After dinner the evening was
spent with rehearsals and completing the arrangement for the morning's
exercises. The day of July 7 was ideal, the air was mild and the sun
came out in all of its splendor and the streets were alive with people
who were assembling already in preparation for this great jubilee. The
procession started promptly at 10 o'clock and passed through the
principal streets of the city. Veterans of the Mexican war, sailors
from the battleships that lay in the harbor, United States soldiers
were in line. Many appropriate emblems, floats, and bands of music
followed. School children symbolizing the American flag presented a
feature never to be forgotten.
Across from the first custom house a large platform had been erected
and upon this platform all the performers for the occasion were
placed. At the top the children were grouped to form the flag, a most
novel and beautiful sight. The officers of the day, Mexican veterans,
musicians and speakers occupied the lower platform. The old custom
house opposite, with its high flag pole, the two armored cruisers
lying in the bay, the escort of hundreds of sailors from the ships
made a never-to-be-forgotten scene. At the appropriate moment William
P. Toler, the man who fifty years before raised the flag upon the same
pole, amid cheers from the multitude descended from the platform and
made his way through the crowd and ranks of the naval battalion to
where Lieutenant Roper of the Monadnock stood.
Pages:
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327