Here, more than once, the people of the city have welcomed a celebrated guest with all the enthusiasm that in later days we have seen evinced for an Am.erican or a German admiral. The accounts given of the landing of Lafayette and his reception at Castle Garden, in August, 1824, show how far from being a new thing it is for the average Manhattanite to express his feehngs vehemently when a reception is in progress. The 15th was Sunday, and the visitor was escorted from his ship to the Vice- President's house. Staten Island. But on Monday New York went mad. xA.ll business was suspended; the people were thronging every point of vantage, even the housetops, and the streets were filled with an expectant multitude.

The animated scenes attending his landing at Castle Garden, upon a carpeted stairway, under a magnificent arch, richly decorated with flags and wreaths of laurel, while groups of escorting vessels, alive with ladies and gentlemen, and adorned in the most fanciful manner, circled about; and the prolonged shouts of hosts of people, and the roar of cannon echoed far away over the waters, together with the parade in Broadway, the reception at City Hall, the speeches, the banquet, and the illumination -- are

Festivals and Pageants 47

all more familiar to the public of to-day than many other features of the historic visit. Lafayette spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in shaking hands and sight-seeing in New York, and on Friday, August 20, left for Providence and Boston.