The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-12-30
Capt. MendenhalI
Writes interestingly
Continued from Page ID

i / 4 -
Continued from Page ~
G. A. and give q demonstration be
fore the American flag. The buildin,
Is large imposing one, at the emf
OF the big avenue (Alees de Tourny)
at the opp0sitet end of which is tn,
Grand Opera House. From the ter
race there are always displayed 4
French, American. and British flag Ii
the order mentioned. And so opposite
the central one there would be staged
popular demonstration about every
FIVE minutes. It was lots of fun be.
ing an American along in those times
The next day-Tuesday-the same
conditions prevailed. Stores were
closed, allowing the employees to have
good time. The only difference was
that 1t lasted all day instead of only
half. The American soldiers were
more in evidence the second day
partially due no doubt to the fact that
7 1t takes about that much time for an
Y American to get enough Of this French
wine to make him begin to feel like
celebrating, That morning I had to
take the train for town in the south
ern part Of France. At the station,
\ as we were about to pull out, train
Of French soldiers on permission
rolled in, and every soldier had lit
tie American flag in his cap. Every
one was in rollicking good humor,
even though the faces of some showed
the effects of the long days Of strain
under the last terrible blows at the
front, in the cold and rain, and fire.
quently without enough food, due to
the rapid advance made by the ALLIES.
And, incidentally, speaking OF rain
and cold, up until the day of the arm
istice 1t mad rained almost continu-
ously, and was raw and cold, but the
morning Of the 18th 1t faired off beau
tifully, and up to date has not rained
a drop. It looks like "Got" is Unit
uns" in the hour of jubilation to a
greater extent than he was with the
Boar of Berlin" and his litter during
their greatest day Of murder and saw
agery. taE;
Down in the "Landes" depart
ment into which I had to travel the
Joy was just as great, though not so
demonstrative. AT each station
crowds Of children, boys, girls. and
soldiers would flock into the train to
see the returning soldiers and hear
any additional news. Invariably be-
fore the train would pull out a group
would break out into the "Nlapsel-
lalse" and then cheer for France.
Foch, and America. There are not
many Americans in that section. and
SO ] received an ovation each time
they caught sight Of me. Sufficient to
say didn't crawl under any seats to
get away from them. Someone would
peer into the compartment and see me
and when he'd Immediately shout
VOLTA un Americana" and the crowd
would gather and begin to cheer. In
q little hotel where I went for lunch,
the maid insisted on serving me in a
room entirely separate from anybody
else. In another room | heard bois-
ferrous singing and cheering, and so
when ! was finished / peered in to
see what was up. Around a table were
SIX or eight Frenchmen, each with his
bottle OF red wine, singing, talking
anything to relieve his feelings. DC.
caslonally one would jump up, shove
aside his chair, and proceed to give a
skirt dance" all by his lonesome, bu.
TO the music of the songs. When the
little bar-maids would come In they
would join in both the singing and
the dancing. One of them caught sight
OF my uniform through the crack in
the door, and Immediately demanded
that come in. They rose, "vise
TAmerique'd," drank to "Le Presi-
dente Wilson" and insisted on nv
drinking with them. naturally pro-
posed lie General Foch' and again
they drank boistcrously. They would
not let me out until I told them that
l had rendezvous" when they
ingly let me go.
Out in the provinces there have been
9 few official celebrations, but no.
many. Theoretically there is nothing
vet to celebrate. Here, the city off,
cials, and number Of patriotic or
carnations, decorated, and had cere-
monies over the statue OF Gambetta.
the Girondlns, and some of the other