The sun., 1919-10-03
NATION GREETS
ROYAL BELGIANS
MOST HEARTILY
Seaplanes and Destroyers
Escort Ship Amid Roar
of Guns and Whistles.
OVATION AT THE PIEP
Vice President Marshall
Welcomes MOnarchs i'm
Graceful Speech.
OVATION AT THE PIEP
CITY'S RECEPTION TO-DAY
King Albert Views Town by
Motor and Queen Elizabeth
Goes on Shopping Tour.

Albert. King OF the Belgians, arrived
in America yesterday. They say that
he Is the least ostentatious of all
monarchs; that his court is simplest;
his train least imposing and his home
life as real as the least pretentious
Of his subjects.
II that be So he clung to his wonted
simplicity yesterday. A great, tall,
quiet man he was standing at the foot
of the gangplank that connected the
George Washington with Pier 4, Ho-
boken, looking down into Vice-Presi-
dent Marshalls face and almost mur-
muring his unfiowered reply to the
Vice-President's speech of welcome.
He Is no stranger to America. There
is not a man, woman or a child old
enough to comprehend who does not
know what Albert Leopold Clement
Maria Meinrad did when the Kaiser
demanded that Belgium permit his
hordes to use Belgium as a short cut
to Paris.
There Is something serene, imposing,
inspiring about the look of him. He was
wearing the uniform of a Lieutenant
General, and he looked like one. There
is suggestion of great physical strength
about his shoulders and the carriage of
his head. His face is as ruddy as that
of a Flemish goose girl. and in his wide
set eyes there is nothing of that brood
ing, sorrowing shoulder that writer's
have put there, Instead they are clear,
direct, finely fired and almost alert. A
simple dignity clothes the man.
Royal Party Lands Mt Noon.
King Albert came down the gangplank
minute or two after the bells of Ho-
boken had sounded the noon hour. Fol-
lowing him, at about FIVE PAGES, was
Queen Elizabeth, a woman as simple of
manner as her heroic husband; OF all
European women the woman who is
closest and dearest to the hearts of
American womanhood. She was dressed
ali in white, just as she reentered Brus-
sells with her King at the head of the
remnants Of the Belgian army after Ger
many capitulated. Next followed the
heir to the Belgian throne. Prince Leo
pold, Philip. Duke of Brabant, a solemn
faced STRIPPING of 10, who seemed dis
concerted and Ill at ease.
The King, the Queen and Prince Leo
pold were motored to the ferry. The
sluggish river steamer Ithaca bore them
to Twenty-third street, Manhattan
Thence they hastened to their suites in
the WaldorfAstoria. To-day New York
city will officially make them welcome.
The George Washington, with her
precious freight OF American soldiers and
Belgian royalty. came up the bay en-
shrouded in fog. Most of the night she
lay down below the Narrows awaiting
the word to steam up to her dock A
fine rain, as chill as it was dismal, was
falling and the nists In great gusts came
landward languidly. The bay was
smooth. The rain rippled 1t and the
fogs shrouded It,
The mountainous skyline of Manhat-
tan was ghostly like the Sierras from
afar Higher than the heavier fog banks
rose the great downtown building, SEEM
ing to float above the clouds and de-
tached from their bases. The Jersey
shore was but hint, a suggestion, no
more. Now and then a slow wind broke
few seconds the Statue of Liberty,
more huge and more magnificent for II,
seaplanes Give Noisy welcome.
Six seaplsnes droning and swervinR,
roaring and circling as though the air
lanes were heavy and hard Of negotia-
tion, sailed into the bay from Rockaway
Point They crossed and recrossed the
water, swooping below the clouds to get
their bearings and soaring above with
their wirelesses spitefully splitting. Down
below Quarantine they found the trans
port surging up the bay. Then they fell
into triangular formation, with the lead
ing plane above and out beyond the
George washington's bow.
In a wide circle and constantly alert
seven thin destroyers surrounded the
liner. Hugo and helpless seemed the
transport by comparison. They were
the Barney, Mckee, Robinson, Sigour-
ney, Stevens, Chandler and Craven.
On the navigator's bridge of the
George Washington stood the King and
the Queen, Ke, who twenty-five years
ago had travelled America lncognito as
a Prince, had field glasses clapped TO
his eyes scanning the Brooklyn shore,
the blunt nose OF the Battery and the
wide sweep of Jerseys coast. But the
fog was dense and only now and then
did he find a wind lane through the mist
into which he tried to look. II he found
the harbor changed and the skyline Diff
ferent, he told no one but his consort.
The Queen had her faithful camera
with her. 1t Is said that she has the
most amazing as we'll as valuable col
lection OF photographs in the world.
Every time the haze relented sufficient
Nhn fwla
camera and mournfully she made her
prediction that the prints would show
nothing but fog and rain.
Guns and whistles I'm Chorus.
The guns of the harbor set up a heavy,
muffled chorus. Each blasted twenty
one times. The conclusion was dull and
hard The thousand and one craft feel
ing a treacherous way up and down and
Continued on Seventh Page,