Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-03-07
GORGEOUS DECORATIONS.
Washington Surpasses Itself i'm itI
Wonderful Street Display.


Washington urpasse Itself i'm its
Street Display.
The whole route of the parade was
a ~gorgeously patriotic sight. But it
was at the Court of Honor, construct
ed on Pennsylvania avenue, between
Fifteenth and Seventeenth streets,
that the decorations fairly sur
passed in pretty and effective display
anything ever before seen here In
street ornamentation on a large scale.
Here the scene rivalled hat of an
Italian carnival display in the era of
the Medici. Probably no other public
thcroughfare in the world of equal
length ever lent itself nor readily 10
artistic decoration than this stretch
from the treasury to the state, war
and navy departments building. Fol
almost a quarter of a mile the mag.
nificent stretch of asphalt runs
straight as an arrow due east ard
west, the 150-foot roadway and paral-
lei stone sidewalks almost half as wide
again, shaded by many trees whose
planting antedates the civil war. On
the south side of this court it's length
is shaded almost equally by the grey
old treasury building, massive and i'm
pressive in its severe simplicity; the
executive mansion, half hidden, but
cleaning, snow white, through the
surrounding trees, and the state, war
and navy building, an artistic pile
of granite with row upon row of bal
comics and columns towering above
all the surrounding buildings. On the
north side of the court, two-thirds CT
its length, is occupied by Lafayette
square, with its equestrian statue of
Jackson set as the ceI-%ral figure in a
mass of shrubbery and towering trees.
Within this generous setting the dec
orators had wrought a transforma-
ton. Along each side from end to end
were erected a continuous line of GOV
cred stands with terraces of seats ris-
ing 80 feet above The level of the road
way and transforming the court into
a great amphitheater through which
the procession was to move. The low
er sections of the stands presented an
unbroken band of white, save that in
front of the navy department., which
was topped by a ffieze of crossed
anchors and cannon is recognition of
the allied branches of the service. The
roofs of the stands were supported by
slender white columns, while in front
of the lower tier of seats ran a lat
tice work railing of white backed by
old gold cloth that lent a touch of col
or to the general effect. The only
other color was Il dropping fringe of
holly falling from the caves overhead
and Topped in sections below the rail-
ing.
The setting of the court did not
stop with the stands. The roadway
columns between which the troops
were to move. Eight massive pilons,
four on either side, marked off the
court in equal lengths. These were
copies of the decorations of the Alex
andrian bridge at the Paris exposi-
ton, and consisted of a pedestal ten
feet on the base and bearing a square
pillar, the whole 40 feet high, the top
of each surmounted by a bronze urn.
At each angle of the square pillar was
imposed a small Ionic column of the
same height, the whole topped by 8
capital that carried the ornamental
urn. Between the pilons on the north
side were in~terspersed IA smaller coli
umns of Ionian design with Tuscan
capitals. A similar row of columns
flanked the whole of the Lunette in
front of the White House. About the
! capitals of the pilons and the inter-
secting pillars were set crowns of
frosted electric bulbs, while the
spheres that topped the pillars were
also outlined with incandescents to
aid in the illumination at night. AT.
ter dark the bronze urns mentioned
will play an important part, for each
is to be filled with Greek fire which, in
burning, will give off heavy columns
of white smoke. These smoke col
umns will be Illuminated by search
lights turned on them from the roofs
of the surrounding buildings. The adj
jacent government buildings were
| ablaze with national colors, except the
executive mansion, ove whose white
expanse 1oated only the usual flag at
full mast. On the other hand the
state, war and navy building was al
most hidden from view by the inn
mense battlefiags draped from each
of the successive tiers of balconies.
Above the treasury department at the
east end of the court a great sheaf
of flags waved over the main portal
of the pediment, supported by its gi-
gantic monolithic columns, was filled
in with a solid facing of crimson
cloth, in the center of which rested a
great shield of green in whose center
the treasury emblem of the scales was
wrought in electric bulbs.
This same scheme of decoration was
carried around the east front. The
columns here also were draped in
flags, and under the portico ran a 20
foot frieze of crimson stuff concealing
myriads of electric globes that at
night are to spring into light and
battle the whole side of the building
in a rudy glow.
Down both sides of Fifteenth street,
on which the east front of the treas
ury abutes, the same scheme of white
stands was continued, the railing, as
in the Court of Honor, being of uni
| form latticework, but backed with
crimson instead of white and old gold.
AT the south angle of the treasury,
where the procession wheeled north
into Fifteenth street, there was a