The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-11
HEROINES MARCH IN
PARADE OF HEROES
Women Who Served With tho
First Division Cheered by
Great Crowds.
REAL GIRLS GET THRILL
Salvation Army Lassies Re.
ceive Rousing Greeting in
Historic Pageant.

u past ana gone The Pershing parade
proved It.
When the word went forth that
women who served with the First d.
vision at the front were to march down
Fifth avenue yesterday in the great
victory demonstration most of them sup
posed they would be put together In
ono group. Quaker meeting fashion.
That's the way II always has been In
parades and q good many other things.
and the canteeners and nurses and en-
tertainers who spent the last months OF
the war lodging bombs side by side
with the doughboys Of "the hghtngest
division" were pleased enough TO march
with them any way, and those in town
fastened to get out their overseas uni
forms and prepared to make one island
OF femlninity in a great rolling river Of
khaki legs and slantng rifles. But then
came the order;
Each woman Is to march with that
part OF the division with which she
served"
And that Ia how Il happened that now
and again, with this section or that,
with the headquarters troop or the
signal corps or the Sixteenth Infantry,
or the Eighteenth this or the Twenty
sixth that, the masses on the pavement
would see swinging along completely
surrounded by tin halted lads and army
mules and what not two or three or
half dozen sirla Girls just like the
ones you dance with at home here.
but apparently perfectly at ease In that
grim exhibition Of the war machine that
smashed Germany. or at least finished
tho job. And all along the edges of
the crowds would run a ripple OF WON
dering shouts:
"Oh. looka the woman !"
And did the marching women like It?
They did. Especially trim little Miss
Eleanor Whittemore, Y. NJ C. A. en-
tertainer, the very first woman in the
parade. Right up with the headquarters
troop she walked, a very little way
after Gen Pershing.
Never Had Such n Thrill.
ct never was so thrilled Vim my life
no, not even in all the months on the
other side" she admitted down at Wash
ington Arch. standing at ease after her
section had fallen out and the soldiers
were munching sandwiches the Red
Cross canteens had ready for them.
Think of my walking with the very
head OF parade like this! Henry
Souvaine, pianist, and were the only
two entertainers who marched to-day.
We were up at the front with the divi-
sion all along, and so they sent word
to us that We must be with them to-
day"
A few steps back of Miss White
moro walked Miss Jean Earl Moehler
of 400 Riverside Drive, a Barnard Col
lege girl. Miss Moehler has employed
various methods of locomotion in her
young life and won considerable fame
thereby. She drove a truck on the
other side and was accounted very skill
full in the art of keeping her vehicle
and contents intact In the midst OF
bursting shells. But she first dashed
into public notice astride horse on
the anniversary of Lexington Day, 1917,
when as the modern Paul Revere she
took a wild ride up and down Man
haitian Island advertising the Liberty
Loan. She also was an ardent suffrage
worker, and her friends are wondering
how, with suffrage practically won and
the war over, Miss Moeher will work
off her energy now. j. little thing like
a walk from 10th street to Washing
ton Arch left her fresh as daisy.
Well up toward the head Of the pa
rade, too, walked Miss Gertrude Ely, a
tall, brown eyed Bryn Mswr girl. who
wears the Croix de Guerre with a
modest air.
around talking with old war cronies at
the end OF the march. there areSso
many of those decorations given out
over there that it's up /" IS not to be
set up over one. What did I get this
for? oh. well-er-uni--" She
choked off her embarrassment with
bite OF sandwich. But some of her
friends who were near were not so
modest about her. They struck in in
a chorus OF praise.
A Gallant United states General.
why. Miss Ely was the first Ameri-
can woman to cross the Rhine The
officers of the Army OF Occupation said
she had done such splendid service that
che must be the FIRST"
Yes, she maintained her hut at
Scissors under fire and stayed on in a
shelled village with the division, though
all the French women and children were
ordered out, and she helped evacuate
them"
And she slept in the fields outside
Cantigny because II wasn't safe to sleep
in the houses, they were so often
bombed"
Having finished her sandwich. Miss
Ely was induced to tell the story of
her decoration.
hc VINO gave IL IN
the name of Marshal Petain, Gen. An
drieu, kissed all the men on both cheeks
as he went down the line bestowing the
crosses. but when he came to me he
hesitated. He was scared. I was grim
ming all over-most unmilitary-and I
said:
"You never did this to woman
before, did you?
No. mademoiselle. he replied.
And you don't know Just what
to do?'
mo. mademoiselle, he confessed.
However. he decided not to kiss me but
Major-Gen. mclaughlin. who was there,
stepped into the breach and gave me
the regulation salute on both cheeks,
so my decoration was made perfectly
legal
Americans really kiss a lot more
than the people over there, in spite Of all
you hear and the funny cartoons OF ex-
citable Frenchmen saluting their startled
Anglo-Saxon confreres." said demure
little Miss Blanche Wenner
Miss Wenner marched with the Head
quarters Troop too, having been head
quarters field coach with the Army of
OF Occupation on the Rhine, and before
then at various points on the front.
No, she doesn't coach them In sharp
shooting or laying down barrages or
anything like that. but in something
almost as important, because 1t helped
up the morale and spirits OF the men.
She coached the lads in the plays they
gave. and she Is most enthusiastic about
the talent that was developed In the
A. e. r.