The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-10
$4,000 PUPILS
PAY HOMAGE TO
NATIONS HERO
Pershing Enthrals Hosts of
Future Defenders of
Country's Flag.
BIG DAY, FOR BOY SCOUTS
General Helps Plant Tree in
Central Park for the Men
Who Died.
BIG DAY, FOR BOY SCOUTS

by Kings and Queens, by Presidents
and potentates, but 1t is doubtful If he
ever heard praises that sounded
sweeter in his ears than the sArill
cheers Of the $4,000 school children
! who gathered on the sheep meadow in
Central Park yesterday afternoon to
4 welcome him home, or IL his eyes ever
looked with greater Joy upon any
: scene than the assemblage Of these
boys and girls, upon whom, he told
them, this country depends for the
future defence of its flag. Certainly
, this is SO If his smile told the truth,
for IT. was a smile that came from the
heart.
If one did not know that the poet
! was right when he sang that "the
bravest are the tenderest, the loving
, are the daring" it would have been
hard to realize that the man who
stood with barred head in the khaki
colored motor that moved slowly
' through the lanes of wildly excited
little ones, and threw kiss after kiss to
the girls, and laughed with sparkling
eyes at the boys, was the same grim
commander who guided our soldiers
through the awful months in which so
many Of them went down to death. A
soldier he was in his upright bearing,
in the gesture with which he caught
the folds of the American flag in his
> fingers and put them to his lips when
1t was dipped over his head on the
grandstand in salute; but more than
that he was a father in the simple
warmth with which, with his own
( f1aXen haired son sitting by his side, he
spoke to the throngs of other mems
sens and daughters of Americas trust
in them.
2 Boy Scouts Greet Commander.
i Half past 2 was the hour set for
! the General to reach the park entrance
: at Fifth avenue and Seyenty-second
street. but long before that whole regi-
: ments of Boy Scouts were assembled
there. ready to escort their hero to the
stand in the sheep meadow. from which
/ he was to speak. And from every point
of the compass there converged upon
{ the meadow long lines of bright eyed
chatterins children. marshalled by dis
Z tracted teachers and worried and i'm
: portant persons from the Board OF Edu-
cation and the Mayors committee and
the Park Department and goodness
3 knows what besides. From every high
school in the five boroughs they came,
and there were also few, but not many
from the elementary schools. 1t was
/ too great a crowd in which to trust the
younger children. ""t
A pretty sight 1t was when all were
iu their places about the stand, as near
as the roped off lane along which the
{. military party was to pass would per
I init. Perhaps 1t might have been more
colorful II there had been a greater
attempt to deck the children a bit ir
the red. white and blue. and 1t seemed
just a bit unchivalrous and not quite
IN line with beauty to have the girls In
their white frocks off at one side and
!, the lads just In front of him when he
( talked. However. the General gave due
attention to every part of the throng
quarters of the stand and scattering
his famous smiles on every side. And
probably he saw beauty enough just
in the fact of the mass of coming cfti-
Gems without their being especially dollet
UP. Also when the flags began to wave
In the hands of the children there was
NJ lack Of color.
The Stars and Stripes of course were
in the majority. but flags of other ma
lions there we're too. the French anC
Belgian. the British and Italian. Anc
there were the fiags of the various
!. high schools too-the green banner o.
the Washington Irving and the partI
colored emblems of various others. And
everywhere there was the khaki coloreC
uniform of the important Boy Scout.
Real Red Letter Afternoon.
How they pranced about, those Boy
Scouts! How. bursting with response
bility. they tore up the turf with mao
haste as they dashed hither and thithel
upon what appeared to De life and dealt
errands! How they swelled with prid,
when the eyes OF little boys in mer,
civilian clothes dwelt upon them en-
viously! And how obviously worried
they were as it got to be five minutes
beyond the time set for the Generali
coming-ten minutes-fifteen minutes
and he came not Could it be, the,
asked one another with bated breath
that President Wilson or the King o
the Belgians or somebody like that ha,
come to New York and demanded tn
sepresence OF their hero for this, thei
own red letter afternoon?
Fate was not so cruel. He came
leaving the Waldorf<Astoria at 2:45 an,
proceeding directly to the Sheep Meadow
and a royal weicomem there was TO
him, in spite of the fact that FIVE sep
arate aids or lieutenants OF oorporals o
something had each unintentionall,
grabbed some of that welcome by pro
ceeding up the roped1off lane In auto
at Intervals during the time OF waiting
and being taken by the children ana b.
most Of the grown-ups, too, for Ger
Pershing. Not OF course, they ex
planned sheepishly to one another as the
bit on the cheers they set going at tn
sight of a uniform motoring up tn
lane-not that they thought 1t was tn
General when Once they got a sight o
the man in the uniform. OF course moi
There was no installing the RICH
party when II did come. There wer
the dignitaries OF the Mayors commit
zee. Sccman Wanamaker and Grove
Whalen and the Mayors secretary, job
#. Sinnott, and other silk-hatted per
sons In a huge automobile there wer
the marching lines OF Boy Scouts es
corting the procession; there were tn
Generals aids and there was the Ger
eral, tall and slim and straight, fiingin
kisses to the enraptured little girls,
Yeritable garden Of girls close plante