The Celebration of - What?

The largest crowd of people ever before congregated in this city, variously reported at from 8,000 to 12,000, gathered Tuesday at the Depot to celebrate the completion of the New Albany and Salem Railroad to Lake Michigan. "It is said by those who ought to know that more than 3,000 ladies took dinner at the Depot, and we should think the proportion of men to the women, who took dinner, was about as two to one; besides, we are sorry to learn that a great many men went away without their dinner, not for the want of a great abundance to eat, but because the press was so impenetrable that they could not get to the table"...speeches interrupted and marred the whole arrangement..."Had the weather been favorable for a grand military and civic procession, it was the intention to march out to a pleasant grove, a distance of a mile and a quarter from the public part of the city, where the speeches were to be delivered. And had this part of the arrangement been carried out, such a procession, for length and breadth and depth would be rarely witnessed in this country. As it was however, the procession, composed principally of the military and fire companies, together with several companies from Louisville, was very respectable in appearance, and the music of the Banner Band was pre-eminently good"...[The title of the article probably refers to the fact that the editorial writer was unhappy that Gov. Wright, who VETOED a bill for the benefit of this same road, was afforded a public ovation and the only toast that was publicly read at the dinner table. The editor and Gov. Wright were from opposing political parties.]