Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-12-24
FROM LIEUT.. INGRAHAM.

Lieut.. Harold G. Ingraham writes
from the Grand Hotel, Paris, under
| date of November 18th:
Here l am in "gay Paree" and gay
is not the word to describe it, for |
never saw such mad-house in my
life, as everybody seems to have gone
crazy. Nobody works and everybody
| celebrates. Yesterday was the "big
! day" and 1 was lucky enough to be
! here and see the greatest day Paris
ever had in her history, it being AL
sace-Loraine day and also the formal
| celebration of victory.
There is just one of my friends of
the seth Division left with me now,
the rest being scattered to the four
winds. He is Lee O'Connor, whom
you have heard me tell of before. and
we are travelling together and are now
on our way back to the front to join
the 35th Division.
We sure have been travelling all
over France and have a two days trip
ahead into the wilds of Alsace-Lor-
raine, and hope to take a swim in the
Rhine soon.
This is too big subject to start in
to tell you all I have seen, but my
head is full of the wonderful things
to tell you when l come back so I'll
not try to write them. But l will tell
you something of what went on here
yesterday. There was an enormous
parade of floats, soldiers of all nations.
captured German cannons, ETC., which
started from the Arch of Triumph and
moved down the Champes de Ulysses.
L never saw such an immense crowd,
and while the parade was going on,
they got beyond control of the police
and soldiers and just surged out on
the streets, swamping the parade The
whole thing turned into a great i'm
pr0mptu Mardi GraS, with the revelry
and hilarity growing bigger and big
ger as night came on until last night
the streets were full of costumed peo-
pie in masks, tons of confetti, horns,
dancing and aeroplanes, with bright
colored planes flew down within 100
feet of the streets and threw confetti
and colored bombs of paper. Bands
played, people went crazy and the
girl who wasn't kissed about 1000
times during the evening, surely must
have been chrome" Even surly
old Colonels of all nations went down
the streets arm in arm with privates,
or perhaps petite little French girls,
and played 'crack the whip" Every
one pulled old German cannons, ma
chine guns and aeroplanes around
the streets, broke them up for souv-
enirs, or put giant crackers in the
muzzle. This continued until nearly
500 O'Clock this morning 1t took me
half an hour to go three blocks and
was pushing, pushing, all the time.
My hat was grabbed off five times, so
put it in my pocket, like all the rest,
and went bareheadeo
AS soon as l finish this, am going
out to find II rue d. Agruesseau, to
see where Father is, but don't expect
to find him there. This is the worst
town to find out anything in, as the
streets run every way aid are so
crooked, except the principal thoro-
fares and famous streets.
walked under the Eiffel Tower and
Arch of Triumph, was in the Madelain
church and the famous opera house
and have been studying architecture
every day, by feasting my eyes on all
this around here. This hotel is one
of the worlds famous ones and is far
more elegant than anything I have
ever seen in New York or Chicago and
quite reasonable. We have a wond-
erful suite, there is a large private
| hallway with large clothes closets
and a bath room 20 20 feet. There
are two wonderful beds, almost too
nice TO sleep in after the front
| trenches, with the mud-holes and
dirty, wet blankets. The furnishings
are very elegant and the whole thing,
service and all, only costs us "a
francs a day, or about $4.75.
Yesterday we ran across a young
French aviator who had been in Eng
land two years before the war and
spoke very good English, so we had
dinner with him at a real French
restaurant where Americans do not
go, so you see the price was French
price and not an American one, as
they sure see an American coming
here.
Have had no mail for a long time
and may never get any more if keep
on moving around like this all the
time, so don't write again until l send
you a postoffice number.
How we managed to come to Paris
is a secret that I'll never tell until
come back as l might get into trouble
| if did.