The sun., 1919-05-09
ROUGH STUFF BACKS
! MRS. ASYOR'S EDICT
Women in Red Feather Parade
i Shy at First at Dropping
Out to Crate.
SAILORS TO THE RESCUE
Masterful Sea Talk Forces
(, Marchers to Get Busy in
Selling Victory Bonds.

Though they would be hanged from
the yardarm before they'd admit 1t, 1t
is the unanimous opinion OF NJ. c. Nc
Grath and Paul England. Chief Machin-
lists Of Naval Bass 6. and Ensign Mont
ford Of somewhere or other in the navy
he was too busy managing Mrs. Vim
cent Astor's Victory Loan Red Feather
parade yesterday to state where-it IL
the unanimous opinion OF these three
brave men in blue that the hardest
thing in the world Is to drop a woman
who does not want to be dropped.
AT nine or ten of the most populouD
corners along the route said Mrs. AS
tor. drop two sailors, one with a soap
box and one with a flag, and two women
orators to speak on Victory bonds"
Wherefore as soon as the parade got
under way McGrath and England ana
Montford tore madly up and down the
outskirts of 1t calling imploringly for the
skirts to drop out and mount soapboxes
and speak on the necessity of New York
sending this Victory Loan over the
top. Mrs Aston wasn't In line. She
meant TO be. but the dog scratch that
befell her the other day kept her at
Rhineback.
There were other women patriots
though, many of them, mostly in trim
uniforms of one sort or another, warmly
admired by a large and attentive crowd
of citizens who gathered around the
statue of Christopher Columbus in the
circle named for that worthy to see them
off. There We're Mrs. Courtlandt d.
Barnes. chairman of the Metropolitan
District Women's Liberty Loan Commit
tee, and Mrs. John T. Pratt and Miss
Alice Chittenden, in a light blue uni
form with large red A on her sleeve
There was Miss Bernetta Miller.
aviatrix, who has been on the other
side doing canteen work with the
Eighty-second Division ever since the
beginning of the war, and there were
Miss Ida Vera Simonton, the African
explorer. and Mrs. Laura b. Prisk the
originator of Flag Day, carrying torn
and tattered Old Glory. which, she said,
she carried at Gettysburg, but ,probab bly,
she made a mistake owing to being
excited and meant only that she car
ried It at some anniversary OF that his
toric battle.
Says They Cribbed Her stun.
There was Mrs. Jennie Melvere Davis,
n Brooklyn orator--she told the press
who was slightly out OF humor with the
parade, because she said she invented
the idea of n red feather parade and
gave it to the Liberty Loan Commit
tee, and what did they mean by calling
1t Mrs. Vincent Astor's parade7
The Seventeenth G. A. c. band came
early from Sandy Hook. where 1t re-
sides when not serving the colors in
patriotic parades. and stood around
playing Jazz tunes waiting for the
ladies, who were TO be on hand and
start promptly at 4 o'clock, but exer-
cised the privilege of their sex to the
extent of half an hour or so. 1t was
4:30 when little Mrs. Elwyn Williams
sprinted up TO the starting point with
her Bill Finnegin and his striking long
shoremen.
1t appears that Mrs. williams has
billed for continuous performance during
the loan drive Bill Finnegin and twenty
brawny men of Longshoremen's Union
Local e76. who having carried INT for
Unclo Sam are ready for any danger
Most picturesquely got up they
are, with blue overalls and red bands
in conspicuous places and red feathers
in their SLOUGH felt hats. which they
have all earned by buying bonds twice
although on strike and therefore draw
ing no wages. Each one carried a huge
red feather made OF cardboard, four feet
long from the Quill to the tip. and when
they appeared there was a general rush
OF photographers to take their pictures
lined up with Mrs. Barnes and Mrs
Pratt and Miss Chittenden.
Well. and so finally the parade start.
ed. with fifty yeowomen-beg pardon
Secretary Daniels says he wants then
called yeomen-well, anyhow, they LED
off. preceded only by six mounted police.
men riding abreast. Then came n truck
an immense thing with a hood that the
maker meant to resemble a red feather
and little Mrs. Williams peeklng out
from under the tip OF II and gesturine
eloquently at her Bill Flnnegin and the
rest of the brave longshoremeR. who
painted along under their topheavy red
cardboard feathers, all mixed upLthe
1ongshoremen were-with Mrs Barne;
and Mrs. Prisk and her flag and Mis-:
Chittenden and the other women.