The Mena weekly star., 1897-01-13

shrouded and collined, the infant new year is cradled and rocked with the caressing hand of universal mankind while 1t is fieece-lined with the spotless, beautiful snow of midwinter. "rhe king is dead. Long live the king" The old year is dead. Long live the new year.
 For many generations it has been customary to make New Years day a holiday for social calls, every friend being expected to remember every friend; but the custom of formally re- ceiving friends on this glad, gay day survives perfectly only in Washington at the present time. This is caused mainly by reason of the fact that the president of the United States holds his first annual public reception on the first day of the calendar year. Nothing more democratic than the New Years reception at the white house is known even in the democratic United States On the first day of the year statesmen. diplomats and reverend judges rub el- bows with the public, but not with the great unwashed public. A clean face and hands, and tidy costume, are the only passports required at the gates of the white house grounds.
 Business never begins in Washing ton until nine o'clock in the morning, and the higher public functionaries never make their appearance officially until nearly noon. But on New Years day things are different. Carriages begin to fly about at an early hour. Men in the uniform of the army or navy are seen hurrying from place to place, many of them awkward in the unfamiliar garments, for uniforms are little worn in Washington, though they are an nvariable feature of every story or play which is supposed to illustrate Washington life.
 Everybody goes to the white house. Straight is the gate and broad is the way, but few there be which go in there at, because it is impossible that more than 10000 people should pass in re- view before the president; and it is beyond all conceit that the chief magis- trate should shake hands with more than 5000 people inside of three hours.
 In the three parlors, the blue, the green and the red. there are thousands of dollars worth of flowers, ferns and plants of every description. They come from Greenland's icy mountains and from India's coral strand. Every variety of vegetation that is beautiful and desirable is represented here. The hothouses of the agricultural depart mept. the botanical gardens and the conseryatories of the executive man. sion have been actually footed to make up the floral display and decorations which so enhance the beauty of the ex- ecutive mansion.
 In the great east room, the magnifi- cent apartment which Dolly Madison used to use as a drying room on wash days, the mantels and grates are hidden by q great mass of brilliant foliage and bloom, while the corners are trop- ical with palms and huge ferns and rub Der plants. The curtains in all these rooms are drawn, and the glow from "supbursts'' of electric light illumines tho east parlor. In the other parlors the softened radiance of frosted electric bulbs, springing from tue tapestrled walls. lends brilliance to the spectacie.
 At least 15,000 people are out on Pennsylvania avenue, crowdlng the sidewalks the entire length of the white bouse front. covering part of the con ereted plaza on either side of the cable ear tracks, all along the opposite side or the avenue. and extending up and down Eifteenth anu Sixteenth streets. These l