Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1887 — CLEVELAND. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLEVELAND.

The President of the United States Makes His First Visit to Chicago. Thousands Bid Him a Royal Welcome and Do Honor to His Wife. Visitors Throng the Streets, and for a Time Effectually Block All Traffic. The President Reviews the Grand Procession and Shakes Thousands of Hands. [Special telegram from Chicago.] The President and Mrs. Cleveland were given an enthusiastic reception by the people ■of Chicago on Wednesday. The arrangements were generally exceedingly well planned, and ■were carried out without misadventure of any kind. The procession was a grand affair, the street decorations tasteful and effective, and apparently the best use was made of every hour of the time given to this city by the distinguished visitors. The people upon the streets and stationed at every point where a view of the President and his wife could possibly be expected greatly outnumbered those engaged in any similar demonstration of interest in and respect for a public personage that has ever been witnessed here. Whatever there may have been of embittered feeling on account of disappointment in the change of administration, or whatever of party bias may have held sway the day before, all was swept away in one grand, enthusiastic hurrah. The office-holder and office-seeker joined voices in the demonstration, and the shout of kindly greeting from the sidewalk was echoed and re-echoed from the verandas and windows, and, ascending heavenward, burst from the very tops of the loftiest buildings. The ladies and children, arrayed in bright colors, added enchantment to the scene, and good cheer was not only seen but felt on every hand. The President himself must have been peculiarly impressed by the cosmopolitan character of the demonstratk«n, especially since it was his first visit to any great commercial center west of the Alleghenies. The massive buildings,

"the towering business blocks, the palatial residences. the evidences of general prosperity, the oneness of the people, and the magnitude of the Garden City by the lakes, must have impressed him alike. In no other way, probably, ■or under no other circumstances could so favorable a presentation of the “rowdy West,” as feeble-minded paragraphers in the Ea«t are wont to say, have been made in so short atime, and he will be less than human if he returns to the quietude of his Washington home without feeling a greater pride in his position than ever before. Tho distinguished party, consisting of the President ana Mrs. Cleveland, Mr. Bissell, the

President’s former law partner in Buffalo, and •Gen. Vilas, were received at the Twenty-third street depot of the Chicago and Alton Road by a •delegation of Chicagoans, headed by Mayor Roche. An immense crowd had gathered in and about the depot, and it was with difficulty a way was cleared for the guests to pass through. The police shouted until they were .hoarse. With might and main they struggled, and finally did succeed in opening a passage. Mr. Cleveland stepped down, and, standing Aside, allowed the Mayor to aid Mrs. Cleveland to alight. The President and Mr. Bissell were the first to start. They walked, or, rather, ran to the carriage in waiting, followed closely by Mayor Roche and Mrs. Cleveland. The crowd closed in on the last two, and for the moment Mrs. Cleveland was as one of them. She was •crushed in between the lines rather ruthlessly. But she took it good-naturedly, and her trimly encased elbows were used with astonishingly good effect in prying open a lane. Postmaster •General Vilas, J. W. Doane, Collector Seeberger, Congressmen Lawler and Dunham, Commissioner Donnersberger, Judge Gresham, Erskine M. Phelps, and M. W. Fuller scrambled to their carriages in the order named as best they could. The crowd paid no attention to them. The United States cavalry troops, a soldierly appearing set of men, broke into two phalanxes, one in advance of Cleveland’s equipage, the other bringing up the rear of it. When President Cleveland struck the reception at the depot, he saw this was a good-sized, noisy village, but when the Presidential four-in-hand, after a brisk trot up Michigan avenue from Thirty-fifth street, reached Twenty-fourth street, the head of the column, he is believed to have remarked to Mayor Roche, “Mayor Roche, from what I have seen thus far to-day, and calculate for the rest of the march I should infer Chicago had about 7,100,000 inhabitants ’ It is believed Mayor Roche said it had. A cheer from tens of thousands of throats ■rent the air and swelled and echoed northward along the avenue, while handkerchiefs and starry flags by the hundred and the thousand fluttered and waved from windows and housetops, and the President’s carriage drove in view. It was drawn by four horses, spirited and prancing, with postilions, and contained, besides President Cleveland and his wife, Postmaster General Vilas and Mayor Roche. The President sat in the rear seat with his head uncovered, and at his left was “the first lady of the land.” There was a gratified and selfcomplacent look on his face, and a proud but restrained smile added interest and kindliness to her handsome and expressive face Both, however, looked a little travel-worn, but the brightness and heartiness of the scene reflected its tones in their faces. Following the President’s carriage came one which attracted an interest only second to that which rested upon his own. This contained Gen. Terry. U. S. A.; Col. Daniel Lamont, Col. •George F. Bissell, of Buffalo, President Cleveland’s former law partner, and Dr. J. D. Bryant.

