Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-20


marched in the great patriotic Red
Cross parade Saturday afternoon are
to-day receiving the plaudits of the
$4,000 spectators who united after
the parade in declaring 1t the best
pageant that has ever been staged
on the streets of Harrisburg. In ad-
dition 5000 school children paraded.
Complete in every detail and with
every unit in line, Harrisburg's most
spectacular street parade passed
into history at o'clock Saturday
afternoon, two hours after the
platoon of police leading it had
swept into Market street off Front.
The last unit in line had hardly
taken its place at the end of the line
when the head of the parade was
marching along Front street back
to Market, where the parade dis
missed. 1t took just one hour for
the great demonstration to pass in
its entirety by the reviewing stand
at Front and State streets, where
reviewing party remained standing
at attention during the passing of
the impressive pageant.
While some parades have sur
passed Saturdays in size. Nothing
has ever equaled it in impressive
ness. For two hours the procession
of white clad women, all marching
with but one thought and one pur-
pose, the success of the great Red
Cross War Fund Drive which was
launched with the opening strains
of the band that led the parade,
made enough Harrisburg history to
leave its effects on the minds of
the citizens for many months to
come.
Not n Parade, Prayer
Not a parade, a prayer" was the
way the women described it, and
for the earnestness and grandeur of
the spectacle, nothing to equal it
has ever been witnessed in Harris
burg. 1t was parade in which the
women of Harrisburg united for
common purpose, the relief of a
tortured rage. Rich and poor, old
and young, marched in the solemn
appeal of the Red Cross. In the
long line of white and red were
women who could tell of the stirring
days of the Civil War. Mothers
marched side by side with their
daughters, and grandchildren
marched beside the faltering steps
of aged grandmothers. 1t was Il
universal appeal to the women of
the city to aid in common cause
of mercy, and every spectator along
the crowded sidewalks discerned
something more than a mere pro-
cession pleasing to the eye. They
sIw in the grand procession the
passing by in review the hope of a
race, the Greatest Mother in the
World"
Never was weather more propi-
tious for a parade. With three days
of fair weather preceding, and a
cloudless sky overhead, long before
the hour at which the parade was
scheduled to begin thousands were
edging for advantageous positions
along the prearrGpged route, and
hundreds of windows were filled with
anxious faces peering down the
streets for the first sign of the
parade.
City in Gala Attire
Added to the thousands of flags
of the nation and the Allies were
countless Red Cross flags which the
patriotic citizens of the city dis
played along the line of march. Har-
risburg has never worn such gala
attire befitting an irreproachable
fete as on Saturday.
For hours before the streets all
over the city were filled with rap
idly assembling units of the great
parade, and every street corner was
a meeting place for white attired
women of the Red Cross. Chief
Marshal II. M. Stine with help of
his assistants rapidly whipped the
numerous divisions into shape and
soon after 4 o'clock the noble pro-
cession was sweeping around the cor
ner of Front and Market streets into
the gaze of the spectators.
The first division contained the
workers of the Harrisburg Chapter
of the Red Cross, the hundreds of
faithful women who have made the
name Harrisburg a byword for
patriotism in the matter of worth
while endeavor. In the division were
unusually large companies represent
ing the inspecting and shipping de-
partments the evening instruction
classes, the executive department
and other workers at the Red Cross
rooms. These women all wore the
white of the Red Cross, with Red
Cross caps containing the little Red
Cross. They were applauded not
only for their fine appearance but
for the work which the spectators
knew they had accomplished since
the beginning of Red Cross activities
i'm the city.
A very attractive part of this