[THE INAUGURATION OF A PRESIDENT.]
BY A. MAURICE LOW.
nce in every four years Washington witnesses a sight the parallel of which is only to be seen in the great court pageants of monarchical Europe. The inauguration of a President is always made a great ceremony; it is accompanied with such a display, the stage settings for this performance are so gorgeous, and so unlike anything else we are accustomed to in other cities, that one must go to Washington to see a ceremonial so impressive in the lesson it conveys and so interesting from the personages who are the central figures. There are often seen larger parades than those which march down historic Pennsylvania Avenue on the morning of the 4th of March, but none which so truly represents the greatness of the Union and draws from every corner of the country. On the 4th of March the President and the President-elect drive from the White House to the Capitol and back, and in the evening there is a grand ball. This sounds simple enough, but for months before that day hundreds of the leading citizens of Washington, and scores of men in other places, have been working many hours a day to perfect the details, and on their labors depends whether the great occasion shall be a success or spoiled by an awkward mishap. So soon as the election is over, the chairman of the National Committee of the successful candidate appoints a prominent citizen of Washington to be chairman of the inaugural committee, and he in turn appoints the other members of the committee. These men are the principal bankers, merchants, lawyers, newspaper men, and other public-spirited citizens, without regard to party, as the inauguration is a national affair, and all men are ready to show their respect to the President. Everything relating to the inauguration is left to these committees. The first thing they have to do is to raise a guarantee fund for the necessary expenses—the decoration of the ballroom, the music, and such other things. This year the committee fixed the amount at $60,000, all of which has been contributed by private persons. With the exception of providing the room in which the ball is held and building a stand or two, the government defrays none of the expenses, the entire cost being met by private contributions.
The committees have to decide what organizations and troops shall be in the parade and the places they are to occupy; they superintend the decoration of Pennsylvania Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Washington, leading from the White House to the Capitol; the erection of stands from which the thousands of people who come to the city to take part in the pageant may witness it; arranging for accommodations for the strangers, and the selection of the grand-marshal of the procession. This last is a very important matter. Necessarily the marshal must be a military man who has been used to the handling of large bodies of men, as on that day he commands an army larger than that of the regular force of the United States, and it requires great military skill and cool judgment to make of the parade a success, instead of a failure, as it would be in the hands of an incompetent man. General Horace Porter, who has a distinguished military record, will lead the hosts this year.
THE CROWD LISTENING TO THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
It is the custom for the President-elect to arrive in Washington a few days before the inauguration. Rooms are engaged for him at one of the hotels. Shortly after his arrival he drives to the White House and pays his respects to the man whose successor he is so soon to be. When Mr. Cleveland paid his first visit to the White House Mr. Arthur was President. Mr. Cleveland was then a bachelor, and his late political rival escorted him over the house, and recommended to him his sleeping-room as being the quietest and most comfortable in the mansion. Later in the same day the President returns the call, the visits in both cases being very short, and official rather than social. While the President-elect is waiting to be sworn into office his time is generally very fully occupied in receiving public men, many of whom he meets for the first time, and sometimes in completing his cabinet. It has happened on more than one occasion that after the President-elect reached Washington he finally made up his mind as to a particular member of the cabinet.
