Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-07-12
ELKS' BIG PARADE
At ATLANTIC CITY
MARCH OF PATRIOTS
Lodges From Atlantic to Pacific
Show Service Flags Telling Of
Orders 10000 lover There"
WILMINGTON A BIG HIT
staff Correspondence OF Every Evening

ENtoHk With NSti-LlHii iolNoO VI t''N''
fellow Elks, Wilmington's members Of
that benevolent and protective order Of
good fellows hoofed it from Maine to
California and almost all the way back
again yesterday-Woundu up fit rs fiddles
and ready for anything, and proceeded
TO celebrate as only Elks and good fei-
lows can, the closing hours of one of the
most successful and noteworthy reunions
the order has held in its fifty years of
existence.
Maine to California AS q days march
sounds like a lot, eh7 Taken literally, it
would be all that and then some, but the
going WAS laid out over the geography of
Atlantic City, not that of Uncle Sans
real estate holdings. In other words, 1t
was over Atlantic Cty's main highway,
Atlantic avenue, from Maine avenue TO
California avenue, the one end being with
In sight of the yachting fleet at the Inlet
and the other pretty near the heart of the
residential district of Chelsea. Then the
marchers' line turned back on itself, and
anbulated toward the centre of things
again, headed toward the Boardwalk, the
greatest pleasure esplanade on Mother
Earth. was reviewed by the boss of the
United States Navy, JosephuS Daniels,
and then continued on its triumphal way
back toward Maryland avenue where the
headquarters Of Atlantic City's local herd
of Elks is located and there dismissed
HrAB1-suHRIN0 SIGHT.
And it was some parade There have
been others bigger in mere numbers, al
though not many. There have been Others
where more money has been spent on duds
for the adornment of marchers, and on
floats and other spectacular pagcantry for
IL ,,1, nf Tho vtnu prs,vxfc hfrf
there never was one before which could
hold a candle TO it for splendid American
ism Not lodge OF all the more than q
thousand represented in the orders
membership was there but what proudly
Haunted to the breeze the fact that some
of its antlered herd couldn't be there be-
cause they were ''over there doing their
duty for God, man and their country in
the Great Crusade against the Hun.
1T STIRRED YOUR OLD HEART.
1t was heart-stirring sight. Herr was
represented every State in the Union. and
as the line went by you read the names OF
cities and towns as you read them on the
pages of a ga7etteer-plsces YOU learned
about in school when you were kid in
knickerbockers or snip of q girl with
your hair hanging down your back;
places that have doomed into the geo.
graphies since then. places that once were
ierkwater timetable stations-tlag stops
but are now teeIning thriving towns
and cities: and places, too, that you never
heard of, but where good outstanding,
big hearted nephews of Uncle Sam run
about on two legs Just the same, and
where lodges Of Elks live and move and
have their morning toddy or their ante
praudial cocktail, likewise just the same.
STARS, STARS AND STARS.
And every last one OF these badges an
nounced it to the world that some of their
membership was in service. Some of the
service flags have stars thicker than the
Milky Way has them. They ran from q
few to hundreds One lodge was COM
posed OF one man. The remainder-55
OF theIn-are "oyer there" He was the
proudest man in the procession, and he
had a right TO be Another, a lodge from
the shores of the far-off Pacific, showed
lust five members, all that's left In
America OF 800 men. The rest are in the
canning outfit We have sent over TO
do up the crops of Germans.
Now these be poor, weak words to tell
the story of Elkdom's patriotism and
our trusty typewriter goes anRmic trying
TO when ii comes TO setting forth q suffl-
GENTLY red-blooded description of what
the parade showed the nation S Elks 10
be as patriots. You had to see the march
ing hosts and the hundreds OF star
scattered service flags to get the idea
Tiei't And when you did, your veins just
fairly tingled When the service-fag
division passed, hundreds OF them II 1t,
you just sat mentally helpless for mo-
ulent as you sensed what this must mean
-Lor.roy,Il- - bao-.rr Tor
their home land and for mankind, and
then your spirit wanted TO get up on its
hind legs like democratic convention and
let out one grand old rip-roaring cheer.
And when your spirit had satisfied itself
YOU sat back with lump n your throat,
brushed something away that would keep
coming into your eyes ike q mlst-and
thanked Cod you We're an American. and
only wished that you, too, could be where
those fellows are who were represented by
the stars in the flags
That's what made yesterdays parade
Of the Elks here, at the golden anniversary
Of the order the truly great spectacle that
il was-these service flags. And alas. but
gloriously so, there were golden stars in
those flags-lots of EN-. The men they
stood for will never come back 10 the
lodge room in the flesh; they'll never
know the sacred hour Of II again, and
they'll never march as did the marchers
Yesterday. But their souls are marching.
lust as the ''B attic Hymn of the Republic
saws: onward and onward, TO the place
where men who have fallen and shall fall
in the war TO preserve civilization shall
receive their eternal guerdon.
wILMINGToN's 5 SONS THERE.
Somebody rises to ask How did
Wilmington's s boys look?' What's the
use OF asking Didn't you see EN- yester-
dav when they went away. Maybe not.
so You'll have to be told They looked
fine There were other lodges who had
it on them for numbers, but none for
appearance, and darn what the judges Of
the parade say. Their natty Palm Beach
suits, then smart, red, white and blue
umbrellas and their whole get-up made
them as fine a looking outfit as there
was In the line Add TO this a big dis
tinctior-they were the only lodge to
carry the flags of the Allies in the parade.
This caught the spectators take it
from us, the whole of Atlantic City
except the bed-ridden turned out to see
the show Wherever they passed Pow
dertown's s contingent was greeted with the
big hand The Harlan band at the head
of the lodge, made a big, big hit It
was it's first time out In q really big
parade and bucking the competition of
big famous bands years and years older,
but the boys from the Christiana ship
wards were "there" with the music, and
you'd have thought they'd been doing
not hing else all their lives but WIN medals