Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-02-08
A Difference in Celebrations.

| the country was busily preparing to
celebrate the centennial of Washing
tons birth, just as it is now preparing
to celebrate the centennial of Lin
| coins The world has changed in sew
| eral respects since 1882 and those
changes are reflected in the scale and
| the spirit of the two celebrations. The
preparations for the Lincoln centen-
| airy seem small in comparison with
those made for the national observ-
ance of Feb 22, 1892 and they are
present celebration is largely literary
| and educational, with special meetings
Of patriotic organizations and here and
| there a banquet. There are not the
great parades and public demonstra-
! lions which characterized the Wash
ington centenary. This does not of
necessity mean that Lincoln is now
held in less esteem than was Wash
ington in 1892. 1t means that the pres
as the earlier generation did, that emo
tional tendencies are not given vent as
they We're then, that there is more
conservatism, more dignity and also
more devotion to business than there
was quarters of a century ago. In
1882 Washington had been dead SO
years-Lincoln has now been dead
dozen years longer than that-and at
that time the people Of the country,
especially in the South, had yearly
celebration on Washingtons birthday.
A writer in the Boston Transcript
gives us a most interesting picture Of
tine country's observance OF the Wash
irgton centenary.
On Feb. %, 1892, Philadelphia turned
out to see a procession three or four
miles in length, which took as many
hours to pass the reviewing stand.
This was only one of the observances
OF the day. Here in Boston, according
to the newspapers of that time, the
whole population devoted itself to the
occasion, with business everywhere
suspended. This city had two pro-
cessions. One of them starting at u
O'Clock, consisted of the governor, sew
eral companies of light infantry, va
rious civic organizations, including the
president and other officers of Har-
ward University, and the representa-
tives of learned and humane societies.
This aggregation made q tour of the
city, winding up at the Old South
Meeting House, where the formal reli-
gious services took place. In this pa
rade were also found the Independent
Boston Fusileers, who are described as
the only company that had performed
escort duty on the occasion of the Wis
it of General Washington to this city
in 1893. Another procession seems to
have had a City hall origin and Fan
euil Hall wind-up, with a dinner af-
forwards, at which seven hundred per-
sons partook, with tOaStS offered on all
the conventional subjects of which any
one had ever heard. The occasion was
a thoroughgoing holiday in this city.
Further south the observances We're
even more marked. The early history
of the national capital reveals no oc
occasion OF more demonstration than
Feb. %, 1892 1t outranked greatly any
inauguration day of that period. The
National Intelligencer of the 21st an
nounces that, to enable it's employees
to celebrate the centenary "of the
birth of the nations most distinguish
ed son, this Office will be closed to-
morrow and no paper will be issued
therefrom the following day" 1t was
! nf hn
ington public were resupplied with the
news of the world. Their minds were
stocked up for the interval by the
printing in advance of the Farewell
Address, then generally alluded to as
tho "valedictory,' with an editorial ex-
planning that, while people generally
We're perfectly familiar with it, there
might be some newcomers or young
persons not so we'll acquainted with it
as they should be. One hundred guns
at sunrise opened Feb. 22d. All places
of business were closed and ordinary
vacations suspended. Divine services
were held in the Capitol at eleven
o'clock, pursuant to the order of Con-
gre SIS, one of its chaplains delivering
ian appropriate and eloquent sermon
This was followed by dinner at Bar
nard's Hotel, at which Daniel Webster,
the presiding officer, spoke for more
than an hour, an address of such mo-
ment as to be printed in full in an
issue of the Intelligencer about week
later Two public balls were given in
the evening. one in "Carusi's spacious
saloon" and the other in Masonic Hall.
To them foreign ministers and others
of renown We're invited.
At Baltimore a great civic and mil
itary procession was formed immedi
ately after reading of the address.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton. the sur
viving signer of the Declaration of In
dependence was stationed at the door
Of the second story of his dwelling,
surrounded by his family. and there
the citizens passed him with uncover
ed heads. amid strains of music and
the waving of banners. The corpora
ton of the city also gave dinner. AT
Annapolis and at Alexandria and other
towns Feb % proved one of the great
holidays of the first half of that CEN
tury.
The Courage of Hobson.
H.. - &r