The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-01-21
FRANCES VERY
SOUL REVELS IN
FALL Of ENEMY
Paris in Wild Celebration oil
Peace in Victory.
MILLIONS ARE MAD WITH JOY


City OF Lights Emerges From Four
Years Of Darkness, the City Of Gay.
ETY. Receivers Its SmiIe-Thls, Like
No Other Victory, Has Been Peoples
Victory and 1t Was a Peoples ceIe-
bration - Wild Succession Of Pro.
~cessions, Songs and Dances.
The capital of France celebrating
peace In victory. The soul Of France
revealing In the overthrow of Frances
fiercest enemy. The city of lights
emerging from four years of darkness,
the city of gayety recovering Its smile.
Millions OF men, women and children
stepping, dancing out of the shadow
of the death that has struck down
their loved ones-the death hat has
threatened themselves.
That is what we watched for two
days and three nights. We always
thought of Paris as gay. We have
learned to know her as brave. Now
we have seen her mad with joy. 1t Is
mucn TO nave seen.
For 1t was Paris that celebrated.
Not the Paris of the cafes and the
b~oulevards. not the Paris of the shops
and the theaters and the hotels and
Montmarte and the Latin Quarter
but all Paris. Paris of the busy fac
tories, Paris of the big banks, Paris
of the little shops, Paris of the far.
off suburbs-the Paris that has lived
and sparkled through 1000 years of
strife and blood and history. These
days a Paris triumphant and glori-
ously happy as she has never been
before.
For this, like no other victory, has
been a peoples victory, and 1t was a
peoples celebration.
Whole Nation Happy.
There were no leaders, there were
no onlookers. Everybody walked the
} streets and danced and sang to give
expression to the feeling that was In
them. / suppose almost anyone has
at n time or another felt like rum
ming out into the street and dancing
for Joy. Well, that's what 100000
Of people have been doing here.
Paris had much to express, and Paris
Is an artist In expression.
Some of us wondered why Paris did
not celebrate the taking Of Noyon.
the clearing of Reims, the storming of
the Chemin des Danes, the cutting
off Of st. Mihiel-any OF the great
, m~ilestones Of the allied victory of
this late summer and fall. Some of
us thought Paris belied its reputation
and had turned p~hlegmatic. Some of
us said so to our French friends. We
have been apologizing since we saw
the real celebration.
If the celebration could be summed
l up In two words they would be these
Everybody smiled"
or the hundreds Of thousands of
!, faces that drifted across our vision
, here during those days and nights
, don't think there was n that did
, not smile. That smile spread over
the city as the sun clears the stormy
air. That smile was the n meas
ure Of the g~enuineness OF Paris Joy.
> Beside 1t a New Years eve. an
election night, the night Of a football
game or a boat race at home are as
tinsel to pure gold. This was a whole
nation glorified and happy.
8 No Sign Of Trouble.
: Paris has marched before. She
marched out to meet st. Genevieve
Her sturdy citizens took their pixies
and marched out to repel the Norman
1 brigands. Yes, and just such crowds
4 as these formed in the streets and
marched to Versailles to pluck the
mote Of absolutism from Frances
own eye-to overthrow Louis XVI
a hundred-odd years ago. Then they
were fierce. In this celebration they
were happy, for Paris seems to fee
that autocracy-the spirit that Pari.
has never brooked-has lost its las
disciple. That. I think, is what make!
Paris 30 marvelously happy.
1t is easy to say that a crowd OF
4 a city is happy. But usually In Z
happy" crowd, q happy city, there viii
be trouble. There wasn't a bit Of 1t II
Paris, despite all the crowds. despite
! all the celebrating. Even the gen
! darmes danced.
' OF all the wild SUGGESTIONS Of pro
9 cesslons and songs and dances and
| cheers there are three pictures tina
burn themselves into the memory.
The first was the way the new
II spread. At eleven o'clock, the houl
when hostilities ceased, the censor per
mitted the Agence Radio to displa!
from their balcony a banner bearing
the words. "The armistice was signet
at i've o'clock this morning" Tha
balcony Is three-quarters Of q mil,
= from the Place de la Concorde. I ha,
Q been over to see Colonel House In hi
modest quarters on the Left Bank. Id
too. vas smiling. despite his SLEEP
n less night Of waiting for the new
he knew vas coming. At two minute
e before eleven I crossed the Pont Cor
corde. / walked amid a sober but "a
pectant throng. At one minute afte
olnvnn I pnf IN thu foot NJ fho Ru