Omaha daily bee., 1902-09-14
PRESIDENTS CONE TO OMAHA
Rsssevslt tn, Fifth to Honor Gate City
with a Witt.
GRANT WAS FIRST TO LOOK OVER CITY
Cleveland, Harrison and Mckinley
Paid Calls, the Latter staying
Three Days on One of
His Visits.

Some one has said that a city may be
relied upon, usually. to entertain a presl-
dent about as gushingly and awkwardly as
. country girl entertains her first beau.
Omaha only smiles at the remark as one
with no personal application. For Omaha
began entertaining presidents before 1t was
out Of its teens and has had them drop In
several times since, with presidential can
didates. a king. an emperor and lords ga
lore introduced between times for diver,ise-
ment. The coming Of President Roosevelt
September q is looked forward to with
only pleasurable anticipation. The NUM-
cipal pulse is not a-hutter and the muniA
cipal household is not in commotion. Down
In st. Joe the municipal cook is waiting
for the municipal butler to decide how the
president is to be fed, and both the cook
and the butler are in a stew that COM
prises, fguratively, the only ration yet de-
termined upon. In Omaha the president
will be given whatever he desires, IL he
desires anything, and no fuss made about
Il.
Grant Came First.
The first president to come was Grant,
who arrived Friday. October 1. 1875. at IL
q. m, with Mrs. Grant, Colonel Fred Grant
and wife, Hon. a. Borie, wife and daughter,
Hon. w. W.. Belknap, secretary OF war;
General Babcock, General BENJAMIN AL
word. General McFeeley. General Vincent,
General William Myers, General A. J. Myers,
Colonel Benjamin and Colonel Crosby. The
train had been met at the Union Pacific
transfer between Omaha and Council Bluffs
by a reception committee taken over in a
special car by by Superintendent S. H. H.
Clark Of the Union Pacific and composed of
Mayor Champion S. Chase, United States
Senator p. w. Hitchcock and Messrs. r. H.
Wilbur, J. c. Gown, G. L. Miller, ]. e.
Boyd, E.. A. Allen and Ezra Willard.
The presidential party came from Des
Moines, Ia, where the president had been
attending a reunion of the Society of the
Army of the Tennessee. It's member were
met at the Omaha depot by about everybody
In this end Of Nebraska; we're loaded into q
dozen carriages and conducted up Tenth
street to Farnam, and up Farnam to the
Grand Central hotel, which occupied the
present site OF the Paxton hostelry. Here
the parade was stopped long enough for the
president to be introduced to the people by
the mayor and to address them lin a Few
we'll chosen words" as the chronicler of the
time recorded. The Twenty-third Infantry
band was the executive escort this far, but
dropped out when the procession moved or
up Capitol Hill, via Dodge street from FIJI
teenth. Upon arrival at the high school
which then, as now, surmounted the hill, the
president was presented to Governor Saund-
ers, president Of the Board of Education
and then to the hundreds of children who
were drawn up in line. He spoke to the
children at great leDgth-for ~Grant-telline
them that he was glad to stand among sc
many Of them in the shadow Of the building
In which they might prepare themselves t.
become useful men and women and good
citizens Of the republic, but that he believed
in free speech and therefore was In favor
Of other people doing the talking.
Made n General Round.
Driving. out the north gate, the president
went down Davenport street to Seventeenth
then to Capitol avenue, to Sixteenth. t
Dodge and to the judges chambers in the
United States, courthouse and p%ostofic,
building, in which he held a reception from
12 o'clock to 12:45, when he was shown the
Union Pacific shops and the smelter In lieI
of an art gallery, library and packing house
the art hooks that are now relied upor
when distinguished visitors are to be enter.
tanned.
The zen Of the party, meanwhile, haC
gone to the Grand Central and the presiden.
Joined them there after his drive. Dinnel
was served and the party left in Presiden
Grants special car at 2:3O for Salt LAX
City.
Grants more extended visit was made No
vember 1. 1879, after he had ceased to b.
president and when he was returning cas-
on his tour Of the world. He had landed II
San Francisco from the ship City of Toxic
September 81, and stopped in Omaha from
o'clock Saturday afternoon until Q o'clocl
Monday morning. Upon this occasion Their
was a very extensive parade marshaled b,
George w. Lininger. General Grant spok
at the high school grounds for two min
utes; held a reception at the old custom
house afterward; attended a banquet tina
evening at the Withheld house, where tn
Creighton theater now stands; sat unde
Rev. ]. b.. Maxield at the First Methods
church Sunday and was conducted to th
Iowa side Of the river Monday by a commit
tee composed OF Mayor Chase. Senate