"Most Splendid Appearance"

"On the President's landing, he was welcomed by a federal discharge of Cannon, and the Ringing of Bells. The Concourse of People was prodigious. The Procession was conducted with great Decorum, and exceeded anything of the Kind before exhibited in this Town.

"All Ages, Classes and Sexes, were full of Sensibility on this joyful Occasion" The brilliant Appearance of the Ladies from the Windows was politely noticed by the President, and gave Animation to the Scene. . . . On the Evening of the same day, the President and many others took a walk on the College Green, to view the Illumination of that Edifice, which was done by the Students, and made a most Splendid Appearance. . . .

Thus did the Providence Gazette & Country Journal for Aug. 21, 1790 report George Washington's visit to the city and to Rhode Island College, now Brown University. Illuminations were a specialty among the Brown students; they loved to burn candles, especially at Commencement when as many as eight candles would glimmer in each of old University Hall's 178 windows. But candle-burning seemed dangerous and in 1827 Brown's President Francis Wayland put a ban upon it. No use for students and alumni to protest by burning a tar barrel on the campus; their president rushed out from his house and angrily drove them away.

Brown burned candles once more one night last week during a memorial celebration of Washington's visit. With a procession, band concert and speeches was dedicated a commemorative plaque on University Hall. To all the guests were distributed facsimile copies of the old Providence Gazette & Country Journal. In the Brown Daily Herald next day was a startling editorial footnote to the affair: "Such an event would attract nationwide attention if it had occurred at Harvard, Yale, or other Eastern colleges. Why should these universities gain such favorable publicity while Brown lacks it? . . . Establish an effective publicity bureau with a full-time director. . ."

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