The third day, Wednesday, May 1, had begun long before the speeches. at the banqueting tables ceased. "I was awakened before I went to sleep!" exclaimed one of our foreign visitors who had not studied into the programme for the third day. The drums were beating early, the bands were giving their best music while the people breakfasted; the crowds were more dense if possible than on Tuesday-of almost inconceivable magnitude. The preparations were elaborate for the civic and industrial pageant, in which appeared not less than eighty thousand American freemen, led by General Butterfield. It moved in the opposite direction from the military parade of Tuesday, starting from Central Park and marching to the southern part of the city. Never in this land was there such an imposing and wonderful display of civic and industrial societies and organizations. Wednesday was literally the people's day. The pageant was the spontaneous expression of a genuine desire on the part of all classes of citi zens to do honor to the memory of our first President and his noble work. At half-past nine o'clock the President's carriage, with its mounted guard, reached the reviewing-stand at Madison square, and a boisterous cheer echoed along the avenue. One of the first features of consequence was the appearance of the mayor of the city and one hundred gentlemen, representing the New York Historical Society, the Chamber of Commerce, the Huguenot Society, the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, Columbia College, the University, etc. The mayor paused before the head of the nation, saying: "Mr. President, I have the honor to deliver to you, as mayor of the city of New York, an address signed by over one hundred individuals, in which they congratulate you on this occasion." He then handed the President a silver cylinder, containing a scroll of parchment several feet long, on which was engrossed these words:

"To Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, April 30, 1889.

The undersigned, representatives of the civic, commercial, industrial, and educational organizations and bodies of the city of New York, on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of Washington, the first President, present anew to the President of the United States in his official capacity their allegiance to the government, Constitu tion, and the laws, with their congratulations upon the completion of a century of a constitutional government and the progress made in that century."

This ceremony over, the mayor and the gentlemen accompanying him took seats upon the reviewing-stand. The educational forces were placed at the front of the procession, the Columbia college boys, to the number of three or four hundred, in the lead. Following them came the boys from the public schools, four or five thousand in all, and no trained veterans

Each line gave a wild college
Some of the boys were in knee

marched with more skill and precision. cheer as it passed the Presidential stand. breeches; there was an interesting file or two from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, with muskets; a pretty historical tableau represented Washington and his generals. The Columbia college boys wore their colors, and about every other block each company diverted the spectators by the question shouted from its leader, "Who was Washington?" and the response came in chorus with a war-dance, "He was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." The firemen were out in full force, with all the engines extant that had been used during a century. The Tammany braves created a sensation, led by General John Cochrane. The floats portrayed many historical incidents; there was a host of novel subjects, such as the "Age of Steam," the "German Opera," the "Art of Cooking," the "Shoe Trade," "Kindergarten," "Christmas," the "Press and Public Opinion," illustrating the growth of the printing-press in a century, the "Butcher Trade," " 'Agriculture," and "Immigrants One Hundred Years Ago." The procession moved rapidly, and the fascinating scenes kept the eyes along its route so completely entertained that there was little apparent weariness among the multitudes, who were standing for hours. And the display was ubiquitous; it filled New York, some one has said, "like a rocket that, after flashing through space, scatters into myriads of sparks." Nobody could fail to see something of it wherever he might chance to be located. Nor will it ever be forgotten by the present generation of Americans.

In connection with the Washington centennial was one of the largest and most remarkable loan collections of historic portraits and relics that was ever brought together for exhibition. It was placed in the several assembly rooms of the Metropolitan opera-house, and opened to visitors from April 17 to May 8. The chairman of the committee having it in charge was Henry G. Marquand, and the secretary Richard W. Gilder, the well-known editor of the Century. The portraits of Washington were incredibly numerous, and from all parts of the country, and the catalogue of the memorials displayed fill a good-sized volume. Portraits of Martha Washington and of the contemporaries of Washington occupied a large space upon the walls, and specimens of china, silverware, and clothing of George and Martha Washington, and of others of the Washington period, attracted immense interest. The rare and unique exhibit of the Fellowcraft Club, W. H. Patten chairman of committee, was a collection of newspapers and documents of similar age, which are cherished by their owners as priceless treasures.

The celebration as a whole has been called the "most photographed public event in the world's history. In this, as in every other respect, the contrast with the condition of affairs in 1789 is sharply marked. Photography is one of the inventions of the century, and it is only of recent date that it has been made a scientific study. The organized movements with the camera during the celebration were on a far more extended scale than any heretofore undertaken. The New York Society of Amateur Photographers, the New York Camera Club, the Brooklyn Academy of Photography, and the photographic departments of the Brooklyn Institute were able to make exhaustive pictorial reports of the event in all its details, the detective camera playing an important part in seizing the characteristic features of each day's movements. The efficiency of the modern camera may well justify interesting predictions as to its future usefulness in the service of history.

It has already shown, for example, how President Harrison was the central figure everywhere in this recent exhibition of the manifold workings of the vast and complex machinery of government, which Washington started one hundred years ago—a government that was to unite real liberty with personal safety and public security, and develop the resources of the soil and of the people of a New World. It places the truth before the eye in imperishable colors concerning the marvelous results of the governmental experiment, and forcibly reminds us that our country in a century has rushed across the continent from ocean to ocean, multiplying its thirteen original states into forty-two, and making itself one of the richest and most powerful nations on the globe.

Martha & Lamb

THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI

In the rotunda of the national capitol at Washington eight mammoth paintings commemorate what are commonly considered the most notable events in American history. One of these, the subscript informs us, depicts the discovery of the Mississippi. Its central figure, seated astride a prancing Andalusian charger, with eyes fixed upon the mighty river flowing amid the serenity beyond, is Hernando de Soto. Bronzed sons of Spain, clad in refulgent armor and restraining their impatient steeds, ride up behind him; priests in the foreground plant in pious ardor the holy cross, while the half-naked denizens of the forest, from about their gayly painted wigwams, look on in silent wonderment and fear.

It may not, however, be generally known that the honor of the discovery of the Mississippi river, heretofore accredited to De Soto, and found verily in every text-book of American history in use to-day in our schools, is one to which that adventurer has never been entitled.

In Navarrete's Coleccion de los Viages, vol. iii., a compilation of narratives relating to all the early expeditions undertaken by the Spaniards in America, there is to be found the story of an important voyage made by one Alonzo de Pineda in 1519, along the entire northern and western coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This inglorious navigator, it should be known, observed upon that voyage all the principal rivers of the coast along which he cruised, and, evidently impressed with the size and importance of one which he christened Rio del Espiritu Santo, he gave of it a particular description. This great river-in all probability the Mississippi--he ascended a distance of six leagues from its mouth, passing no less than forty villages of friendly natives upon its banks, among whom, for a time, he tarried and trafficked. Thus was the mighty Mississippi discovered, twenty-three years before De Soto descried it from the pine-clad bluffs of Tennessee.

Mr. Bancroft, in the last revision of his history, has it is true divested De Soto of the distinction accredited to him in the earlier editions of that work, but only to confer it upon Cabeça de Vaca. The extraordinary nar. rative of Cabeça de Vaca is not, as yet, generally familiar, since it has not until lately appeared in our text-books; but a more romantic, strange, and adventurous tale has scarcely adorned historic annals, and it must thus ere long become as popular and familiar as is the story of Hernando Cortes or Ponce de Leon's fountain of perpetual youth.