The exterior of the Capitol at Waco was decorated with American flags, and red, white and blue bunting.
Passers-by commented on the patriotism of Jefferson College.

But, enveloped in this decoration there was cloth of the color of mourning.
The huge weeping willows stood, one on each side of the speaker's desk.

To the right of the desk, there was a group of women in widow's weeds, sitting on an elevated platform.

There were fifty of these, their husbands having been made the victims of mobs since the first day of January just gone.
To the left of the speaker's desk, there were huddled one hundred children whose garments were in tatters and whose looks bespoke lives of hardship.

These were the offsprings robbed of their parents by the brutish cruelty of unthinking mobs.
Postmaster Cook, while alive, was a member of the Imperium and his seat was now empty and draped in mourning.