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THE celebration of the fall field day parade of 1886 was in many respects widely different from that of any of its predecessors. Custom had provided that this excursion, in nearly every case to a city more or less distant, should include a parade, usually under the escort of the military of the city visited, and a banquet or ball in the evening, at which the invited guests were generally very numerous; so numerous, in fact, often were they, that in many instances it seemed more as if the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company were exerting itself for the pleasure of the residents of the city visited than enjoying a trip of its own. But on the trip of this year things were reversed, and the company sacrificed the eclat which numerous invitations to take part in its festivities would give, for the enjoyment which would be gained from an excursion, almost entirely confined to its own members, to the White Mountains, at the season of the year when a trip to a mountain region seems particularly appropriate. Indeed, the only gentlemen invited to accompany the command were representatives of the Old Guard of New York, without whose presence a trip of the Ancients would hardly seem complete, and the invitation was availed of by but two members of the sister corps, - Lieut. W. D. Sheldon and Private Walter Scott. And this change was especially noticeable at the banquet. In previous years, speeches from distinguished visitors have formed a prominent feature of the after-dinner proceedings; but upon this occasion the post-prandial oratory, except for a speech from Lieut. Sheldon in responding for his corps, was confined entirely to members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Another innovation, and quite a popular one, was the presence on the trip, and at the banquet, of a number of lady relatives of members of the command. It has not been unusual, on previous fall field day parades, for ladies to accompany the Ancients on the ex

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