Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-03-05
The Spectacular Features, Which
We're to Have Been Brilliant,
MARRIED By Rain.

most of them accompanied by numer-
Gus STATS.
Though worn and weary, the legisla-
tive branch of the national government
faithfully executed its part in the
days ceremonies. The protracted ses-
sions of the last few days, involving
work day and night, imposed severe
physical strain upon the Senators and
Representatives, yet when the time
came to close up the task of legislation
and turn to the Inauguration of the
President, all was in readiness in the
capitol.
The crowds began to gather on the
streets early, with the hope that the
day would be better than the leaden
skies gave early promise. By Z o'clock
the government departments that had
been turned temporarily into barracks
for visiting troops began to give up
their occupants who streamed toward
Pennsylvania avenue from all direc-
tions.
The hotel crowds began to put them
selves in evidence about an hour later,
while from the very early morning
hours each of the depots contributed
a steady but
Notwithstanding Stream
OF tourists to the crowds already on
the street. Military and civic organ
1zations that had been delayed en-
route poured in with increasing rapid
ity. Trains ran in sections of four
to six, with apparently small regard
to block system or any other V
tlonal form Of railroad schedule. The
sound of bands filled the air as troops,
company, and marching club, one after
the other, swung into Pennsylvania
avenue at quick step h~urrying towards
their quarters in hope of a hasty
breakfast before setting out for their
rendezvous, whence they were to fall
in line for the big parade.
The livery stables of the city were
taxed to their utmost capacity in hous-
ing mounts for the hundreds of aides
and staff officers. Before 9 o'clock
there was a crush on the car lines and
soon every car was crowded from
dashboard to dashboard with people
hanging from the steps and finally
even mounting the roofs of the cars
! themselves.
[ Preparations for holding back the
crowd from the line of march along the
avenue had been going on for several
weeks in the sinking of heavy iron
sockets in the sidewalks at short in
tervals all along Pennsylvania avenue.
Early in the morning a gang of work
men started from the foot of the cap
itol with a wagon load of heavy iron
posts and big reels of wire cable with
which they made what it was hoped
would prove
An Impregnable Barrier
against the crowds surging out on the
avenue and spelling the formation of
the troops, as at some earlier inaug-
urations. By II a. M, this hastily con-
structed fence was in place all along
the line of parade, with breaks only
at the street crossings, which were left
open till one o'clock when access to
the avenue was denied.
Soon after 8 o'clock the big stands
along the line of march began to fill
up.
Along the. Court of Honor, and in
its immediate vicinity many of the re-
viewing stands were carried clear
across the side streets, with only a
narrow passage way beneath them
connecting with the avenue.
The prices Of window seats in the
hotels and at stores along the line
| of march reached an almost fabulous
rate within the past week. 1t is report
ed that one wealthy Senator paid $500
for a single room for the day in a
I uObSl NEAR Itnid- dNCAuC IL iAAtNShth
street. while ordinary second story win
down have been regularly held at from
SIS to $50, and single chairs in store
windows from S. up.
AS the hour fixed for the departure
Of the escorting column from the
White House approached the scenes on
the street became, if possible, still
l~ivelier. The avenue which had been
covered early with a thin and treach-
erous glaze of moist mud, had dried up
to a point where even the novice felt
safe on his horse. With that precision
konwn only to Uncle SANS regular
soldiers and sailors, the crowds on
the avenue were steadily pressed back
by the lines of blue, which were max
ing ready to
Build Up the Escorting Column.
The soldiers stood at case, leaning on
their rifles, and stretched in a pretty
close formation from the White House
down the avenue to Eleventh street.
Overce4ts were the order Of the day.
| This distracted somewhat from the