Com- position, by Bayard Taylor, Esq. Benedict — Composed expressly for this occasion. M'lle Jenny Lind. Conductor — Mr. Benedict. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Festivals and Pageants 45 Great excitement was caused by the auction sale of a choice of seats, Mr. Genin, the hatter, securing the first place on the opening night for what was then con- sidered thQ:,yery large sum of $225. A contemporary report pictures the scene at the Garden : At four o'clock Jenny Lind arrived at the Garden, in order to pass quietly and unobserved through the crowd. She dressed there instead of at the hotel. At five o'clock the gates were thrown open, and from that time until eight o'clock there was a continuous tide of human beings passing into the capacious building. The numbers from the country were very consider- able. They were from New Haven, Newport, Albany, Newark and various other cities; and when all were seated, it was indeed a splendid sight. The ladies' dresses were very magnificent, and such as the great mass of women in no other country in the world can afford to wear. The fair sex were not as numerous as might be expected, the gentlemen outnumbering them considerably; but those who were present seemed to enjoy the concert in the highest degree. It is very probable that many ladies were kept away for the first night by the fear of being crushed ; but when they find that their apprehensions were groundless, they will doubtless take the Castle by storm to-morrow night. The river, we read, was thronged with boats that stayed throughout the performance, and in many cases were manned and occupied by those to whom the news- papers of the time referred as "the rougher element." Jenny Lind's share of the proceeds from the first concert was in the neighbourhood of ten thousand dollars, an enormous sum for a singer of that day to re- ceive for a single performance. It added greatly to the popular appreciation of the "Casta Diva" that she bestowed this sum upon various charitable and public Digitized by Microsoft® 46 The Hudson River institutions in New York City. In the bestowment of the largest sum, three thousand dollars, upon the (then volunteer) fire department fund, may perhaps be de- tected the fine advertising instinct of her manager, Mr. P. T. Barnum. Many notable pageants and many distinguished names are associated with Castle Garden. Here, more than once, the people of the city have welcomed a cele- brated guest with all the enthusiasm that in later days we have seen evinced for an Am.erican or a German admiral. The accounts given of the landing of Lafayette and his reception at Castle Garden,, in August, 1824, show how far from being a "new thing it is for the average Manhattanite to express his feelings vehemently when a reception is in progress. The 15th was Sunday, and the visitor was escorted from his ship to the Vice- President's house, Staten Island. But on Monday New York went mad. All business was suspended; the people were thronging every point of vantage, even the housetops, and the streets were filled with an expectant multitude. The animated scenes attending his landing at Castle Garden, upon a carpeted stairway, under a magnificent arch, richly decor- ated with flags and wreaths of laurel, while groups of escorting vessels, alive with ladies and gentlemen, and adorned in the most fanciful manner, circled about ; and the prolonged shouts of hosts of people, and the roar of cannon echoed far away over the waters, together with the parade in Broadway, the reception at City Hall, the speeches, the banquet, and the illumination — are Digitized by Microsoft® Festivals and Pageants 47 all more familiar to the public of to-day than many other features of the historic visit. Lafayette spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in shaking hands and sight-seeing in New York, and on Friday, August 20, left for Providence and Boston. New York had occupied itself in the interval between General Lafayette's departure for Boston and his re- turn in preparing for a celebration that should make all previous celebrations pale their ineffectual fires. It was to take place at Castle Garden on the 14th of Sep- tember, and was under the immediate supervision of Generals Mapes, Morton, Fleming, and Benedict, and Colonel W. H. Maxwell, Colonel King, Mr. Colden, and Mr. Lynch. The sedate Evening Post evei^ broke into expressions of rapture at the result. We hazard nothing [it affirmed] in saying that it was the most magnificent fite given under cover in the world. . . It was a festival that realises all that we read of in the Persian tales or Arabian Nights, which dazzled the eye and bewildered the imagination,