The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-07
18th GREETED
ON TRIUMPHAL
PARADE IN CITY
Division Which Covered
n. Y. With Glory Bears
Honors MOdestly.
REVIEWED BY BAKER
Gov. Smith and Mayor Hylan
Pay Official Tributes on
Behalf of People.
REVIEWED BY BAKER

William Tecumseh Sherman, who OBJ
served once that war was hell, said this
also of war:
"a man may be born into the world
and live In an ordinary way Of life un-
Ill he Is 80 without life greatly alter
ing him. But let him go through one
campaign, or even a single battle, and
the stamp will remain on him to the
end of his days"
And so the outstanding thing about
the men Of the Seventy seventh. as
they walked northward on Fifth ave-
rue and into history yesterday. was
that upon each youthful countenance
there were the marks of what In an
ordinary and orderly way OF life would
never have been there at all. The i'm
print OF wind and rain and suffering
beyond speech and achievement be-
yond imagining was upon the faces Of
upward of $4,000 young men who a
year and half ago-to quote from the
official programme were body
drawn from the highways and byways
OF New York life and without any mil
itary identity whatever"
They came back to their people vet
Grams and heroes yesterday, a legion OF
warriors who had been through the
hardest Of the Meuse-Argonne fighting
and had more than done their part in
the swinging open OF the door to VIC
tory. And yet never was anything so
without mirth as their faces and their
bearing. Here and there some lad
wore a rose fluns him by a girl In a
stand. Now and then one carried an
orange rind on his bayonet and a dep
rccating grin upon his visage explain
ing 1t.
No Vanity of Parade.
There were many who wore the
medals which war accords to him who
arises the principal figure in some ex-
plot so generous or headlong or timely
as TO mark him out from his fellows.
And yet no laughter, no badinage, and
above all none OF the vanity Of parade.
Only rank upon rank of unsmiling, Sc
r.ous faces, with every other quality
erased by the three qualities Of devo-
tlon and fidelity and patience mex
haustible.
From mis- in the main, one may ex-
app,
selves gallantly in the vivid sunlight and
with just the slightest touch of pride
But then they we're in different case.
Mostly they had gone out to war from
homes ruled by fine tradition and under
standing fully that a mans life has only
90 much value to him and no more.
A German field marshal, upon the as
sumption that there are men still work.
ing at that trade nowadays. might have
said that New York's Liberty Division
walking along New York's most char
scteristic thoroughfare lacked something
OF the smsrtness essential to soldiers OF,
parade, And he might have pointed out
That here and there a bayonet point sagged
IN a way not wholly soldierly and that
the company lines in this battalion or
mat fell short of the geometrical per-
the least distance between two points.
But any man IN the ranks could have
gwen him his answer pat and sufficing.
Military standards, Heinie, like q lot
OF other standards. have changed bit
since 1914, Tho question now isn't
now straight a line is, but whether when
You hit It It holds"
5000 Too Late for Review.
And the Prussan could have searched
the faces interminably yesterday for the
-"s"er 70 another question: whether
me men knew or cared that. In the well
worn soldier phrase, they were slightly
out OF luck. 1t Is to be doubted II any
o. them cared. but they were slightly
'It OF luck undeniably.
10 begin with, the gang was not all
,here, The transport President Grant
carving 1000 Of them arrived tardily
rom overseas and was berthed at Ho-
ooHen Just two hours after the last
TShKs OF the parade had passed the last
.DNt on the line OF march and food and
wheel traffic had crowded In behind
Hleo the day had broken inauspiclously
rom weather standpoint--cold and
searcn'ns in the early morning. with
nam hoverlng, IL never breaking. and a
perVasive chill sweeping into the fesh
ana marrow OF those who had come out
" see the division go by. Some psy-
shoIoyin OF parades has laid down the
"a" mat there is such a thing as parade
"eather IL the sun is out and the
ne.Vens smiling then the people warm
ana smile accordingly and the day goes
On with aplomb.
Ihronss Excluded From Avenue.
The arrangements which the Police
department had made 10 handle the
crowd we're carried out with such preci-
''oA and eHactness that many thousands
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