Following these came the grand nrocession, the first part consisting of cavalry, infantry, and artillery. Then came various civic societies, the Foresters making the finest display. The procession was over an hour in parsing a given point, and must have embraced *t least 25,000 people. The crowds that turned out to view the procession and get a glimpse of the President was something enormous. All the streets on the line of march were lined with men, women, and children. Windows, door-ways, balconies, house-tops, and sidewalks were filled. Trees, telegraph-poles, and lumber-piles were black with boys, who held on to uncomfortable positions with wonderlul tenacity and waited. Stylish equipages and farmers' wagons ran against each other for places where the occupants could see the distinguished guests as they passed. On Michigan and Wabash avenues, and, in fact, on all the streets included in the line of march, enterprising individuals coined money by renting seats constructed on vacant lots, on verandas, and upon the roofs of houses. Every rickety coal-shed was loaded down with people, who paid a good nrice forthe privilege of standing on the crowded elevation for three agonizing hours at the risk of breaking their necks. The prices charged for seats were in some cases exorbitant, but there were takers for all of them. “Five dollars secures you a good seat here,” was the modest song of one philanthropist, who had fitted up a few tiers of bleaching-boards on Wabash avenue. “These seats are for your accommodation, ladies and gentlemen. The President passes here; fine view of the whole procession. Get your lady a seat, sir; only $5 apiece; $lO for the two of ye." The jam seemed to be equal at all points along the line, for there was no place where the crowd did not overflow into the street and become a solid mass of humanity, so that it was with great difficulty that sufficient space was cleared to allow the pageant to pass through. The decorations along the line of march were very fine, and many of them in the business heart of the city were rich and gorgeous. When President Cleveland and his party reached the reviewing stand, and lea vine their carriage climbed upon the new pine platform to confront the chilly east wind, they found Michigan avenue paved with faces for a long distance to the north and south. The appearance of the President was a signal for cheers and long continued shouting. About' him on the platform stood Mayor Roche, Postmaster General Vilas, and many aidermen and other city officials, while scores of distinguished citizens occupied chairs near at hand. A ball of dense smoke suddenly sprung out from the side of the United States ship Michigan, which lay in the harbor in plain sight from the reviewing stand, her rigging covered with fluttering flags and gay bunting. Out of the smoke as it hovered above the water came the short bark of a cannon shot after an interval which seemed strangely long. It was the first gun of twenty-one fired in honor of the President. As the last report of the cannon faded out Mayor Roche, standing within arm’s length of President Cleveland, delivered a neat address of welcome.

President Cleveland in beginning his speech in reply to that of the Mayor advanced to the front of the platform and gave forth his words in strong tones. The eager thousands about him crowded forward with great uproar. Men on the platforms sprung up on their chairs and swung themselves nearer in a reckless fashion, until they stood together in heaps, swinging about on their unsteady perches, and occasionally falling to the floor. The consequence was that the great noise rendered the President’s voice very inaudible to the throng. His speech was as follows: Mb. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens—lt was soon after the election of 1884 that an old resident of your city was endeavoring to persuade me to pay you a visit. He met every objection that was offered and adhered most pertinaciously to the statement that I should accept the invitation which he tendered. At last, seeing the persuasion was likely to fail, he vehemently broke out with this declaration: "The people where I live don’t think any mon who has not seen Chicago is fit to be President!” I have often thought since of this incident, and when it has happened that I felt I had not done for the people and the public all that might be done or all that I would wish to do I have wondered if things would not have gone better if I had visited Chicago. Indeed, it has, I believe, been publicly stated on more than one occasion lately, when the shortcomings of the present Chief Executive were under discussion, that nothing better could be expected of a man who had never been west of some designated place or river. Now that lam here, I feel like the Queen of bheba—the half hasn’t been told. My amazement is greatly increased when I recaU a little of modem history. In 1833 Chicago was incorporated as a town, and on the question of incorporation thirteen votes were cast, one of them in the negative. Ido not know the reason that actuated this negative voter, but if he were here to-day I think he would be heartily ashamed of himself. □I must confess that the consideration of the arguments made by my friends from Chicago indicates the loyalty and that true feeling and pride of which your city is so striking a monument. All have heard of it. if they have not seen it, for I think that every one of your citizens has organized himself into a committee of one to spread its glory abroad. You have said: "The President should see Chicago.” lam here to see it, and to see its Kind and hospitable people; and because your city is so great, and because your interests are so large and important, I know that vou will permit

me to say that I have left at homo a city which you should see and know more about; a city which, in point of fact, it would be well to keep your eyes closely upon all the time. Your servants and your agents are there; they are there to protect your interests and to aid you in furthering your welfare. Your ceaseless activity of hand and brain will not yield the results you deserve unless wisdom guides the councils of government, and unless your needs are regarded at the seat of the Government—the nation’s capital. Let me counsel you that a careful and thoughtful ac-

