Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-29
How the Birth of the Nineteenth Gen.
fury Was Celebrated.
"REMINISCENCES AND PROPHECIES
Looking Forward to the Times
Now Passing Away.
BONFIRE AND SPEECHES


AT an epoch so strkingly singular as
! the present, what sensations crowd upon
| the rejecting mind and how forcibly occur
| the questions What was the situation OF
| this country this day, one hundred years
| ago? And what is it now? Where the
! deep silence of the woods was disturbed
! by no sound but from the dread savage and
| the wolf, fields now smile under the paste
| hand of the cutivator and The groves re-
| ply in glad responses, Long may this
| happy procession continue, and may the
| commencement of the next century witness
| a greater advance to virtue, power and
CORY than even the last.'-From the Bal
timore Federal Gazette. January 1, 1so1
1t was the same then as now. When the
eighteenth century was about to die as
the nineteenth is now doing, all America
| prepared to usher in it's successor-as we
are doing even now. The good citizen OF
1901 celebrated. as the more or less good
citizen of 1901 is about to do. Watch-night
meetings. dinners, gatherings of all xmas
fireworks. Examinations and the like usher
ed in the new century that is now one
hundred years old. If we may judge from
the publications of that time the citizens
of America a century ago celebrated IN
much the same spirit If with vastly diff
ferent view as the Americans of today.
Lively Times in Philadelphia.
NEW 1OTh NdS 1lOl dS piC-SihAiiSiie shi'AA
as it is now. and the principal events took
pace in Boston and Philadelphia The lat
| ter plae~, enormously yclept sleepy must
have been a fairly wideawake town from
certain accounts printed in the Aurora.
According to this authority, on Saturday,
January 3, 1901 the staid citizens met at
the house of Citizen Miller, at the Sign of
the Green Tree. in North 4th street, to
celebrate the favorable commencement OF
| the nineteenth century, DR.. Reynolds pre-
sided, and after the dinner had had Its
|. mellowing effects, sundry and various
toasts were proposed. The principal one
was: THE World-Our Country-Man. Our
Fellow Observation-Disclosures, Our Re.igi n
Other toastS were to Thomas Jefferson,
just elected President; to Aaron Burr, his
unsuccessful rival. named for Vice Presi-
dent; Universal Toleration.' 1.-The COnsu-
| tuition" Benjamin Franklin and last.
| Ireland May she rise like Antaeus from
! her fall and crush despots who exult in
| her miSerieS.
The celebration lasted until early dawn,
| and Philadelphia was considerably shocked
at the cratic peregrinations of her staid
citizens while on their way home The
Aurora added TO the gaiety by printing a
| seven-coiumn review of the eighteenth CEN
| fury.
Bonfres and Noise.
| At Lancaster. Pa. tremendous celebra-
| ton was held in the large hall of Franklin
| College. All the town turned out. bonfiras
! were lighted, pistols shot off. and as much
| noise made possible. A great transpa--
| ency, eighty feet high and twice as long,
bearing the iegend, Liberty and the Con-
| stitution.'' adorned the lower end Of the
| hall. Speeches predicting a glorious future
/ for the new century were made, and then a
| bullock was roasted.
| The Philadelphia German Society also
! celebrated. did the prominent citizens
! of Easton Pa, who assembled at the
| house of Mr.. Hickman to watch the old
| century out and the new one in.
| In New York city the people. being more
! cosmopolitan. there was less celebrating
Watch night services were held in the va
| rious churches and in some of the clubs of
| the day informal meetings were held. 1t
was not until evening that the small boys.
| aided and abetted by the Older ones, built
| huge fires of whatever material was near
| est at hand All the town was Illuminated,
and when midnight came the church bells
rang out the old and in the new century.
| Men and women congratulated one anoth-
| er and the century was born.
| Congress was busy with the contested
election between jefferson and Burr that
no cogniZance was taken of the change Of
centuries The work of both houses went
| on uninterruptediy. the treaty pending
| with France occupying much time.
The Same Old Question.
| They had the same old discussion one
hundred years ago that has been racking
!
through the country discussion was rife
! for nearly year as to VIXEN the new CEN
| fury began-just as we discussed the mat
| ter during the last twelve months. Pro
| Bono Publico, Veritas. Judex, A Citizen
! and other well known personages, who still
survive, wrote to the papers in support of
| their respective stand and acrimonious de-
| bates ensued. Finally it was decided that
| the new century began January /, 1901
! Several well-ntentioned though mistaken
! gentlemen had already celebrated the
| casion on January l. 1900, and of
! them wrote a harsh letter to the papers
| announcing that he would take no part in
any subsequent chronological janlboree
| whatsoever. However, the event passed
| off very nicely without his allotment.
AS for tt" newspapers. each and every
! one had a weighty editorial or two, well
| coming the new century and regretting the
| old Washington had been dead only two
years and two weeks and repeated mention
was made of him in the most compliment
| tary terms. irrespective of rty affiliations.
| The Boston Independent Chronicle the
| first day of the nineteenth century said:
Looking to the Future.
This day commentaries the nineteenth
| century The great events which have
! arisen at the close Of the eighteenth CEN
| fury are to be matured in the progress of
! the nineteenth. Whether the rights of men
| or the despotism of tyrants shall be estab-
| lished on a permanent basis are subjects
with which the womb of the present GEN.
fury Is pregnant. Monarchy has fallen with
rapid celebrity. Hierarchy has expired in
Europe in vioient commissions. Liberty,
| tional philosophy and Christian catholicism
| have assumed their native dignity. In
America the prospect is peculiarly brilliant.
| The people begin to think and to act, I'M
awed by the threats Of monarchists or the
! frowns OF priestly fanatics; they come for
ward in manly attitude in vindication of
| their constitutional rights
| The COLUMBIAN Centinei'' {Spelled with
| ''CD published in Boston. contained a long
| doggerel. entitled THE Enlightened Eigh-
teenth Century. or the Age of Reason" in
which every public man of note received a
| back-handed compliment.
One of the most interesting of these con-
tributions to New Century Literature was
| a letter to the Providence Gazette signed
| "A, which ends thus:
| ut would be pleasing to live one hundred
| years hence, in order to see what changes
| will take place. If any are with us who
| lived at the beginning of the past century
II must be an entertainment for them to
| see the different state Of things in 1Nl
| from that Of the present time. 1t would, /
| imn gipe he a