Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1899 — VIEWED BY M’KINLEY. [ARTICLE]

VIEWED BY M’KINLEY.

Preaident Watches Thirty Thousand Veterans Marching. Tuesday was the big day of the Grand Army encampment at Philadelphia and the city was alive at an early hour. The presence of President McKinley increased the interest, and his drive over the route of the parade aroused the greatest enthusiasm among the throngs in the streets. *

The head of the procession moved at 10 o’clock. The distance covered was five miles. Independence Hall was passed during the march, and caps were lifted and colors dipped by the veterans. The chorus of 3,000 school children occupied a portion of the grand stand on the north side of the city hall and sung patriotic airs as the veterans passed. Post No. 1 from Rockford, IH., the oldest post in the Grand Army, headed the line. Disabled veterans rode in carriages, following the department of Pennsylvania at the end of the line. In order came the departments of Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Potomac, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Nebraska, Michigan, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Washington, Alaska and South Dakota. Thirty-five thousand men were in line.

At no celebration since the centennial has this city seen the crowds which lined the streets along which the veterans passed. The Avenue of Fame, with its snowwhite columns and festoons of bunting and laurel, was the favorite viewpoint. One of the most interesting features of the encampment was Camp Sexton at the Belmont mansion in Fairmount park, where 8,000 veterans occupied tents. Standing upon the top of Belmont looking toward Philadelphia the best view of the camp could be secured. Down below stretched the great field of tents. Behind them rolled the Schuylkill—picturesque there, perhaps, more than at any other spot, and beyond the banks rose the city of Philadelphia framed between the two walls of green ns in some giant picture. The veterans bad everything that could possibly be conducive to comfort at their disposal. There was no question of roughing it, the ordinary vicissitude of camp life having been eliminated as a

result of the elaborate efforts of the local veterans. Eighteen water lines ran through the camp, with sunken barrels placed at short intervals for the thirsty visitors. Two mess tents, 160x60 feet in size; ice cream and sutlers’ tents were situated at the western extremity of the camp. Telephone and telegraph wires ran overhead to the exact center of the camp, where the instruments were situated, and where the postofficc was. Near by was the bureau of information tent, with headquarters and officers’ mess tents above on the brow of the hill. Ten tents for the medical corps and five large hospital tents were at the eastern edge of the camp, sheltered from the sun by a clump of spreading trees. Incandescent lights were suspended up and down the lines of tents, while at the intersections of the streets or passageways were placed the blazing camp fires, where the old veterans gathered before turning in at night and fought their battles over again. An arch was at the west of the camp surmounted by flag poles forty-five feet high and the entire structure, built to resemble stone work, was covered with flags and G. A. R. insignia.