Sunday morning September 11, 1904. The sky is cloudy.

About noon the northwest part of the city, bounded north and south by North and Chicago Avenues, and on the east and west by the river and Paulina Street, becomes a center of activity. The Poles come out dressed in their Sunday best, and many in uniforms of the various military organizations. Beautiful floats pass by and and mounted parade marshals are seen giving orders here and there.

The homes on the principal streets are covered with a field of green, flowers, festoons and Polish and American flags. In the windows are seen portraits of Kosciuszko, the hero of two worlds. About three hundred societies from various parts of the city start to take their assigned places, amid the sound of band music, the beating of drums and the joyful cries of the people assembled on the sidewalks.

At about one o'clock just as it begins to rain, the individual divisions headed by the chief marshal begin to take on formation. They are followed by a platoon of police, the Kosciuszko guard of honor and various local military organizations. The second division is composed of societies from the suburban towns and other cities, such as La Salle, Toledo, Michigan City, Milwaukee, etc. All told, there are about twelve divisions.

The parade gets under way and the intermittent showers do not hinder the marchers or dampen the enthusiasm of the masses of onlookers assembled on the sidewalk, lining both sides of the streets clear into Humboldt Park, where the unveiling ceremonies will take place. It is an impressive and colorful sight to behold. About seven hundred floats, elaborately decorated, preceded the marchers and as they turn into the boulevard, there comes into view the monument, draped with Polish and American flags.

In the park thousands fill the sidewalks and lawns. The lawn to the right of the monument is occupied by the group of male and female singers, a chorus consisting of seven hundred persons. The orchestra occupies the platform next to the singers and on the rostrum are seated the honorable American dignitaries, the clergy, the members of the monument building committee and representatives of the press.

The orchestra begins to play the opening hymn, and after that Judge La Buy speaks in English relating to the listeners the life story of Kosciuszko, and what were his deserving deeds that prompted the Poles in America to erect this monument.

The next speaker is the City Attorney, John F. Smulski, who as vice-president of the monument building committee presents the monument into the hands of the park commissioners of the State of Illinois. He also in turn reads the telegram from President Theodore Roosevelt, congratulating the Poles on their great accomplishment. The telegram is received by a thunder of applause and joyful cheer.

Then comes the reading of other telegrams and messages followed by an acceptance speech by Dr. Adam Szwankart, as member of the Board of Park Commissioners.

Now comes the solemn unveiling of the monument. The standard bearers of the various groups post their colors around the monument and all the different societies and military organizations begin rendering their salutes to Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the great patriot who besides fighting for the Polish cause in Europe also fought for the case of independence in America. The entire park turned into one huge throng, awakening for the first time among others the fact that Chicago has the largest number of Polish inhabitants next to Warsaw.

The lone fact of the unveiling of the monument is an incident of great importance to us, which is proven by the message of the President of this republic and the telegrams sent to us from Lwow, Cracow, Warsaw and Poznan. No less important is the solidarity and interest shown by 5the various groups who had taken part in the celebrating of Kosciuszko Day. The information of the great celebration was appraised properly by the local press, not only the Polish but all others, not excluding the German newspapers. The newspapers set the figure of the number of participants in the parade at 50,000 and the number of people present within the park at 100,000. We did not take count of either but we do know that the number of floats taking part amounted to more than seven hundred, each one more elaborately decorated than the other.