As they passed down the steps through the crowd that was waiting to see them, every hat came off, and the spectators stood bareheaded as the two most important men in the country passed before them.

The state carriage, drawn by four horses, was waiting for them; stepping into it, they started on their trip to the Capitol.

The streets through which the carriage passed were thronged with people, who cheered and yelled, some even dancing up and down in their excitement.

There was a trifling accident to the President’s carriage in the course of the journey, but it did not delay the procession much, and, except for the excitement it caused, would hardly have been noticed.

One of the rear horses slipped and fell, and in his fall broke one of the silver links that held the traces.  It was mended in less time than it takes to tell about it, but every one feared that some accident had happened to the Presidents, and for a few minutes there was a good deal of galloping back and forth, and excitement among the leaders of the procession.

As soon as the trace was mended the procession swept on, and reached the Capitol without further delay.

An interesting part of the parade was the squad of soldiers on bicycles which brought up the rear.

Inside the Capitol all was excitement, for the President and President-elect were to be received in the Senate Chamber.

As a rule, the Senators and their desks spread out in a semicircle round the raised dais on which is the Speaker’s chair, and they take up pretty much the whole of the Chamber.

On inauguration days the desks disappear, and the Senators are seated in rows on one side.  On this occasion they were placed on the right of the chamber, packed just as closely together as they could be.

All the galleries of the Senate were also closely packed with the families of the Ambassadors and Ministers, and the friends of the Senators.  In a place set apart for them were Major McKinley’s family and friends, amongst them being his wife and his mother, Mrs. Nancy Allison McKinley, a bright, active old lady, over eighty years of age.

The Senators being in their places, the President of the Senate gave one stroke of his gavel, and immediately the doors of the Senate were thrown open, and the usher of the Senate announced: 

“The Ambassadors of foreign countries.”

All the Senators rose to their feet, and in filed the Ambassadors in full diplomatic dress.

Their dress-coats and trousers were decorated with gold bullion, they carried their white-feathered, three-cornered hats in their hands, and across their shoulders, from left to right, were sashes of colored satin, according to their rank or their country—­pink, white, yellow, and red satin.

They were ushered to seats in front of the Vice-President’s dais, and almost immediately the doors were again thrown open and the page announced: