Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1918-11-27
PARIS GOES MAD
WITH JOY WHEN
PERSHING APPEARS
Half a Million Persons Struggle
to Get Glimpse of Amer
lean Leader.
Streets Resound With Cheers for
Yanks' Commander When Girl
Discovers Him in Pass
ina Auto.

crowds III IHc SITePlS eSpIeu the EAlLCI-
lean commander passing in his auto
mobile. 1t is estimated that at least
fifty thousand persons crowded about
the generals car, while half a mil
lion more jammed the Place de Ia Con
cOrde and adjacent streets in a mad
effort to get glimpse of the Ameri-
can leader.
The general was out for a short
drive and had come up the Rue Rivoli.
His car was proceeding at a snail's
pace before it was recognized by the
frenzied street crowds.
AS General ershing's face, with the
famous smile, showed through the
door, a French girl with the flags of
half dozen nations tWined about her
head screamed. General Pershing
The cry was taken up instantly and
passed over the seething multitudes. Il
there were any gendarmes about they
were swallowed up in the enormous
mob. In an instant men and women
went mad and screamed his name, and
all tried to reach the car
on their shoulders that they might get
look at the general. The mob surged
toward the car in another wave.
Shakes Hands of Children.
General Pershing amidst the danger
was enjoying it greatly. Instead of clos
ing the window and urging the driver
to get out before they were crushed 20
death, he let the window down full
length, laughed heartily, and thrust his
hand out OF the door to shake the hand
of a little French child whose proud
father lifted her above the heads of
the mob.
Children climbed ON the tOnneau and
Skinned up the back of the limousine
and frantically leaped over the strug-
Cling mass and shot their hands in at
the window General Pershing con-
tinued laughing and tried to shake as
the window.
"Pershing Pershing!" beloved the
mob, and the name rang from the
Seine to the Rue ROyale, up the
Champs EIysees. and through the
Tuileries gardens.
Efforts to Clear Way Fail.
French officers who had been caught
up in the human maelStrOm saluted
and then endeavOred to have the mob
give way. AS if by common impulse
the masses seemed to understand that
the great American general was in
a wifi of 6
and the screams of women and chill
1ren a slight rift was made directly
ahead of the car. Then by less than
a snail's pace the cGr with frantic
snorts edged along, inca by inch
The cheering was indescribable.
Along the boulevards the name of Per
shing was taken up by thousands who
probably did not know that Pershing
was in their midst and at one moment
1t seemed that all Paris was shouting
BY this time the inside of PerShings
car resembled a flag shop. The chill
dren who were raised over the heads
of the frantic populace tossed small
flags and flowers through the window
and the grownups tore the insignia
from their coats and tossed it in. Gen
eral Pershing was laughing hard and
waving his hand back at the children,
but still the flag and floral offerings
poured in until he was half buried be-
meath the bunting, flags, buttons, in
sigma, and crushed blossoms.
Moves Inch by Inch.
Inch by inch the car moved and then
halted several minutes as the mob
surged back against it. 1t was the car
~ had used over the battlefield OF
France and was built for rough usage.
else it seems it must have crushed like
an egg shell.
Finally the car edged out of the
Place de la Concorde into the Champs
Flysees, but still the mob, with hats
off. arms in air, and mouths wide open,
shouting like mad, surged about him.
1t was several minutes more before the
car could be eXtricated and a SEM
blance of a road made.
Even then, as the car got away up
the great avenue toward the Arc de
Triomph, thousands ran after it. All
Paris seemed to be rumbling with q
mighty noise and over the mighty
noise sounded, clear and strong, "Vive
PershingT
Troops in England First Home.
London.-The first American troops
TO depart homeward as a result of the
signing of the armistice will be $4,000
men stationed in England. The Amer
lean army expects to start the first
shipload of these soldiers homeward