Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1919-01-15

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,luded many thousands of dancing and
;ineing ceIebrants. If we had not
,een rescued in the Place de La Re-,
,ublfdue and hurried inside the gates
If the prefecture the parade might
,aye ended only when Mellett and
lad reached the swooning point.
Hundreds Encirele Car.
When we reached the Port des
oostes, with its several traffic aisles,
hundreds of people came running out
If the gate, a never-ending stream
hat tightly encircled our car.
LES Anglaises sont icii Yive les
anglaise I" was what they shouted as
hey tumbled toward us, and We even
leard it being taken up in alarming
rescendo on the other side of the city
wall.
As soon as the kissing started Mel
EFT surrendered his face and hands,
out, with his mind still on business,
managed to slide out of the car. / I'M
wisely established a precedent for
lifting up babies, kissing them in the
French fashion on either cheek, giving
them a little spank and tossing them
back to the first woman in sight This
was unwise in way because 1t at
racted hundreds of mothers who
wanted their offspring kissed and
spanked by the bogus great English
nan, and undoubtedly resulted In
many delirious mothers extricating
themselves from the mob only to find
themselves In possession of a strange
infant, for in the excitement of the
moment l could take no responsibility
.or making correct returns.
Kissed by Swarm of Maids.
Yet it showed that l had a family
heart, and, while / was paralyzed by
the sea of babies surging up to me
many of them back for second go,
40 doubt-stil there was the satisfac-
lion of seeing that among the babies
we're the flowers of Lille. the prettiest
mademoiselles. Mellett, IN the mean
time, was struggling with swarm of
buxom houSemaidS, who were bussing
him four and five at time. In fact
he had all the La Bassee mud kissed
off one ear.
l remember his tussIes with the stout
girls quite distinctly, and the recollec-
ton always flashes upon NE when ne
happens to mention my graciousHess to
the bearded gentlemen.
"For Gods sake, climb out, or we
are lostr shouted Mellett, so 1 per-
mitted several Of my lissome beauties
TO assist me dismount. collected few
warm oscillations, and, with three of
the loveliest on either arm, surged
forward.
The crowd gave way with a shout,
and tumbled back through the gate
ahead of us as the heralds of our pro-
cession. Seeing that 1t was unwise for
Mellett and me to be too distantly sep
arated, l unlocked two CT the girls
and Mellett took the arm of the one
between us, Mile. Berthe Dubauts, by
the way. France never made 'em pref
tier than Mile. Berthe.
Everybody Wanted Two Kisses.
The enormity of what was ahead Of
us was not realized until we were
through the gate. Our neralds were
shouting "The English are coming!"
Wave upon wave of men, women and
children bore down upon Us and at
times there were collisions that must
have hurt. Everybody wanted at least
two kisses and a handshake.
The dear old ladies of Lille had the
highest average, going at the rate of
10 in a possible 100. The younger
women (and I am not referring TO Nal
let's contingency wanted to do the
thing tenderly and gently and as a re-
suit often got only a little bump
against my nose or ear, the second kiss
missing fire or ricocheting to one of
my winsome escort.
The only trouble with the escort
was that they could not tell us where
we wanted TO go. We just staggered
on, pushed and pulled at from all d.
rections, sometimes almost carried
down by the weight of some wildly
joyous person who would spring at us,
throw both arms around our necks and
kiss US rapturously.
AS We were entering Rue des Postes