There were no particularly distinguishing features in the administering of the oath to either the new President by Chief Justice White, or to the Vice President by Senator Gallinger. The drama of the great political struggle was reflected in the picture presented in the little group when President Wilson had completed his address. While the crowd was shouting its enthusiastic approval, Mr. Taft, the retiring leader of the party, defeated after sixteen years of supremacy, congratulated his successor thus: “Mr. President, I wish you a successful administration and the carrying out of your aims. We are all behind you.” William Jennings Bryan stood at hand, the persistent prophet of progressive democracy, thrice defeated, and once more possessing his soul in patience as he accepted a commission from the new President who was claiming to be mustering forces of humanity, not forces of party. The long procession of forty thousand marching men which had been forming while the ceremonies were in progress, followed the President to the White House. The Essex Troop, made up of college graduates and young men of means, all of whom owned their handsome mounts, wheeled into line in full strength to honour their former governor, while the sixty mounted Culver cadets that composed the famous Black Horse Troop of that institution found their location as escort to Vice President Marshall. Twenty-five hundred Tammany Braves also made the air ring. The fireworks in the evening were unusually elaborate because of the omission of the inaugural ball. All arrangements had been made as usual for the ball, but it was omitted at the President’s expressed wish. While there were many rumours as to the reason of its abandonment, the expense involved in the upheaval of the routine business, the moving of clerks and upset of office equipment in the huge Pension Building seemed to be the chief consideration. There was no other structure available in Washington at that time large enough to accommodate the crowds desiring to attend. Then, too, soon after election it was known that both Governor and Mrs. Wilson were indifferent, if not actually opposed, to the idea of a ball. Mrs. Wilson had been quoted as saying: “I cannot bear to think of a ball with the modern dances when Woodrow is inaugurated.” To them both, the ceremony of March 4th carried much of the thought of dedication, a point of view in accord with the Presbyterian doctrines in which both were rooted and grounded.