, and many
of the participants in the proceedings
subsequently died from the direct ef-
fects of the exposure 70 which they were |
subjected. Garfields Inauguration day
was ushered in by al early morning
snowstorm, which. however, melted rap
idly in the subsequent sunshine. Ben
jamin Harrison rod TO the white house
in a cold and driZzling rain, worse TO en-
dure than snow. and delivered his adj
dress bareheaded in the open air at the
peril OF his life TO an audience hidden
under a forest Of umbrellas.
For eighty years, ever since 1917, when
James Monroe, the eighth president OF
the United States. Initiated the prac.
tice, IL has been the almost unbroken
custom OF the chief justice of the United
States to administer the oath Of office
to the p~resident-elect in the open air,
those participating in this standing on
a platform erected in front of the east
ern portico Of the capitol. This rule has
occasionally been devlated from when
a president was reelected to succeed
himself, or when a vice president has
succeeded to the office through the
death Of the president. There was one
other notable exception in the case Of
President Hayes. His Inauguration
day falling upon Sunday, and there
being still unsettled questions as TO the
validity, he. out of the abundant pre-
caution took the oath OF Office in the
white house on the day before he deliv-
cred his inaugural address. These es-
tablished al fresco features OF proceed
ings necessarily caused those entrusted I
with the arrangement of today's cere.
monies TO look forward with some anx-
iety to the weather conditions. Severe
blizzards In the extreme west In the lat
ter part OF the month OF February had
made their effects felt to some extent IN |
the national capitol and has caused
alarm for Inauguration day. But. after /!
a slight snow furry on Friday last and |
a freezing spell for several days follow
ing. the weather, contemporaneously
with Major McKinley's arrival In Wash
ington. took on the pieasantest OF spring |
asoects. the Thermometer ranging be-