Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-03-30
TROOPS ARE
GIVEN GREAT OVATION
ON RETURNING HOME

dark. Cinders sifted over her shoe tops,
she stubbed her feet on a switch and
almost fell. A man whose face she could
not see caught her arm and offered
gruff assistance. But she drew away
and sank down on the ground, waiting
heart-sick i'm the dark
Little boys would rush by her, shout
ing: Here they GOMEZ here they Gomez
She would rise. trembling with HOPE
only to sink back again as a single en-
CINE or one engine and a freight ca
slipped out of the night and steamed
away into the southern yards.
Then. far off to the north, sounded
long, lonely whistle. Silence smote the
crowd only to give way a moment later
TO a laundering roar. They were really
coming now. A white eye appeared far
down the stretch and burned brighter
and brighter until it swooped down upon
her. She was on her feet as the locomC-
tive hurtled past, in its wake string
of freight cars, then flat cars bearing
the lean, low gun carriages. People
were jumping up and down all around
her. passenger coach jerked to
stop, with faces of soldiers at the win
dows, shrieking and waving their hats.
The Fifth regiment had arrived.
In an instant the cinders beside the
tracks were swarming with soldiers and
civilians. carroming into each other in
the dark, searching for friends and rela-
tives, running back and forth with un-
answered inquiries and vain pleadings.
where's Company B? where's the sup
ply company? Can you tell me if"
The old lady was running. She had
not run in twenty years Dim faces
flashed past her in the darkness. One
she thought she recognized; she clutch
ed at an olive drab arm, and as the SOL
der turned, let it fall with sob.
Where was he? She did not know
THE BUGLE BLAST.
A trumpeter blew a bugle blast. They
were forming into line and she was
thrust back. She returned to the VIA
duct, and pretty soon up they came,
marching four and four Now she could
see the faces in the flare from the
bright street lamp. There we're hun
dreds of them, bearded and mustached
and clean-shaven, some young and some
old, but all deep tan or bright red,
the eyes bright and sparkling, for they
were home again. But never the face
she wanted.
Ahead of all marched a tall soldier
In a great coat lined with sheepskin. He
flung the crowd back before him. Then
swung along a man with a drum majors
The cleaning instruments of the band!
The drummer beat the long roll, there
was a shrill whistle and they crashed
into a stirring march as the regiment
staggered on.
On every side the crowd pressed them
and overflowed over them. Three wom-
en- charged the line and broke through
to grab a soldier around the neck. He
buried his face in. theirs and grabbed
each around the waist and marched on,
dragging them with him by main force.
A girl shrieked like a wild Indian, flung
one arm around a soldiers waist, snatch
ed his gun away with the other and
was borne on with him, still shrieking
with joy and waving the gun with her
hand. soldier staggered by with
little boy in his arms, his gun slung
across his back and his blanket-roll
sagging heavily. Some of them tugged
at dogs on long leashes. The dogs were
lean and painting hounds who trotted
by the side of their masters and cast
evil eyes at the by-standers. The band
was playing fiercer and fiercer. the
drummers' sticks whizzing back and
forth, the bugler's cheeks puffed and
distended, the martial music sounding
up to the stars. And the old lady, fran
tic with sorrow. despairing that she had
missed him somewhere in the line,
trotted along at the rear, shouldered
this way and that by the crowd. Into
Whitehall street and over the viaduct
and down Edgewood avenue to the audi
forum. where they piled in hugger-
mugger with cheers and sobs and kiss.
And there she found that Company
NJ would not be in until the second Sec
ton arrived, and with Company M was
her boy So back to the Terminal she
went, TO more crowds, to more delays
and disappointments and long, anxious
waiting in the dark.