Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-07-12

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England, the tricolor Of France, the red,
yellow and black ensign Of brave little
Belgium and the flag of Italy, bearing the
white cross of the house of the Savoyard
princes When the flags came along the
crowds looking on Just let out one big fat
whoop of cheer that made Wilmington s
boys feel mighty good.
Now let's look the parade over from the
grand stand. First came the high muck-a-
muck Of the marchcrs, Grand Esquire
John =. Sullivan, of New Orleans and his
staff. and then the big fine Philadelphia
Polcemcn's band. the Grand Lodge
bunch and the Atlantic City lodge, the
host of the convention. Then marched
the big Congressional delegation, almost a
hundred strong, with "Uncle joe Cannon
stepping along like q D-year-old, though
the Lord knows as well as he docs that
he'll never sec so again. but the rugged
old veteran of Congress was there all right
on foot, and going strong.
They wanted him to ride with Secre-
tary Of the Navy Daniels or some one
else or to have car all to himself, if he
wanted IT.
what" said he, ''Me ride Not SO YOU
could notice it. My gray suit and my old
black slouch hat, my big black cigar and
InNStlt are kpltS w iIhitu wa ttttli hWo
good Illinois legs, and don't you forget it. "
And they did. The crowd knew him as
soon as it clapped eyes on him and "Joe"
got personal ovation second to none,
from one end of the going to the other.
The old man enjoyed every minute Of it,
moved his old slough hat in recognition
of the cheers and looked rs if he was hav-
ing the time of 'pis life.
Just behind the congressman was a
big detachment of United States Naval
Reserves from the camp at Cape May.
They looked simply splendid-huskv,
Drowned, workman-likc and likely to lick
their weight in wildcats if given the
chance And how the crowd checred them.
GO to itp' "Soak the Hun when you
meet himi'' Get after 'cm kidsl" and
wells of similar impart met them, and the
pronned cheeks flushed and the lines
stiffened. while there was fine old
American CLINT in every eye that said the
lads only wanted the opportunity to
show what sort of fighting stuff they were
made Of.
DANIELS WAVES HIS HAT.
Behind came Secretary Daniels, stand
ing UP in big automobile, bowling
night and left to the cheering crowd and
waving his black stoveplpe hat the way
q good camptown hat-passcr waves one.
And over his face beamed the glad Daniel
esque smile, glowing like the morning
sun and exhibiting faultleSs dentistry.
Right in here came thrilling thing
one Of the lifeboats of the Inflated steamer
Carolina, sunk recently off the coast by a
T-boat, and in il n member Of Porto Rico
Lodge and his daughter. both of whom
were on the Carolina when she went
down, and were among the survivors.
They wore the life belts they were rescued
in. The presence of these two witnesses
Of war made tremendous hit, and
brought the war right into the crowds
vision so to speak
Then came the service flags and the
crowds enthusiasm popped wide open.
II was as If all Atlantic City was turned
into one gigantic tremendous cheer out
of the lungs Of Titanic baseball rooter.
Get that idea, Stephen and Stephanie,
and you'll understand what 1t was like.
When the one-man lodge with 55 others
fighting In France came along 1T was
from Haverhill, Mass silence fell that
was eloriouslv descriptive of what the
crowd felt Then went up super-cheer
Bill HohcnzoIlern must have heard IN
Berlin. The next big outstanding thing
military age, bearing q banner telling of
their $50 fellows lover there" Newport
News proudly called attention to the
fact that % per cent of its membership
in the ranks OF the fighting armies and
fleets was its answer to the Hun challenge
And from Berlin, y H, up in the New
England hills a lodge announced that
fourteen Berhners were on their way
10 Berlin Germany
New York 5 lodge looked fine and was
500 strong A Philadelphia band led
it. which was nuts for the Philadelphia
ans who looked on.
The men from the Quaker City made
a fine showing They had the best
Spirit of '76' outfit of the half-dozen
in line. They had Billy Penn sedate
in grey and bearing MS celebrated treaty,
and Ben Franklin, plus the kite with
which he tanned lightning, model of the
Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross sewing the first
American flag, and fine big aggregation
of members, all headed by the crack
Atlantic City militia band. Jersey City
furnished what was probably the best
turnout of the lot In the way Of novelties.
They had members clothed In the uniform
of American soldiery from the days of
Washington and his Continentals to the
hour of Black Jack" Pershlng men of
1912, the MeMcan war, OF 81, Blue and
Gray, hand-in-hand and led by Abe
Lincoln, the Rough Riders OF the Spanish
oInelette OF 1898, and the boys OF today.
And maybe they weren't proud of the fact
that Brother Anderson who had been
"over the top" was with them. He looked
proud OF IT, too.
Cincinnati showed itself in red, white
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