The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-12-19
CELTIC ARRIVES
In WELCOME DIN
White and Black, Well and
Sick Troops Greeted in
New York.
, s,278 SOLDIERS HOME
Sirens and Whistles in Need
Of Throat Specialists AZ
ter Prolonged Efforts.

An unoficiai rumor rippled around
= the New York Academy OF Medicine
: eariy yesterday. just after the White
Star liner Celtic locked with more
returning heroes aboard, that the War
= Department intends within the next
few days to call upon such eminent
I throat specialists az DR.. @. Walking
: ton Colby OF Manhattan, DR.. Horace
Somebody or other Of the University
{ Of Pennsylvania, and one or two
throat men from Johns Hopkins to
spray the vocal chords OF the brass
whistles and sirens of all the water
front Of the port.
They did their best, the brass
: throated noise makers OF the harbor
: did. when the Celtic came up the bay
? and into the North River at s o'clock
yesterday morning with 1865 officers
and 2,122 men aboard: but It was evil
J dent. as the brass throated noise went
= on, that the overworked ship. tug and
waterfront factory whistles were. after
. weeks of that sort of thing, giving
fort. And unless DR.. Colby and the
g other throat specialists jump on the
& Job to-day with their oil sprays and
atomizers it's a million bucks to a
last years birds nest that when the
next troopship comes up the bay the
> whistles win have no noise OF greeting
7 left but a combined gutteral death
rattle.
Mayors Committee Suffers.
AS for Hizzonner the Mayors well
T. coming committee the word is being
whispered around that the casualties
, from loss Of sleep among the Mayor
committee is terrific.
Nevertheless the gusto Of the greet
!, ing to the Celtic's cargo OF white
1. and black skinned immortals yester-
day morning was, despite the strain
;. to which the whistles and human well
;, Corners had been put In recent days.
q all that the Celtic's olive drab cargo
J, deserved. And all that the Celtic's
lads deserved was considerable.
The old English liner-old COM
paratively only--had been lolling on
the black waters of Quarantine since
Il Ine DTtNlOuS uOihCSiN n
soldier lads from Bay Ridge and the
Staten Island and near Jersey shores
batted sleep away and peered across
. the waters toward window lights the
near vet so far BOYS trying to figure
out whether n certain glim Of light
ashore came from their own home
= windows or from the front elevation
Z OF Gillgan's saloon, half a block from
their house.
- Very white souled youngsters, their
sbins black, who had jumped toward
sthe colors when Col. Bill Hayward
organized his Fifteenth Infantry
tnegro) Regiment of National Guards
men of the Stlte-later to go to war
and fight hard as the 315th-were
among the olive drab clad boys who
came down the gangplank to Pier go,
North River, when the Celtic locked
= at the foot OF West Twentieth street
yesterday morning.
. wounded Ones Just ms Happy.
Two United States fers, who had
been captured by the Germans but
had escaped before the armistice was
signed, followed at the heels of the
happy black boys from San Juan Hill.
Manhattan. There were wounded men
who had quite recovered, officers who
hobbled into view with the aid Of
crutches. wounded men still so badly
shattered that they could not even
hobble. but had to he carried on
e stretchers. And the sick were just as
hi ariously happy over being home
again as the well.
Needless to say the Red Cross girls
and the Red Cross men officers were
on the pier an hour before the Celtic
came into sight, the great ship swim
ming northward am!d-uiny be upon
the solid volume OF noise which sur
rounded her as she came up the bay
and river. The prognostication was
made ON the pier yesterday morning
that some day a troopship will get
into her dock at so unearthly an hour
that the Red Cross boys and girls will
not be able TO get up early enough to
greet her-whereupOn every one
within hearing of the prognostigator
turned upon him and told him without
heat that he was the father of
Calamity lane ana a plain nut besides
Bands in Contest of Welcome.
BY way Of variety the jazzlest Jazz
band that the Western Hemisphere
has heard In long time. the same
being the iaZzers of the 214th (neEro)
Infantry, grouped themselves forward
on the Celtic as the liner came up the
river and outshrieked even the brassy
notes OF the Fire Department band
on the Police Department super
dreadnouPht Patrol. the Police De-
partment LeatherlunF Glee' Club. the
Camp Upton band. which was on the
pier and another musical organization
(which the Red Cross had dug up
q somewhere or other.
8 Also new spectacle In the greeting
Z OF troopshIps was unfolded when the
& Celtic came in: instead OF merely toot-
ing a happy greeting a number OF
Z commercial tugs. railroad boats and
other small craft SWING in behind the
I Fire and Police Department tugs and
escorted the British liner up the river
as a guard Of honor whooping their
happiest until long after the Celtic
B had been sewed to her pier.
( Aboard the troopship were the Head
quarer Company and Third Battalion
of the Sl4th Infantry, SO officers and
Rl,l19 men in all; a detachment, medi-
cal, OF the 61ith Pioneer Infantry: q
tnumbor 81 casual companies; 900
l slightly III patients in the sick bay
lGmOng whom We're two soldiers who
II o..