The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-09-17
V,.PRES. MARSHALL
AND CABINET
MARCHERs
A TRIUMPHAL ARCH WAS A FEA.
TIRE OF THE MAGNIFICENT
DECORATIONS
(By Associated Press.)

Washington, sept. lI.-FOur nun
dred thousand Washingtonians and
visitors witnessed the parade OF
Pershing and the First Division,
which received enthusiastic welcome
in files of spectators along the
whole line of march from the cap
ital to the White House. Vice Pres
ident Marshal, secretaries Of the war
and navy, and other high officials
reviewed the famous fighting unit. A
triumphal arch was feature of the
decorations.
Marching in mass formation and
equipped with all the guns, gas
throwers and countless other death
dealing devices Of front line service,
the First Division, fresh home from
France, moved along the broad ave-
nue., a living tide Of sunburned fight.
Ing manhood that filled the street
from curb to curb. In their khaki
and olive drab uniforms, the men
swung by as resistlessly as the spring
floods of the Mississippi. Above each
solid block of infantry, rose the grim
line of bayonets, the blued steel
glinting duly as it caught the light.
Farther back came the long lines OF
field guns. French "75's" to which
French officers have said France owes
her salvation and, after all the trains
and wagons had rumbled by, came
battalion of tanks, streaked and yel-
lowed with paint to conceal them
from enemy eyes, but now growing
and clanking their way behind the
troops in noisy response to the cheers
that greeted them.
There was nothing lacking to make
the parade an epitome of the whole
vast army American skill and in
domitable will had created to meet
and beat the enemy at his own game.
There were guns Of all the types used
In France that could be moved
through the streets. Machine guns
big and little, bristled among the
rifiemen; squat mortars to hurl
bombs from the trenches; high
mounted rifles which peered skyward
as though still in search Of enemy
flyers. Some of the guns were horse
drawn, some trundled behind painting
motor trucks or tractors. The show
was as complete as the ingenuity OF
the War Department could make 1t,
cross section of the American Ex-
peditionary Forces.
But it was to the lines Of khaki
clad, brown faced men themselves
tEat first interest of the thronging
crowds all along the wide avenue
turned. The home coming of this
hrst unit of American man power TO
cross the submarine-infested seas
was in marked contrast to its silent,
mysterious, unreported departure,
and the men and women along the
way seemed to feel the significance
OF the spectacle. They recalled the
days when the nation waited In
Wordless anxiety to hear that these
same smiling, free-striding boys had
come safely to French harbor, those
other days when the first word III
tered back that the boys had begun
70 prove their courage in action and
the slow coming lists that carried
the names of the men who sleep for
ever in France.
Te one regiment Of long, trim
7Ss" an unusual honor was accord
ed, The Sixth Field Artillery was
placed between the two infantry bri.
sades instead Of marching with the
rest of the artillery brigade behind
the infantry, for it was @ battery OF
the Sixth which fired the first shot
at the Germans on Oct. %, 1917. A
Standard told the onlookers that at