FLYING FLAGS.

And Bolts of Bunting - The City's Gay Dress.

What the Decorations Are and Where They Are - The Work of Professionals.

Stand upon the top of the electric light mast and look out over the city. The prospect is patriotic in red, white and blue. Flags of all sizes flutter in the breeze from every coign of vantage; cornices are concealed behind tri-colored bunting, and the principal buildings are fairly swathed in it.

Nicollet and Hennepin avenues converge their huge V at your feet, and the view up both thoroughfares ia a bustling, brilliant one. Cloth signs are swung ad infinitum across the streets, and up the latter thoroughfare they are so thick that if suspended in a horizontal position they would make an almost continuous canopy from Third street to Seventh. And yet, with all the array of banners, the one bearing the inscription, "Welcome," has not yet been dug up. A few saloons may adopt the motto later in the week, but as coming from the city there's no need of any such legend, for it is written all over the faces of the former Vermonters, Mainites, Ohions and the others who go to the trains to meet the delegates and visitors from their respective states.

At the least calculation there must be several miles of bunting draped on the buildings in the business part of the city. Nicollet avenue, as the leading retail street, naturally makes the best showing. Between Sixth and Seventh streets the building occupied by George S. Beall, Willis & Dunham, Dickinson's Bazar and Donaldson's Glass Block stores are very elaborately trimmed. The last named has a myriad of small flags over its Nicollet and Sixth streets facades; Beall's place has a heavier style of decoration, the national colors being hung out in broad bands. The Syndicate Block has out long tri-colored streamers arranged in diagonal fashion, while the Loan and Trust Building farther down the street is fairly buried in bunting. At the Plymouth, Third and Nicollet, the streamers are all fastened at the upper corner of the building, from where they radiate over both the fronts.

These are only a few of the most striking bedecked buildings. Every structure has some decoration; show windows are heavily draped, a tri-colored valence is put on an awning or flags are displayed. Lower Washington avenue displays now and then a Scandinavian flag among the stars and stripes, but the latter are greatly in the predominance over there.

Done By Professionals.

Most of the elaborate draping is done by professionals who have their headquarters at Chicago and who swoop down on any occasion like this as a veritable harvest. They have a great many good ideas, but it must not be forgotten that they are responsible for honors in the shape of five pointed stars fringed with red, white and blue tissue paper and bearing in the center a cheap lithograph of some candidate or prospective candidate.

The decorative craze now on has its ludicrous side as well as anything else. Up on First avenue north an inch and a-half cable is stretched across the thoroughfare and suspended from it is a flag probably 8 x 12 inches - at any rate it doesn't make the cable sag perceptibly. Down near Bridge Square is a building which bears, without flinching, portraits of Gen. Jackson, taken immediately after he had drawn a large blank in the Louisiana lottery, and of some other personage who must be either Benedict Arnold or Herr Johann Most. The idea of these decorations is all right, but the Teutonic occupant of the office before which they are placed got hold of some wrong font material.

As the convention gets down to business the decorating will continue. The national colors will continue to be used to some extent, but there is a general impression that in most cases the blue and the white will be dropped and the decorative effects produced in a warm monochrome.

A Handsome Sight.

The Rochester block, in which the Minneapolis Press Club is located, presents the finest decorations of any building in the city. From the figurehead at the top are entwined two enormous regimental flags and from the cornice beneath heavy buntings hang in folds and on either side are Union Jacks. From the centre of the cornice and headed by a coat-of-arms are four streamers of the national color lining the pillars of the building. On the side are more coat-of-arms, and from small window balconies are graceful decorations of red, white and blue cheese cloth. On the second story and at the floor of the large balcony is a huge sign reading in flaming letters, "Minneapolis Press Club - Headquarters Northwestern Newspaper Men." Attached to and flowing beneath the sign are national flags. Over the entrance is another large sign, printed in black and white, and directing seekers to the Press Club headquarters. Inside the building the club rooms are thrown wide open. There are ten spacious rooms fitted with every comfort dear to the heart of a newspaper man. Soft carpets, luxurious reclining chairs, billiard and pool tables and piano are here.

Other Decorations.

The Bank of Minneapolis Building has a unique decoration of two buntings crossing the entire length of the building, edged about with small flags. Around the edges and in the center of each window are portraits of prominent men.

J. R. Elliott has simple bands of bunting running parallel the whole length of the building, while the awning is fringed with the stars and stripes. Barnaby also has a very presentable display.

Temple Court has a decoration of small flags, and over the entrance is a star surrounded by bunting and bearing the sign "Welcome" while a star above declares that "West is King."

Hale, Thomas & Co. have their display in the archway, where each pillar is wound with colored cloths and an arch sign reading "Welcome Delegates." Trimmed and knotted about are many more brilliant pieces.

Yerxa exhibits a modest trimming of bunting with awning trimmed in flags.

From the eves of Browning, King & Co.'s block hang pinions of red, white and blue to the awnings, while national flags are draped into half circles under the balconies.

The Palace Clothing Company shows a beautiful display especially around its large balconies of large United States flags.