Waterbury Democrat., 1902-05-30


 Decoration day was fttingly ob- served in Waterbury to-day. At an early hour this morning details from Wadhams post, G. A. R., the Sons of Veterans and the Spanish-American war veterans visited the different comrades, men who in the hour of the last resting places of their dead comrades. men who in the hour or their country's peril answered the call to arms and fell in the conflict or since died in most instances from in- juries received on the field or the after effect of sickness contracted while under arms. The Waterbury men who figured in the struggle which took place in this country from '61 to '65 are fast disappearing and few years hence all of them will have been gathered to their fathers and the work of decorat- ing their graves will rest entirely upon others While it is true that. the vet erans of the civil war are growing few CT and feebler, still it is a fact that considering what they went through during the strife between the north and south and that considerably more than the average span of human life has since elapsed yet many of them are wonderfully well preserved and their activity in the cemeteries to- day not to mention the elasticity and steadiness of their step in the parade, showed that they are still capable of bearing rough usage and if the occas- ion called for the effort even now the chances are that from amongst them would spring men ready to dare and do heroic service for any good cause.
 The weather was threatening dur ing the greater portion of the forenoon. put towards noon it cleared up and continued fine About 10 o'clock The societies commenced to form about the Soldiers monument The crowds in cluding large numbers of small boys. Hocked into the center, filling the side walks so completely that people who were in a hurry found it to their ad- vantage to use the streets Superin- tendent Kelley had touched up the fence around the monument and this with the excellent condition of the green rendered the place brighter and more inviting ill appearance than ever before The platoon of police under command of Major c. R. Ban non, one of the handsomest appearing military men ever seen on the streets of Waterbury, showed up early and made stunning appearance. It was composed of Officers James HeaIey Miles McNiff, John Doolan, J. E. Hal pin, w. F. Keegan, Joseph Mccarthy John Briclel Joseph Mclean and Ed ward McEvoy.
 At 10:30 o'clock the procession moved in the following order: Pla- toon of police, Captain c. R. Bannon. commanding.
 Chief Marshal Lieutenant Colonel
 James Geddes and staff.
 Adjutant. Lieutenant c. P Goss.
 American band, 9 pieces.
 First Division
 Marshal, Captain D. E. Fitzpatrick. Aides, Lieutenant F. l.. Carter, Major
 Benedict, Rev T. J. Curtin. Chaun-
 cey Seeley. James Coughlan, Will
 liam McElligott, Terrence F. Car
 mody, Chris Strobel, Paul Asheim,
 Edward Wilson, George D. Camp,
 William NJ. Gillette, A. J. Leonard,
 John Lilley, Peter Curran, John
 Morgan.
 Company c, Second regiment, c. N
 G., Lieutenant Halpin commanding. Company A, Second regiment, c. N.
 G., Lieutenant Sackett commanding. Company F, Hibernian Rifles, Captain
 John Griffin commanding. Veterans of the Republic, two pla-
 toons, Commander E.. s. Baribault
 commanding.
 Mattatuck drum corps. Wadhams post, G. A. R., Commander
 T. T. Egan commanding.
 Abraham Lincoln camp, Sons of Vet
 erans. Captain John $. Gallagher
 commanding. Waterbury battalion, b. k. K. P.,
 Captain David Miller commanding.
 Boys Brigade.
 Second Division. Marshal. Colonel William R. Keavney.
 Sacred Heart drum corps.
 The line of march was as follows: Bank. to Center, to LeavenW0rth, 10 Grand, to South Main, to East Main, to the High school building, counter march to Exchange place. to North Main. to West Main, to soldiers monu- ment where the companies were dis missed.
 It was the intention of the commit tee to have a number of the school children take part ill the parade, but some trouble was experienced i'll get ting them together and it was finally decided to drop that part of the pro- gram. The parade was reviewed from the city hall steps by Mayor Kilduff and q large number of other city off cials. Chief Egan stood between the officials and the throng of people ap- parently bent on seeing that no harm befell his honor or any of the other city fathers, all of whom made up a very creditable looking body of citi- zens No wonder we're proud of them. Although the parade was not as large as many supposed it would have been still it was on sufficient proportion to be termed success. All the societies were composed of drilled men and on this account the marching was much superior to what one sees in process sion where there are many who are not trained to keep time to music and manage to shuffle along in go as you please fashion. ~1he boys had splen- did opportunity to show what they could in the way of nice marching on