Show I OLD VETS N LINE fw f < SCCQOO WILL MARCH AT THE G A 11 rsroAarpainxr AT ST PAUL THE i a RTHETH IU2UMOX DIXVOTIi IS HEGIAXIXG IX MAItD lUG HOLES IX THE RANKS OF Tim AIUIY A HEAVY SHRINKAGE i r For the thirtieth time In its history the old soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic will meet in national en r ipment this time at St Paul < Minn beginning Tuesday September 1 and Sending on Saturday This is the first thne that St Paul has been given the lionw of entertaining the old soldiers Twelve years ago in 1S84 lts sister city ritaneapoli had the honor and since then the warriors have journeyed an tXuially to ail ends of the country One of the features of this years re Bunion and a sad one will be the decreased de-creased number of men on the rolls Up to 1S94 the G A H steadily grew inn in-n strength and for some time S 1t held its own at almost the high water mark But in the past year a > rapid decline set in and hundreds who were in the ranks at Louisville last year will be missing at St Paul r DeaJth Is beginning to run its way wIIth a free bridle through the ranks nnd from now on the decrease will be more marked each year 110 matter how < act1ely the veterans work to bring in their comrades who have heretofore failed to join the order On TWlUary 1 1SJ4 there were 387040 1nEmbers on the books of the organia S tiOD and in the next year there was a I drop of over 17000 tile roll on January 1 lS95 standing at 369GGO In the neXt S year ending January 1 iS96 there a decrcust of 12000 the total member was S ship on that date being 357C29 There are no official figures at hand showing tIie S deC1ase since then hut f t4l estimates from care ia05s prepared it seems that the woes M metnlbersllip by death has been greater thLn in any similar perIod In the histlry of the aesocjaj The es timwLe nit total membershl11 is nOw placed 3480011 S jlt will and by the end of the year Probably have 3tI0oo sunk down to ur lower DIFFERENT STATES AT ST PAUL the il It line is aiL eV S > d Paul that in 30 < 00 the ° men big parade will be estmoted number from each state being as fo1lows Illinois 5000 Yiscon isin 000 P PemIsy1vant 1OJO Ohio 2 1liOO New York 600 JIaschusetts Connecticut 50 500 New Jersey 1Ialnc 150 250 C3Jifornla 25 Rhode Island 75 New ew liall11pshire 100 > Vermont Xottmac 300 100 VirginIa and XOilJ1 Jlnlfl 20 Car0 lIaryland 50 Nebraska GOO llIlcligun GUn 1000 Iowa 260G liOO Indiana Colorado and Wyoming i5 sos 600 Kan Drdaware 10 1hIIsso1r 1Q0 Oregon Unneota 5000 n 50 Ke ltuck 200 W Bit irgInla 150 South S Dakota 1100 Waiith WashwStOl1 and Alaska 5 1ansas Ar 100 New MexIco Ienneee 100 Louisiana 15 Gtu 25 and Iissis J3ippi 40 florida 25 Montana 25 Tex as 30 Idaho 25 Arizona 10 Georgia foe Alabama 20 Noth Dakota 400 Oldwhoma 25 Indian Terrlto 4 The stats contiguous to Minnesota will natumUy have the largest seltatlQn as the repre old off states ooldiers in the far J axe unable to make the < jCurney both front long IhysIcti l and finan clal 1a50135 Many of the eastern twtei will j have comparatjyiy small represenltiLto1S notably New York liassacllJsetts Conn ect and Nev rersey f lbe Citizens S committee of St Paul rwhich has had charge of the arrim ments for thE encampment has arrange done SJi S < t yuUan work and the ycterns win be e11 pei cared for to say nothing of the visitors who will outnumber the vets fsix to one The old SOld fit fSMS ers who desire wm be furnIshed with tree sle ping squaiueis In the city school buildings and STII Camp Mason The latter will be one 0f thE most Interesting features of the k cooainpment The camp is named in ponor of Gor rna B C Mason president j0t the St Pauls Citizens committee and General Mason jana wJl be chief marshal mar-shal of the parade F JA1Y UNIQUE DECORATIONS The parade always the great feature tof the G A R encampments will be noteworthy this year because of the elaborate decorations arranged for to say nothing of a number of unique features The decorations will begin at the sheds of the Union depot where Jthe arriving soldiers will first set foot I IE St Paul and they will extend to all eids and corners of the city One of the most attractive features will be a fifteenfoot bt > dge composed of more khan 1000 colors Ughts bearing in four I foot letters the words Greeting G 2 L RAt t R-At Camp Mason there will be so much cannon shooting that some of thc old soldiers will think the war has broken loose again First at sunrise on Tuesday there will be a national salute of twentyone guns and a few i hours later there will be another salute iQf thirteen guns as a starter for the parade of the naval veterans On Wednesday at sunrise there will be a salute of fortyfive guns to the Union Ttlrty minutes before the starting of the great parade there will be a salute of thirty guns and when Commander inChief Ivan N Walker steps upon the reviewing stand at Smith Park there wJ11 be another salute of seventeen gUn1 A CITY OF LIGHT T1P illuminations at night are expected ex-pected to surprise the old soldiers by their grandeur A distance of fifteen blocks from the Union depot to the Federal building will be a mass of be ldeiIng light In each block there bv111 be six poles forty feet high on cS cb side of the street or twelve poles S oJ I S to the block For a distance of twenty feet around each pole there will be a casing of white staff the material that made such a pleasing effect at the Worlds fair The upper portion of the poles will be painted to correspond with the white staff Each pole will be mounted with a flag The white staff will be about two or three feet square terminating I termin-ating at the base of the pole in a pedestal In this staff work will be niches for plants and other decorations while streamers and foliage will decorate decor-ate the exterior of the poles At the four corners of each block for the whole distance the colors of all the corps in the United States army will be I artistically arranged around the poles with gold lettering and other embellishments I embel-lishments The illuminations will consist of lines I of red white and blue incandescent lights running along each side of the street for the entire distance from the depot to the Federal building More than 7000 lamps will be used The whole line will De one vast avenue of light color and shape suggestive of the splendor of Aladdin tales The business firms of the city will add to the attractiveness in a decora atractveness I tive way There is to be a living flag composed of boys and girls dressed in I the national colors and the parade will pass under an immense arch to be erected by the colored citizens of St I Paul There will also be a great chorus which will sing patriotic songs a each division passes along On Thursday the encampment will assemble in St Pauls Emporium at 10 a 1 for the transaction of the regular yearly business Who will succeed the present commanderinchief is a question ques-tion as there are many candidates in the field the most prominent being Josiah Given commander of the department de-partment of Iowa and Past Department I Depart-ment Commander Daniel R Ballou of Rhode Isand I r 5 SS 5 4 i 7 11J S ITi V 111q j f I L j I Ai11 URN I I5 < < j J OS5000 c 1zc TIIEISE FIGURES SHOW HOW THE G A IU IS RAPIDLY DWINDLING AWAY S S |