The Arizona copper camp., 1919-02-22

croWdS that were SeIzlng upon every
American in reach, and forcing him to
join in the general celebration.
started out to see the sights in
a taxi, but was soon forced to aban-
don it, as the dense crowd of vehicles
| in the streets made that mode of pro.
gression too slow And besides l soon
found that to go on foot was the best
method of seeing things and preserv-
| ing a sense of direction.
About ten o'clock in the forenoon
I found myself in the Place de POpera,
on the outskirts of an immense crowd
that filled it from wall to wall. The
crowd was surging to and fro, singing.
shouting, cheering, and finally dane
| ing = joining hands and capering
around in wild circles like the pic
lures of the Carmagnole in the times
of the French revolution
Suddenly they started a forward
movement on the western side of the
square, and 1 edged over that way to
see what was up. saw the mass surge
up the steps Of the Opera and fill its
broad porticO from end to end. A line
of marble statues run the length of
| this portico, and onto the pedestal of
one of these the crowd hoisted man
"a French soldier, who carried cor
net in his hand Then the crowd stood
| back, and the soldier stood up and
began to play.
OF course the Marseillaise was the
first piece, but played with a passion
ate feeling l never heard before. The
crowd joined in the chorus, swaying
to and fro in the intensity of their
emotion, and when the piece was fin
ished, shaking the windows with their
shouts
The next was the "Star Spangled
Banner" Every American there,
at salute, realized the honor done us
by placing our national hymn next to
Frances own beloved anthem. But be-
fore the song was through it was
cheering that suddenly swelled out
and continued for full three min
utes-for the dominant feeling in Paris
that day Gas it is today was that
America had won the war-that they
owed their freedom from the German
yoke to Americans and to nobody else
and the crowd did not make any eff
fort to hide their feelings about the
matter. Then it was that | began to
notice the prominence of the Ameri-
can flag. 1t was everywhere, outnum-
bering every other flag there, it
seemed to me, about two to one.
The American flag-everywhere was
no name for it. Every baby had a
little one in his tiny fist; every other
father of family had one stuck in
his coat lapel; every young sport from
the boulevards to Montmartre had one
in his hat, and every girl in the pro-
cessions carried big one, and waved
it continually. 1t was on the We
hicles, on the public monuments, on
the MISUNDERSTANDING with the tricol-
or the honored place in the center Of
every group of flags, and often replac-
ing the French colors altogether II
ever one nation was grateful to an
other, France. through her representa-
tive city, showed herself grateful to US
that day. Other allied songs followed
the soldier cornetist ran the whole
gamut, but not one received fraction
of the tremendous ovation given Am
erica's.
Two o'clock that afternoon saw me
in the Boulevard st. Germain, sitting
with other Americans on park bench
watching the never ending. professions
go cheering past. Young girls often
led them, bearing immense French and
Yankee flags, which they waved at
us as they went by, laughing, and re-
garding the old U. S. uniform with ten
der eyes,
"Fini!" they cried. "Fini la guerre!"
The war was over, and now we could
rest. We stood up and saluted the
flag and them-and at last went out
and joined them. And in the middle
of all the marching crowds moved a
gray gun carriage, hauled by enthusiast
tic French hands. Mounted proudly
on the carriage were two American
doughboys The last | saw of them
their conveyance had halted, and they
were standing up and making speeches
to the crowd, in atrocious French, no
doubt, but if the words were halting:
the spirit was obvious, and the crowd
cheered them to the echo. The dough
boy was sure ace-high in Paris that
day. And that night-oh, boy!
BY nightfall the crowd had swept us
far back toward the center of the
city, marching down the Rue de Ri
voli. A French regiment, fresh from
the hattie line. led the van, the lights