New-York tribune., 1909-09-26
THE VAST CITY ABLAZE
Continued from first page.

Over the cleaning fleet thirteen anchored floats
flung up a display Of fireworks such as is sell
dom to be seen even in the town where the fire.
works come from. AS the pleasure craft swept
up and down past the anchored barges bomb
after bomb went up. shot with roar that
echoed over the river and back again like the
shock of fleet at target practice. They burst
red and yellow and blue and white, spreading
treelike rains of fire falling through clouds of
sparks of a hundred colors. Rockets hissed and
screamed, new bombs burst in newer colors and
forms. and every and then mine would 60
off with heavier shock and rush up hundred
feet still bigger cloud of whirling briuiance
In the north from the 153d street viaduct. the
vast battery OF searchlights having its wild
way. spreading in shifting fans of color and
dancing about in bewidering shafts of light.
Such crush as stormed the uptown streets
between the afternoon and the evening shows
was never seen in those parts. Restaurants in
Broadway and the upper avenues were full from
O'Clock until midnight, and many Of them had
lines of people waiting the sidewalks for a
block or more. Not few ran out of provender
in the unheard of rush and had to shut their
doors Food went up to preposterous prices. Of
course and more than hungry man was
heard to demand ham sandwiches at 81 apiece,
if only enough to feed his womenfolk
Broadway further downtown got its full share
of the overload and the evening hours brought
hardly an ebb in the tides that ran through it.
Many people had learned from their afternoon
experiences of the slenderness OF their chances
of finding room near the river at night and so
consoled themselves by seeing the town.
The town well worth seeing, at that. Be
sides the official illuminations of the parade
route, every hotel was picked out in strings Of
light The Half Moon came sailing out Of the
front of the Hotel Astor. several sizes larger
than life with her hull. spars. ropes and rigging
shown in incandescents, and even the curl Of
the sea from her cutwater. Where the Flatiron
split the streams of Broadway and Fifth ave
nue. a Dutch windmill. done in lights, ground its
grist of gayety till far into the night.
In the subway it was as If Presidential con-
vention nomination day had encountered an
od-fashioned bridge crush in a pitched battle of
five miles length and seven hours duration
Down every stairway the crowds poured in un-
broken torrents, bearing back the crowds emerg-
ing by sheer force OF gravity. To negotiate one
of the lower stairways at an express station was
an act of violence, and to catch train down
right breach of the peace
When the crowds started for home in earnest
at about IL o'clock Broadway and the streets
east and west from the 70's to the 140's simply
poured themselves full and curdled. Banging
taXicabs fought their way in through the thinner
outer layers by the subway hosks and stuck
there, with little 10 choose IN the way OF "hoIe-
someness between the voices of their eXhaustS
and the voices OF their drivers. and hah the po-
licemen Of the city wTestled and showed through
the crowds.
The evening illumination in Brooklyn brought
out crowds that only election night can excel
in numbers and enthusiasm. The Borough Hall
seemed TO be the goal of the majority, and the
cars of all lines centring at this point were
crowded all the evening The Borough Hail IL
self was decorated and illuminated extravagant-
lv and business blocks along Fulton street were
not far behind in the general Clspiay OF patrlotic
colors.
In the Broadway section the same display was
in evidence and the eastern district celeDratorS
naraded until late hour Automobile parties
in Prospect Park admired the artistic lighting Of
the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the en-
trance TO the park The Brooklyn Museum. the
Academy of Music and AriOn Hall were note
worthy for their brilliant illuminations in honor
of the celebration.