• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 399 0

rounded the bend, past the mouth of the Wolf River, the bluffs grew closer. Flat-bottom boats bobbed at the water’s edge where bands played music on deck. The smokestacks of steamboats crowded the shore like metal tree trunks sprouting smoky limbs. The Memphis skyline was impressive, highlighted by a long row of white, Greek-revival and Italianate structures: There was the exquisite water-pumping station with soaring windows and water fountains; the magnificent Customs House, still under construction, and designed by the architect of the U.S. Treasury; and along Cotton Row, the Gayoso Hotel with its massive columns, still closed for postwar renovations.As though the bluffs had been tipped in frost, the skyline appeared in cream-colored columns, archways and glass. And in the distance, the steeples of St. Mary’s, Grace Church and Calvary towered above. There had been a cloudy start to the day, but now there was sunshine and a turquoise sky as beautiful as a summer day; when the sun set across the river that night, the white skyline was lit by the copper light.

Over 10,000 tourists flooded the streets of downtown. Champagne flowed from the fountain in Court Square and a pyramid of candy, twenty-five feet wide and thirty-five feet high welcomed visitors. Many from the countryside came to the shops, where keepers had dropped prices in anticipation of the crowds. Along Main Street, Lowenstein and Brothers clothing store sprawled across three buildings. Kremer, Herzog and Co., a millinery, sold straw hats, netting, flowers and ribbons. Elsewhere downtown could be found lace mitts, gilt hair ornaments, grosgrain ribbon, lisle-thread hose and fresh French flowers. Tobacco shops carried fine cigars, and liquor stores put out their best whiskey. Lloyd’s offered sodas, pure cream and caramels.

Some pedestrians rode the electric streetcars; others visited the Memphis Exposition Building, which had opened in 1873. Its architecture reminiscent of an Indian temple, the Exposition Building flew flags from six towers and another forty flags fluttered along its roofline. Many tourists strolled past Jefferson Davis’s home on Court Street, while others walked the streets of Adams and Jefferson to admire the most elegant neighborhood in the city. Here, $100,000 was spent building one home. A neighboring house held modern conveniences like airshafts inside its eighteen-inch walls to circulate cool air. Homes in this neighborhood represented contemporary architecture at its best. What would later be known as the Fontaine House, a French Victorian, boasted tin eaves, terra-cotta lintels, and a five-story tower. Its neoclassical neighbor was adorned with Doric columns, and if people strolling the street were to look into the windows, they would see a gaslit Waterford chandelier. Finally, there was a Greek revival with its fluted columns and lotus-leaf carvings. It belonged to the Confederate general Gideon Johnson Pillow.

As the morning progressed, people made their way back downtown, where the excitement was palpable. At noon on Monday, March 4, cannon blasts announced the arrival of Rex and his queen. Observers remarked that as the king appeared in the distance, “the Mississippi trembled underneath her banks.”

Dressed in regal purple, Rex approached Mayor John R. Flippin on the grandstand and when the crowd quieted enough, his voice could be heard: “I do now in the name of the Great Momus, High and Mighty Monarch of Misrule, demand the keys to this, my royal master’s loyal city of Memphis.” The golden key to the city was handed over, the bands struck up and the parade moved forward into the city.

Nightfall began the procession of the Ulks, followed by a magnificent ball. Their theme was the Romances of Childhood, complete with floats of “Hey, Diddle, Diddle,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Old King Cole” and “Rip van Winkle,” among others. As the parade marched by Adams and Second, the First Baptist Church held a lecture on the temperance movement. When the floats passed, the ministers stood outside signing up new volunteers for their “Red Ribbon