Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-02
THOUSANDS PAY HOMAGE The White House New Years
 Reception.
 fft.l ffat WAS GORGEOUS AND GRAND Ambassadors, Ministers, United States Officials and Private Citizens in Line.
A CHINESE LADY AN ATTRACTION
Tropical Plants, Creepers and Flowers Adorn the Public Reception Rooms in Lavish Abundance = Who
 Assisted at the Function.

Washington D. C., Jan. 1.-The annual New Years reception at the white house took place today according to a long es- tablished custom It constitutes the yearly ordeal of the President and the mistress of the white house. for they must shake hands with several thous- and of their fellow citizens and large number of distinguished foreigners.
 They bore their part heroically, how ever, and looked as fresh at the ending as they did at the beginning
 As on last New Years day the crowd that participated in and witnessed the reception was very large. It was the last function of the sort in which MT. and Mrs Cleveland will figure as the prn- cipal characters, and this may have been responsible in part for the throng that paraded the corridors and apartments during the time set apart for the recep- tion The interior of the mansion had been lavishly decorated for the occasion.
 A suggestion of the tropics was given by survey of the decorative arrange ments. In the dainty oval-shaped blue room, the official chamber of the white house, with its delicate tapestried walls, the artistic effect was well carried out. It was in this apartment that the Presi- dent, Mrs. Cleveland and the receiving party stood Soft-hued globes tempered the gleam of electric light that filled the room. The two mantles were banked. in solid masses of cut f1owers-roses of many Varieties, and the rarest of other blooms that the conservatorieS of the mansion could give. Both mirrors were draped in smilax, while the scintillating pendants of the central chandilier were profusely entwined with delicate creeper. In each of the three windows was state ly palm-one an ereca, and the others of the seafortia variety-while smaller palms were banked around them, togeth- CT with azaleas and ferns. In the fire places were ferns galore and the decora- ton was completed by fringes of ivy leaves around the doors and cornices.
 The red room held profusion of tall rubber plants and palms. Jardinieres of greenish tinge holding growing plants comported well with the permanent hang ings of the green room In the broad corridor leading from the east room past the reception chambers to the priv ate staircase at the. western end few rubber trees and palms sufficed for dec orative purposes, and all the space that could be obtained was necessary to &C., commodate the constantly moving throng.
 Those who paid their respects to the President and Mrs. Cleveland passed out of the receiving chamber into the green room, and thence into the east room, the scene of so many historical occur rences. Six hundred people is the or dinary capacity of this compartment. Today. it was filled to an uncomfortable degree with foreign. envoys, officers of the army and navy, high judicial func- tionaries, senators, representatives and many civilians with a large number of ladies. They were not so crowded, how ever, as to be unable to see and appre- ciate the floral beauty displayed.
 As in every other part of the interior the east room had it's chandeliers and cornices twined with smilax. Trailing asparagus also formed graceful drap- cry. The white jardinieres on all the mantels held Chinese primroses, rubber palms spread their foliage high over the heads of the promenading guests. The broad and high east window was a mass of domesetta palms and grouped about the bottom of these were ferns plenty The mirrors, the embrasures, the fire places were all suitably arranged.
 Eleven o'clock was the hour set for the beginning of the reception. Before that time members of the diplomatic corps ambassadors, ministers, attaches and their wives and daughters had begun to arrive and were ushered into the red room where they awaited the signal to pass along the line. Out in the public lobby ,.t the United States Marine band under the leadership of Professor Fan cuilli waited the signal to play. Sudden ly Fancuilli waved his baton and the va rious instruments burst forth into the well known air of Hail To the Chief" Down the private staircase came the President, Mrs. Cleveland, the members of the cabinet and their ladies led by Col John M. Wilson, United States army, superintendent of public buildings and grounds and master of ceremonies
 Mr and Mrs CIayhTond vysoa D,o~.la.I and Mrs. Stevenson, Secretary and Mrs. Olney, Secretary and Mrs Carlisle. At torney-General and Mrs. Harmon, Post master-General and Mrs. Wilson, Secre- tary and Miss. Herbert, Secretary and Mrs. Lamont, Secretary and Miss Mor- ton and Secretary and Mrs. Francis an imposing procession, passed along the corridor to the blue room and took their places, the President and Mrs Cleveland at one end with Secretary Olney and Col Wilson at their right, and the ladies forming line across the apartment. The cabinet officers modestly dropped to the rear and entered into conversation with some of the ladies' who composed that contingent commonly designated "hehind the line" -
 The ladies behind the line were: Mrs. Elkins, wife of Senator Elkins; Mrs. Gear, wife of Senator Gear; Mrs. Gordon. wife of Senator Gordon; Mrs. Hale, wife of Senator Hale; Mrs. Lodge, wife of oendtor Louge, Mrs. heed, Wlre or Speak CT Reed; Mrs. Franklin Bartlett, of New York; Mrs. Owen, Mrs. Draper, Mrs. Harrison, Mrs, Mccormick. Miss Simp- lins, Miss Turner, Mrs. 'Wadsworth, Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Claude M. Johnson. Mrs Thurber, wife of Private Secretary Thurber; Mrs. Dunlap. the Misses Ham lin, Mrs Conrad, wife of the solicitor-gen- eral; Mfs. Dickinson, Mrs. Eckels. wife of the comptroler of tine Scurrency; Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston, former lady of the white house; Mrs. Fuller. wife of Chief Justice Fuller Mrs. Rufus w. PeckhamS Jr.: Mrs. Craig, Miss Harmon, Mrs. Minot, Mrs. A. A. Wilson, Mrs. Ralph Cross Johnson, Miss McMillan. Miss Waller. Miss Brice, Miss Gray, Mrs Mott. wife of the chief justice of the court of claims Miss Mary It Kennedy. Mrs. Clarence Cary, Mrs Baldwin, Miss Eliza