The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-21
RECEPTION WAS NOT HELD.


ment TO 10000 Persons.
Between 5000 and 5000 people. savan-
nahians and those who have been brought
here through their desire to see that
simple American gentlemen, who in one
days fighting brought new honor and lus-
ter to American arms and changed the
map of the world, gathered in, around
and about the De Soto last night, for the
purpose of meeting him and shaking his
hand.
When it became known that the Ad-
mirals indisposltion would necessitate a
change in the programme of entertain
ment and that the reception was 90 be
outspoken regret. There was not man
or a woman in the vast throng who did
not feel a sense of personal disappoint-
ment, subdued only by the feeling of SYM
pathy that the Illness of Admiral Dewey
engendered. Had the guest of the city and
the occasion needed assurance Of the heart
mess of his welcome and the greatness of
his popularity in Savannah the outpour-
ing of Savannah's people to attend the re-
ception and the outpouring of their
hearts sympathy when they found he
was i'll, would have convinced him of
both. Could his astral body have moved
among the people and heard what was
said, it would have carried back to it's
tenement tales of such loving sympathy,
kindness and affection as would have
touched harder heard than is his
The reception was TO have been held in
the drawing room of the hotel between
Q and II O'Clock. Before o'clock the cor
ridors were thronged and packed, the
broad verandas were thronged, Bull
street, from Harris to Liberty, and Harris
and Liberty streets, east and west of
Bull, were alive with people So great
was the crowd that many, who had in
tended to attend the reception, seeing the
crowd already i'm possession of the favored
positions, and realizing that it would
scarcely be possible to admit even these to
the hotel in such order as to permit the
Admiral and Mrs. Dewey receiving them
turned their heels and wendell Their
way homewards.
The First Artillery Band of Charleston
gave a concert on the Veranda in front
of the Bull street entrance to the hotel
while the crowd was collecting, and for
some time thereafter, and the crowd evil
IDENTIFY took this as the prelude to the re-
ceptlon. 1t was long time after notices
had been posted in the corridors of the
hotel, announcing that because of the in
disposition of the Admiral there would be
no reception, before any considerable Dor
tion of the crowd could he induced to be-
lieve that the honored guest of the city
was indeed ill, and that on this account
the reception had been declared off.
Possibly because the news travelled
slowly through the dense throngs of peo-
pie. or possibly because the throngs were
10th to give up a project SO close to their
hearts, il was half an hour or more be-
fore there was any disposition shown of
a general intention to disperse. Even then
the crowd scattered slowly and reluctant
ly, and with manifest disappointment.
mingled with sympathy equally manifest,
written on every brow.
1t is probable that, counting the crowd
that actually fingered in the vicinity of
the De Soto and that whose members were
turned away by the perfectly apparent i'm
possibility of getting within arms reach
of the Admiral, there were 10000 persons
who tried to see him, andAthere are just
that many disappointed individuals in Sa-
vannah this morning. Doubtless they will
all turn out this afternoon, in company
with everybody else, to do honor to the
CitV'S guest