The National tribune., 1902-10-16
RALLYING ON WASHINGTON.
When the Veterans the Civil War Gathered at the Capital by
Myriads :e
The Advance Guard the Midst Ranom but the Sun Comes oa
On the Gathering Washington Since the War.


day afternoon did not arrive in Washing
ton until Wednesday morning, although
the regular time is but an hour or so over
a day. 4'1 -
But once in town, the visitors had lit
tie. trouble. The street railways are not
equalled by few They ali have under
ground trolleys; run at good speed, but
with careful regard of the rights of the
folks on foot; sell six tickets for quar-
ter and give transfers literally. For four
and one-sixth cents the visitor found he
could be transported from any place to
any other. Big open cars in charge of q
.stentor-yoiced guide took parties over all
the roads in the city successively, giving
good view Of every public building and his
toric spot. These guides were weary
lot Of men WHEN they got through with the
G. A. r. iAIl places of civil war interest
were marked with big placards, and ''in-
formation booths" in charge of bright,
civil high-school boys, were scattered lib
orally for the. benefit of those who pre-
ferred to walk around for their sight-see-
ing rather than patronize the ''Seeing
Washington Cars"
In every possible nook and corner on
the Avenue were scattered cOfee-and-
sandwich restaurants, which had sprung
up like grass after rain. They made
money, the saloon keepers did not. The
souvenir sellers also drove roaring
trade.
q i THE. PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
All public buildings were wide open for the
visitors and they were made welcome-not
merely permitted, as. is usually the case.
Commissioner Ware had the Pension
Building open for tfeir inspection Wed.
nesdays when. all the other offices closed
for holiday in honor of the parade: and
4 of
night. But the greatest focus of attrac-
tion for most was the National Museum,
which, was jammed at all times. The
Washington Monument was another popu-
lar place, The line i'll waiting to use the
elevator to the top was sometimes nearly
a quarter of a mile long, and frequently
hours elapsed before, a chance to ascend
came. The accommodations are great,
but the, crowd was greater. The Bureau
of Printing and Engraving, where the
paper money is made, had a double river
of visitors flowing in and flowing out, and
the official guides reduced themselves TO
whispering nervous pr0Strates at the end
of each day. The Treasury and Patent
Offices, which have little that is snowy for
exhibition, were nevertheless full of callers
lat most times.
On Monday, Oct 6, things began to
move, and in the bright sunshine and the
pleasant air, the toO-previous early birds
of the day before forgot their bedraggled-
ness, and as for any hints of rheumatism
and such like disagreeablenesses to which
veteran flesh is liable, why, they were
faith-cured at once. The wide, clean
streets of Washington, swept even cleaner
with the flooding torrents of Sunday, dried
out half an hour after sunrise, leaving no
vestjge of the deluge. BY 9 O'Clock the
broad Pennsylvania Avenue sidewalks
were full of blue-clad, brOad-hatted vet
Grams, pushing and crowding, but in a
high good humOr, and as the day went on
and the shutting trains wove in and out
the stations, the promenading thrOngs in
creased for the new men, anxious to see
the famous Avenue and to get the car
kinks out of their legs, came faster than
the varied attractions up town drained
them away. But they were not all men.
With them came wives and daughters, for
this was a family occasion. There was
much for them all to see, and they saw it
all. Very little escaped their eyes, as tired
legs at evening could testify. All the
streets were, like Pennsylvania Avenue,
probably the most. On Massachusetts
Avenue, Washington men arranged gay,
befl0wered automobile parade in the morn
ing and this drew its thousands. Even
to prosperous and blase veterans from the
bigger cities who owned devil wagons"
themselves, the sight was a pretty one,
and to the less sophisticated folks from
Iowa and Kansas it was intensely inter-
estlng. AutogOcarts are modern luxury
which the holders of the wheat wealth
have not yet INDUCED in very much. But
they are studying the catalogues and
meanwhile they want to see the actual
thing.
In the afternoon, the picturesque "Red
Men, all paint, feathers, blankets and per-
vasive, persuasive smile smiling by pla-
toons they were-came out in a parade to
welcome the visitors to town. But the
visitors instantly turned the tables by Civ
ing the welcome to the alleged Indians in
stead. That was little trick of the COM
rades. When the crowd adjourned down
to Camp Roosevelt to hear the dedication
ceremonies the speakers found that they
could not give as hearty a welcome as
they received. 1t was an enthusiastic.
genial, sympathetic asSemblage, that
Jostled and jammed into every available
inch of room around the stand and that
caught every pOint-and generally ap-
plauded it. There was a full 5000 Of
them around the stand-"20,OO0"- expan-
sive guessers said.
When night came, those who attended
the first of the big Campfres, that at Con
ioor space, were quite positive that they
had a quoram of the comrades with them,
While the fireworks people at ''The Fall of
Pekin' could show seemingly infallible
testimony in the boX-seat sales that most
OF the folks we're down there oh-in and
ak-ing at the cascading rockets and pnny-
wheels and things. But the real truth
is that both of these were mere overflow
meetings-the bulk of the veterans and
their sisters and their cousins and their
aunts were once more parading Pennsyl-
vania Avenue under the electric lights
buying faths, guaranteed to be from the
White House,: getting grossly ugly animals
all out of drawing alleged to be the pro-
duct of the maceration of millions in
greenbacks-the vendors conveniently
ignore the fact that 81 bills are sometimes
redeemed and confine their remarks to the
81 900 variety filling up vacant spots with
pies n cakes" and coffee at the solicita-
ton of howling vendors; listening to the
monographs chortle about '.Mah Homo
lulu Lulu" and what they were going to
do to that other niger with a razzer-
monographs have tendency to b.. blood
thirsty; telling yarns to each other: meet
ing old friends-'haven't seen him be-
fore for matter of 20 years." Standing
off the bowling Indians who wa lted to
scalp their tickets; and generally Just hay
ing the time of their lives. But it was
well-behaved, quiet crowd, with all its
joIlity.
At the Ebbitt Hotel, on f street. where
Grand Army Headquarters were. the
clerk was inclined to regard as mere chaff
the allegations that any of the veterans
were elsewhere: he knew he had them all
right there in the house. He certainly had
n prent MANY and might hoy, h,l -.