The sun., 1919-09-11
PERSHING SEES
MILLIONS CHEER
General, at Head of Fighters,
Greeted by Seas of Flags
and Faces.
rs CENTRE OF INTEREST
A. E. f. Leader Reveals Many
Human Traits in March
Down Avenue.
rs CENTRE OF INTEREST

OF all the pictures in all the pageants
in the avenue of a thousand parades
none will stay fresher on memorys
film than that of Pershing on his five
mile ride.
A soldier of soldiers astride bay
horse, pelted with cheers and with
roses, his men following on. A man
for the people to spend their enthusi-
asm upon, for whom they have been
waiting.
Then in the midst of the tumult
building walls fade, the scene dissolves
and one sees these 10000 men and
their leader in their valedictory mo-
ment riding glorified against a back
ground of a world retrieved. For an
instant the event and its meaning
seem to stand in true relation re-
vealed by unearthly light. 1t seems
not too wildly fanciful to believe that
the sword Of Pershing was Excalibur
itself. given into his keeping by an
arm clothed in white samite, mystic.
wonderful. for that last great battle
in the west.
Whereupon the imagination pauses
in its aerial gyrations and plumps
down to earth. for there is the Cen
eral getting off his horse, lifting his
7 legs time or two to take out the
stiffness. bending down to kiss a boy
and to call him sonny, consuming a
| Red Cross doughnut and a brick OF
ice cream with wholly mortal relish
posing "just once more" for the
photographers, telling how much he
likes his new mount, Jeff, and driv-
ing off over toward Sixth avenue SC
that he can get back to the Waldorf
and review what there is left of the
show which he. at the head of the
procession, had been missing.
So there's nothing to this white
samite stuff; it's just Gen. Pershing
back from France, getting his deserts
in the way OF applause from a mil
lion or two fellow mortals and say.
ing: "Never saw anything like it In
thing like it again. 1t was the mos
enthusiastic and patriotic outburst
that could be imagined 1 couldn't
say more than that"
Cheers Greet Great Leader.
To civilian who trudged from 1o7tl
street to Washington Square as incon
splcuously as possible the composite reg
iment. of which every man Is a peach
hand picked, and the First Division
which began and ended Americas wa
and was superlative between times, wer'
hardly part of the parade. for be
| tween Gen. Pershing's stan and tn
head Of the regiment was always a gal
| of several hundred feet and sometimes
a fifth OF a mile. Where Pershing rod,
and where with his staff rode Count d,
Chambrun, descendant of Lafayette
the horizon blue OF whose uniform wa
the one spot of color other than oliv
drab, arose a roar to smite the sky.
Beginning we'll ahead of him with tn
good old cry He's coming" It rose I,
the maximum when the General wa
abreast of whatever section of the popu
lace was saluting him 1t diminishe'
little until the last line of his stat
had passed. Back there where Col Bah
cock. commander of the Composites. wa
| leading his marvels and "Pershing'
Band" which believes itself the bes
parade band in the world, and judgin
from yesterdays performance is exactl,
that. was jumping from "Madelon" I
"Over There" was another and some sa,
louder explosion of sound from side
walk, window, ledge and roof.
But those near Gen. Pershing neve
heard 1t, 30 vocal was the multitude clos
! at hand, and to reporters who walke
near the curb and behind the General
: staff the noise in the rear came a
merely an echo of the din wherewtth tn
city saw ft to assail the A. e. F's com
mander.
This. therefore. is only the story O
, Pershing's ride and how 1t impresse
the town-and Pershing.
He Gets an EARLY Start.
II begins at :0s O'Clock when. afte
good sleep and an ample breakfast,
, left the Waldorf in an army car, fo
lowed by his stah m other army car
} 10 ride north to the point of the proces
! sion's departure. The avenue was vii
tually cleared of other vehicles. Earl
comers fringed the sidewalks; some c
9 then had been there for hours holdin
4 a precious spot at the curb some ha
E slept in Central Park and arisen wit
/ the birds. Through the side streets III
: stream was flowing toward the avenu
y The General got from the Waldorf
Continued on Tmt4 ,PGea