330 HISTORY OP PASADENA. 



particulars from Postmaster W. U Masters, who sat near Mr. Wanamaker. 

 He says a waiter came along behind President Harrison and poured wine 

 into his glass, but as soon as he noticed it the President took hold of the 

 glass and with a very emphatic and decisive motion pushed or set it away 

 from him, and did not touch or taste a drop of it. The waiter came to Mr. 

 Wanamaker the same way, and that gentleman decisively kept his glass 

 turned down, refusing to allow any wine poured into it. Mr. Masters did 

 the same thing, as a courtesy due to the temperance sentiments of the guests. 

 (As a member of the committee he had objected to the wine feature, for the 

 same reason, as did others also, for they knew that the President and Wana- 

 maker were church members, and did not approve of liquor drinking ; but 

 the wine service was decided on when he [Masters] was absent.) The 

 waiter next went to Secretary Rusk and tipped the wine bottle down to Mr. 

 Rusk's glass, when that gentleman threw up his hand against the bottle, 

 tilting it back and pushing it away. Thus each of the three chief guests 

 were compelled to resist a discourtesy thrust upon them in the house of their 

 friends, the Republican stronghold of Pasadena.* 



But the next day when the people, free from the manipulations of any 

 clique, had a chance to show their loyal regard for our chief magistrate, 

 nearly every store in the city was closed, the people turned out b}^ hundreds 

 and thousands, and 2,000 school children in line literally strewed his path- 

 way with flowers. The)^ also presented him with an unusually attractive 

 floral piece on which the chief emblem, richly wrought in fresh flowers, was 

 an inverted wine glass. True, there was some other floral pieces ; but in 

 view of what had transpired the night before, this one alone touched the 

 climacteric nerve of the occasion and became historic. It sent the visitors 

 away with a much better opinion of Pasadena than they had been able to 

 get from previous experience. Old Rkpublican. 



Pasadena, April 27. 



The Pasadena Star of 23d and 24th gave an eight-column report of the 

 honors to the President, without any hint of tribulation : but on the 25th it 

 came out with an editorial, scoring the banquet as " a flat failure," "a fizzle," 

 "most wretched," etc., laying some of the blame to drunken colored 

 waiters imported from lyos Angeles, and making sundry excuses for other 

 shortcomings in that part of the overstrained program. It seems that five 

 kinds of wine, besides Roman punch, had been lavishly provided, but was 

 little used ; and the waiters, with a few others, undertook to ''save zV " by 

 drinking it themselves. 



The Pasadena reporter for the Los Angeles Times told me personally 

 that "the President did drink wine, for / saw him drinking, just like the 

 rest." But on further inquiry I learned that after the incident related by 

 Mr. Masters to the Evening Express correspondent, the President and Mr. 

 Wanamaker and Mr. Rusk each had a glass of Apollinaris water ; and the 

 Times man and others seeing them drink this, supposed it was wine they 

 were " drinking just like the rest." These facts explain how it could 



*Mr. Masters was the Democratic postmaster, still in office, but his successor, Geo. F. Kernaghau, 

 had been appointed though not yet installed. Mr. Masters was also president of the Board of Trade, 

 and was master of ceremonies for this banquet occasion. Hence he had President Harrison sitting at 

 his right hand and Governor Markham next; and at his left hand sat Postmaster-General Wanamaker, 

 with the new appointee for Pasadena, Mr. Kernaghan, next. 



