The San Francisco call., 1897-01-02
Great Crowds Invade the
White House on New
Years Day.
Beautiful Decorations Greet the
Eyes of Those Who Pay
Their Respects.
Representatives of the Principal Ma
t1ons of the Earth Jcin the Throng
of Visitors.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. 1.-The
House took place to-day according to
| Iong-established custom. 1t constitutes
the yearly ordeal of the President and the
| mistress of the White House, Tor they
must shake hands with many hundreds
several thousands in fact-of their fellow
citizens and large number OF distin-
guished foreigners. They smiled and
bowed and beamed through it all to-day
and stified the winces that unconsciousiy
followed the hearty grasp of some young
su baltern, fresh from the frontier, or the
grip of some horny hand that had done
service in the late political campaign. 1t
was one continual round of Misunderstanding
and exchanging the compliments of the
season.
As on last New Years day the crowd
that participated in and witnessed the
reception was very large. 1t was the last
function of its sort in which Mr.. and Mrs.
Cleveland will figure as the principal
characters, and this may have been
responsible in part for the throng that
paraded the corridors and apartments dur
| ing the time set apart for the reception.
The interior of the mansion had been
| lavishly decorated for the occasion. A
suggestion of the tropics was gwen by a
survey of the decorative arrangements. IN
the dainty ovai-shaped blue room, the
official champer OF the White House, with
| its delicateiy tapestried walls, the artistic
effect was well carried out. IL was in this
apartment that the President, Mrs. Cleve-
land and the receiving party stood.
Those who paid their respects to the
President and Mrs. Cleveland passed out
of their receiving ham Der into the green
room, and thence into the spacious east
room, the scene of so many historic occur
rences. Six hundred people is the ordf-
nary capacity of this compartment.
To-day it was filed to an uncomfortable
degree with foreign envoys, officers of the
army and navy, high judicial functions
| aries, Senators, Representatives and many
civilians, with a large number of ladies.
They were not so crowded, however, as to
be unable to see and appreciate the floral
beauty displayed. AS in every other part
of the interior, the east room had its
chandeliers and cornices twined with smi-
lax. Trailing asparagus also formed q
graceful drapery. The white jardinieres
on all the mantels held Chinese primroses,
| rubber plants and cinefias. In the cor
ners were brown-leayed curculis. Date
and cocoanut palms spread their foliage
high over the promenading guests. The
broad and high east window was mass
of pomsetta palms, and grouped about
the bottom of these were ferns. The mir
rors, the embrasures, the tireplaces 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,
EN- bassadors, Ministers, attaches ana
their wives and daughters. had begun to
arrive and were ushered into the red
| room, where they only waited the signal
| to pass along the line. Out in the public
| lobby, the United States marine band,
under the leadership of Professor Fan
| ciulii, waited the signal to play. Suddenly
| Fanciulli waved his baton and the various
| instruments burst forth into the we'll
| known air of "Hail to the Chief" Down.
| the private staircase came the President,
| Mrs. Cleveland, the members of the Cabi-
net and their ladies, led by Colonel John
| N. Wilson, United States Commissioner
of Public Buildings and Grounds and
master of ceremonies. Colonel Wilson
! was attired in the uniform OF colonel OF
engineers. Mr.. and Mrs. Cleveland, vice.
President and Mrs. Stevenson, Secretary
and Mrs. Olney, Secretary and Mrs. Car
! lisle, Attorney General and Mrs. Harm on,
! Postmaster-General and Mrs. Wilson,
Secretary and Miss Herbert, Secretary and
Mrs. Lamont, Secretary and Miss Morton
and Secretary and Mrs. Francis, an i'm
| posing procession, passed along the corri-
dor to the blue room and took their places,
| the President and Mrs Cleveland at one
end with Secretary Olney and Colonel
Wilson at their right and the ladies form
ing a line across the apartment.
| The Cabinet officers modestIy stepped
| to the rear and entered into conversation
with some of the ladies who com posed
that contingent company designated as
''In behind the line" The first person 10
shake hands with the President was q tall.
| broads- -houldered, rather portly gentle-
man, attired in uniform resplendent in
gold braid. Those who did not know him
did not need to be told that he was the
Right Hon. Sir Julian Pauncefote, Grand
| Commander Of the Bath, Grand Comman-
| 0Ci VI uilthd aAN Ots OSOTSc, LIS
| British ambassador to the United States
and dean of the diplomatic corps Sir
Julian was panied by Lady Paunce-
| fote. the Misses Pauncefote, Viscount
| Cough, secretary of the British Embassy,
Viscountess Cough, Captain Alfred w.
! Paget, R. N, naval attache; Mr.. Henry
| Bix-Ironside and Mr.. Reginald Lowder,
second secretaries; Mr.. Hugh T. o. Berne,
| the Earl of Westmeath and Mr.. Ronald
| MacLeay, attaches.
The French ambassador, Mr.. Jules
| Paienotre, came with his American wife,
the daughter of Mr.. James Elverson, the
Philadelphia publisher, and Mr.: Eugene
Thiebot, Commandant Clement de Grand
Prey and Mr.. Jules Boeufve of the French
En- bassy.
| Baron Fava, Italian EN- bassador, passed
| down the line with the Baroness Fava and
Count Vlnci, secretary of the embassy.
Another titled envoy, Baron Max Won
Thielman, the German ambassador, fol-
| lowed with the Baroness Won Thielman
| and the secretaries and attaches OF his
suite. Then tie brilliant uniforms of the
European diplomatists gave way to the
modest black of conventional avapipo