f
the triumphal car. In many cities, as a precaution against unfavorable
weather, these streets had been arched over with glass, thus becoming
grand arcades, many of which have been allowed to remain so to the
present day. The houses lining these streets, hung with tapestry,
decorated with flowers, waving with banners, were all to be illuminated
at night time in a style at once both the most brilliant and the most
tasteful. On the sidewalks, tables had been laid, often miles and miles
long, at the public expense; these were to be covered with every kind of
eatables, exquisitely cooked, in the greatest profusion, and free to
everyone for twelve hours before the arrival of the illustrious guests
and also for twelve hours after their departure. The idea mainly aimed
at was that, at the grand national banquet about to take place, every
inhabitant of the United States, without exception, could consider
Barbican and his companions as his own particular guests for the time
being, thus giving them a welcome the heartiest and most unanimous that
the world has ever yet witnessed.

Evergreens were to deck the lamp-posts; triumphal arches to span the
streets; fountains, squirting _eau de cologne_, to perfume and cool the
air; bands, stationed at proper intervals, to play the most inspiring
music; and boys and girls from public and private schools, dressed in
picturesque attire, to sing songs of joy and glory. The people, seated
at the banquetting tables, were to rise and cheer and toast the heroes
as they passed; the military companies, in splendid uniforms, were to
salute them with presented arms; while the bells pealed from the church
towers, the great guns roared from the armories, _feux de joie_
resounded from the ships in the harbor, until the day's wildest whirl of
excitement was continued far into the night by a general illumination
and a surpassing display of fireworks. Right in the very heart of the
city, the slowly moving triumphal car was always to halt long enough to
allow the Club men to join the cheering citizens at their meal, which
was to be breakfast, dinner or supper according to that part of the day
at which the halt was made.

The number of champagne bottles drunk on these occasions, or of the
speeches made, or of the jokes told, or of the toasts offered, or of the
hands shaken, of course, I cannot now weary my kind reader by detailing,
though I have the whole account lying before me in black and white,
writte