tian on political privielges it not only a safeguard against business disaster, bat as well the highest obligation of citizenship. ■Then the review of the procession began. Mounted troops with sabers, regiments of uni - formed infantry on foot, posts of Grand Army veterans, battalions of police, patrol wagons, firemen with their engines bearing lavish decorations—all marched past with numberless bands of music. The President removed hie hat as each section of the great procession saluted him in turn. He stood at Mayor Roche’s side for an hour and a half while the thousands of marching men were hurrying past. Occasionally the enormous throngs of people surged into the line of march and temporarily broke up the parade. The policemen chased the mob hither and thither, pushing it about, bruising it, and driving it away like sheep. Mrs. Cleveland was taken ill and left her carriage before the reviewing stand was reached. The President was driven to the Paliner House

after reviewing the procession, where he was pleased to find that Mrs. C. had completely recovered from her temporary prostration. After lunching, Mr. Cleveland gave a reception at the Palmer House. He was plainly dressed in an English worsted black coat tigntly buttoned around him, black broadcloth trousers, and congress gaiters. An old-fashioned turneddown collar surrounded his neck, to which was attached a ready-made tie of black silk. In his left hand was a handkerchief of generous proportions and snowy whiteness. Taking up a position to the right of the staircase he waited a moment to allow the ladies who were to receive to step into the beautifully decorated rendezvous partitioned off for their comfort Mrs. Cleveland was given a chair beside a huge pillow to the right, and for the first half hour of the reception remained seated. By her side stood Gen. Breckenridge and Judge Tuley, while gathered about her in different positions were the ladies comprising the reception committee. Each was provided with a huge bouquet of rare flowers. In a few moments the throng from the outside began to file in, two abreast. There were representatives of every station in life and every nationality before the President, Young and old crowded and pushed to get one brief clasp of his brood hand, and to briefly express their well wishes for his welfare. During the two hours and a half it is estimated that he shook at least 7,090 different persons’ hands. Among the many who presented themselves was the Douglas Camp of the Veteran Association, carrying with them an old tattered and ,bullet-torn flag that had waved over the Eleventh Kansas Volunteers a score and more years ago. As the comrades passed before the President the commander handed a small piece of the precious trophy to Mrs. Cleveland and asked her to keep it in remembrance of the occasion. Incidents without number kept up a continual interest in the reception that would otherwise have become very tiresome to the President and the reception committee. At the request of Mrs. Cleveland, Potter Palmer handed the President a glass of water. Grasping it with his left hand, he attempted to secure a drink, but eager hands tugged and pulled at him to such an extant he was unable to get the glass to his lips for but a single instant, and the endeavor was given up after one draught had been secured. During the progress of the levee the jam in the Palmer House was immense. If the crush inside the building was exciting the jam outside near the ladies’ entrance was actually terrible. Monroe street from State to Wabash avenue was actually choked up. It was not a loose, moving crowd, but literally a solid mass of human flesh. Its size made it brutal. Women and children were sucked into this shifting mass only to find that they could neither advance nor retreat. Husbands were separated from their wives, and children were carried away from the side of their parents and only saved from being trampled to death by some strong tellow taking compassion on them.

When the first woman fainted a champagne bottle filled with ice water was lowered from an upper story of the Palmer House by a cord. The crush was s > great that water could not be taken to the sufferer any other way. Later, pitchers of water were lowered with ropes. The scene as viewed from the roof of the buildings opposite the Palmer House was a strange one. It was a perfect sea of black hats, with here and there a bit of rubber or a gay feather bobbing about like a painted buoy, and indicating the presence of a frightened woman. As the reception progressed the crush grew worse and worse. Men trampled on weak women and children, and squeezed and packed them in and around the entrance door like figs in a box, until at last, overcome by the heat, the pressure, and excitement, first one, then another and another dropped, 'faintingjand worn out, until nearly two hundred had fainted and been borne out of the crowds on the shoulders of strong men or passed along until they reached a door or window of some building where they were taken in and restored to consciousness. About forty fainting ladies were taken into the Chicago Club building, twenty-five of whom were handed in through the front windows. Others were taken into the basement, the drug stores, bath-rooms, back alleys, and everywhere and anywhere, just so a breathing space could be found where restoratives could be administered. Cheer after cheer went up from the crowd.

Parasols were waved, hats and handkerchiefs thrown into the air, in a wild enthusiasm never before witnessed in Chicago. In the evening there was an informal reception at the Columbia Theatre, which had been arranged by and for the benefit of Chicago “society people. ” The house was magnificently decorated, and there were plants and flowers in profusion. It was by far the most elaborate example of floral decoration that has ever been accomplished in Chicago. Here the President want through a three hours’ hand-shaking.

THE PRESIDENT AND MRS. CLEVELAND.

AT MONROE AND STATE STREETS.

REVIEWING THE PARADE.

THE SCENE ON MICHIGAN AVENUE.