CHAPTER IX SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF GROVER CLEVELAND _March 4, 1893, to March 4, 1897_ Cleveland luck brought Grover Cleveland back to the White House in March, 1893, to succeed the man who had defeated him at the end of his first term, and whom he had in turn defeated also from succeeding himself. The “luck” did not extend its benign influence to propitiate the elements, since, instead of the ideal day of sunshine and soft spring zephyrs of his first term, he had to combat the discomforts of a cold, wet snow with its chill and slush. Fortune had been so liberal with her favours that he could discount her fickleness in that respect, however, even though Democratic hosts had assembled to celebrate their return to power with a brilliant and gorgeous display. Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland, with the addition of little Ruth Cleveland, their seventeen-months-old daughter, reached Washington on March 3d, going direct to the Arlington, where Mr. Lamont had engaged a suite for them, and where old friends had gathered to greet them. They, like Vice President-elect and Mrs. Stevenson, held a continuous reception. Promptly at eleven fifty-five the President and the President-elect departed for the Capitol, unaccompanied, in the only open carriage in the pretentious procession that meant the eclipse of one leader and the installation of the other. After the ceremonies in the Senate, much pressure was brought to bear upon Mr. Cleveland to abandon the idea of taking the oath out of doors. He felt, however, that he owed it to the waiting thousands, patiently standing, to let them see and hear him, and so he followed his previous course, in tribute to Thomas Jefferson, of delivering his inaugural address before the oath was administered by Chief Justice Fuller. Among the many interested spectators of the ceremonies were Mrs. Cleveland and Mrs. Stevenson, who braved the weather to hear their husbands. Following the ceremonies at the Capitol and the luncheon at the White House, the new President took his position in the open reviewing stand, where he stood for three hours as the pageant assembled in his honour and marched past. Mrs. Cleveland reviewed the parade from a window over a drug store on Fifteenth Street, where a party of her old friends had gathered to be with her. The procession was remarkable for its length, order, and appearance. The distinguished and the well-known clubs and organizations participating represented hosts of Democrats from coast to coast. Governors of eleven states with their staffs participated; a fine-looking group of students from Carlisle, and Tammany in all of the paraphernalia of its origin, 3,400 strong, whom it had taken eight trains to transport. All these, joined with 20,000 marchers, adherents, and admirers of the new head of the nation, made a pageant long to be remembered.