Homeless Get Meals at Bush Banquet Site

As guests dressed in gowns and black ties strode under Union Station’s white canopy into a gala, $1,500-a-plate inaugural dinner Wednesday night, hundreds of demonstrators protesting the inauguration’s price tag served up free food to several dozen homeless people in the brick-lined shadows 50 yards away.

Inside the newly refurbished train station, blazing with lights, its entrances jammed with limousines, inaugural celebrants dined on sumptuous “Maryland Crab Pate,” “Federal City Veal,” “Jefferson Salad” and “Apple Brown Betty.”

Outside under a black sky and cool temperatures, the homeless, their activist hosts and other protesters dined from paper plates on rice, chili, mixed vegetables and rolls.

Confrontation Limited

The demonstration was one of the largest planned in conjunction with the inaugural activities this week. The protesters were forced by their demonstration permit to perch far from the arriving guests, limiting the chances of a confrontation. Shouting “Come Help the Homeless,” the protesters waved placards denoting their cause, with little reaction from the diners.

President-elect Bush and Vice President-elect Dan Quayle and their wives arrived for the dinner after having stopped at two other such banquets earlier in the night. The protesters, whose demonstration permit expired at 8 p.m., had dispersed by the time Bush arrived.