Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-03-30
All Local Units of National
Guard, Still Held in Federal
Service, EnCamp at Audito-
rum, Awaiting Next Move

Held TO the service of Uncle Sam. with
the prospect that they will be assigned
TO police duties anywhere in the United
States once war with Germany begins,
Atlanta units of the national guard today
are encamped at the auditorium armory,
following their return from the Mexican
border Tuesday,
The Fifth regiment OF infantry. the
Governors Horse Guard and Georgia
Field Hospital number one, AL are home
again, but not like Battery (Which
was mustered out of the service two
weeks ago-are they home as civilians.
They are home as soldiers and the indi-
cations are that they will remain SOL
diers for months to come
The Governors Horse Guard. Troop l.
of the Second squadron of cavalry, ar
rived in Atlanta about / o'clock Tues
day afternoon. Major j. o. Seamans,
commanding the squadron, and Major Z.
F. Holton. commanding the Field hos
pital. which pulled in later in the after
noon. took their men to Lakewood, but
found conditions for encampment there
so unsatisfactory that they later went 20
the armory. where the troops were dis
missed with orders to report for duty
again Wednesday.
Crowds were on hand at Terminal
station all day and night Tuesday to
greet the returning troops. The greatest
of these saw the Fifth regiment arrive
i'm two sections, one about $3.50 o'clock
Tuesday night and the second section
shortly before midnight.
TANNED WITH PEOPLE.
Never in the history of Atlanta has
the Terminal been setting for such Il
scene. For hours the station and the
surrounding streets were damned with a
mass Of people which seemed likely to
crack the very walls. There were thou
sands !n the station itself, there were
thousands. more on the plaza without,
lining the west viaduct, pressed close
along the railroad tracks, filtered down
into Madison avenue and Mitchell street.
The regiment rolled ina stream of
olive drab uniforms and bronzed faces.
They rolled up the steps to be engulfed
by tidal wave OF humanity. They roll
ed out into Mitchell street, olive drab
entwined with clinging arms and clutch
ing hands, bronze faces pressed to white
and pink.
And they rolled on TO the auditorium
in such a procession as Atlanta has not
seen since the days of the Spanish war
harried front and rear and flank with
women who sobbed and laughed and men
who cheered. the band blaring a quick
like a Jubilee, electric lights glinting on
sombre gun-barrels, the marching men
Splitting up here there into struggling
picture of fathers tossing their babies
In their arms as they marched. sisters
and sweethearts running along at the
sides of strapping sergeants, old moth
ers hysterical with joy and pain and anx-
ious searching for the face they could
not find.
Into the auditorium swept that herd
of soldiers and civilians. Within five
minutes the troops had unleashed their
blanket rolls and flung them into lock-
ers and were off, each for his separate
home. And then, indeed, was the happy
time.
In hundreds Of homes of Atlanta Tues
day night the lights burned until far
after midnight, while breathless faml-
lies hung on the words of the boy who
had come back from the border safe and
sound. In some of them fried chicken
and cake and the gingerbread he had not
tasted for scarce a year, had been cook
ed for the homecoming. And in all he
was-for once at least-a hero, with the
saga of his triumphs to sing.
Just at dusk Tuesday afternoon, an old
lady left her home at College Park to
be at the Terminal when her boy came
in. She had seen him but once in the
last ten months. There had been the
June night near a year ago when he
rushed in, flushed with boyish bragga-
docio, to tell her that he had enlisted.
Her old heart had trembled at the news,
but she had smiled at him bravely and
bravely had she seen him leave her. as
his father left her on a June day over
fifty years ago.
There had been long months of weary
waiting for her then-letters from Ma
con that she read and re-read news of
slaughter in Mexico, war and rumors
of war. Then had come the night in
early fall. misty with October dreari-
ness when she had made one of thou
sands who saw the Fifth pass through
on it's way TO the border. Her heart,
near to breaking, had swelled with pride
as he marched by with his gun to his
shoulder They had let her kiss him
before she let him go-whither? She
did not know.
HER BOY RETURNING.
And now the spring-tine was here
again and her boy was coming home.
Would he be changed hardened. rough
ened? Would she even know him? And
what OF him-did he yearn for the old
mother-heart as she yearned for his
strong young arms about her?
So she made an early start, but even
then she found the press tremendous at
the station. Automobiles were parked
thick along the approach to the Terminal
and she came out on the plaza to find il
sea of people. Through the throngs she
made her way, excitement and anxiety
and joy fighting TO be uppermost in her
breast. Inside the station, she encoun-
tered q greater crush people banked
shoulder to shoulder from wall to wall
sending up a hum of conversation that
swelled like the beat of surf on a rocky
shore. The hands OF the big clock on
the wall marked o'clock; she was early.
And as she stood by the bulletin board,
a man I'm a blue uniform came out with
A telegram and erased the time of arriv-
al of the regiment and chalked up an
other time in great white letters. Mine
o'clock nine o'clock" clamored the
crowds around her. And the word was
passed along from group to group
through the station and out onto the
plaza until the furthermost throngs on
Mitchell street knew that the time of
the Fifth's arrival was now nine O'clock
The old lady from College Park heard