Beldings' mill and boarding house displayed attractive schemes of decoration, and the

Armour and

Handy Beef Company buildings on Market street and the Swift Company's place on Hawley street, were handsomely trimmed. Besides those mentioned in the foregoing. paragraphs, all places were dec

orated that were

illuminated, as

described in the

article following, on illuminations.

HOTEL HAMPTON

At Florence, Lilly Library and most of the business places, the Florence Hotel and Cottage Hotel, were cared for, and this part of the city showed its full share of public spirit and patriotism when the hour struck.

THE ILLUMINATIONS

The improvements of electrical invention have made it possible to supplement the effect of decorations on buildings and streets with some very striking combinations of color and light, and this was first realized in this city when the Committee on Illuminations had completed their work with the contractors, Simons & Fox of Hartford. Chairman James W. Heffernan of this committee had given two months of study and work to the matter, and, confronted at first with a problem

entirely new to him, he yet succeeded in grappling with a puzzling mass of details in a very satisfactory way, the local electric light company. aiding in the technical work with courtesy and promptitude and giving much gratuitous service. The light was first turned on to the complete illumination scheme Saturday night, June 4, and the effect was magnificent. On the various public buildings were thousands of lamps hanging on long stretches of wire, in festoons, from point to point, on the cornices and side walls of the different structures.

From Smith College to the corner of Main and King streets, there was a continuous blaze of light, making the broad, picturesque Main street almost as clear as by day. From the college tower blazed several large arc lights, which, sometimes hidden by light foliage and anon brought into full view from another point of observation, seemed like a group of newly discovered moons in the heavens. Forbes Library was a mass of most brilliant corruscation of colored lights, its situation, back from the street, lending itself admirably to heighten the effect.