The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-07-12
WOMEN At The STATION
Touching Scenes As the
Men Finally Ride
Away.

The downtown part of the city was
gaily dressed this morning. There was
scarcely a big building which had not
big flag floating over it. Stores displayed
the Stars and Stripes over the doors and
in the windows. Taylors Hotel and every
store on. the block of Exchange place to
the First National Bank had its national
emblem very much in evidence and before
the windows of the Hudson River Ice
Conlpany,s Offices, on the first floor Of the
building, was suspended big flag 70 feet
long, fianked by Erins verdant emblem
In honor of the Irish end of the celebra-
ton.
Many ladies occupied seats in the win
dows of the offices and as for the windows
in the P. r. r. and North Jersey Railway
Company's offices. every window was
adorned with not only one but several
heads A big crowd assembled at the
ferry entrance awaiting with impatience
the arrival of the troops.
In the Pennsylvania depot every ar
rangement for the transhipment of the
men had been carried out early in the day.
On No. track stood a special train with
twelve coaches and baggage cars, sched-
uled to leave at 2:30 P. NJ. promptly, but
for once the time table of the P. R. r.
was inaccurate but only in that respect.
At two o'clock there was an immense
crowd in Exchange place. From the
sidewalk on the north side of the street
to the other, every available place was
taken by women, wives. sweethearts, sis
ters. cousins and aunts of the "sojer" boys
off to the wars. Almost every girl wore
military buttons as the ornament for hat
pins. Buttons and badges from the caps
of the men formed part of the adornment
of others, and one girl excited the enmity
of the others by wearing mans cam
paign hat with the crossed rifles and
.sCo. D., Fourth Regiment" inscribed on
the front.
A platoon of police arrived on the scene
| and kept the crowds from the doorway
leading to the depot. Inside the big build
| ing the restaurant had been closed and 1t
was only with difficulty that one could get
| into the depote at all.
"Here they come" cried a hundred
voices as the music Of the band was sud-
denly heard above the din and clatter of
| the traffic in the street. and all eyes mere
| turned up Montgomery street to catch
| sight of the men, The women couldn't
| control their feelings, handkerchiefs came
| out and any old thing was waved in the
air. cheer after cheer went up from at
| least thousand throats, as nearer and
nearer the soldiers came on.
| Mothers, sisters and sweethearts pre-
pared to snatch kiss or handshake from
| the ones they loved. Some Of the women
held parcels, and exceedingly mysterious
were some of those parcels, suggestive OF
| creature comforts not strictly in the army
regulations as part Of a soldiers outfit.
..Here they are." was the next cry and
| along came a squad of police and follow
| ed by COL Smith on his new charger
| oh. my what cheer they gave him!
And behind him marched Adjutant Ger
| ardin and then mixed crowd of sol
| diers and women. The dear creatures
set military rules at defiance and broke
past the police, grabbed hold of their
particular soldiers arm and proudly
marched along to the Inspiring
strains of "The Girl I Left
Behind Me-" and the Jolly Grena-
| diers.' Then Colonel Smiths command
| by the time he reached Exchange place
increased from $50 men to $500 men,
| women. and some of them exceedingly
pretty at that. You could tell the sweet
| heart from the wife. or the sister or the
| mother in a jiffy, by the clinging way she
hooked onto a soldier.
The big crowds lining the sidewalks
laughed and cheered and some Of the
women blew their noses violently to hide
their emotions.
The police had the greatest difficulty In
clearing the entrance to the ferry, but It
had To be done, and the women were or
dered back until way was clear Then
the soldiers poured up the stairs and The