Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-01-21
MINT Was Not Said.

The New York Evening Post. in
lengthy editorial entitled "lapigrnma
and People who Did Not Make Them"
bursts several popular bubbles which
have pleased nii of us nj some time OF
other The Post reminds ia That
Uncle Joe" Cannon haa denied atat-
ing that army officers In washington
wore apura to keep their feet from
slipping of their daslss. That Henri lV
never cared enough for his people 10
remark EVERY peasant iu Franco
In to have a chicken In hls pot on Sun
day." that Goethe. when dying, asked
for more light frout the windows. and
not on theological subjects.
Tho famous remark attributed 90
pershfng nt the tomb af Americas Rev
oiutionnry War friend Lafayette. we
are here" the Post says, wa. evidently
originated by some bright young man
on rrhe stars and Stripes" the official
journal Of the a. 10, r.. Regarding
General pesshinp NJ Iafayette's tomb In
Paris" it continues. there is not the
slightest shred Of reason to believe That
General PershlnR was driven by the
Place dc In Nation and suddenly de-
cided 10 stop at picpua So. where.
standing by the tomb of Lafayette. he
| exclaimed. Nous VOLTA. Lafayette.
| Everything is against such an essuinp-
tlon. General Pershing never began to
talk even to the extent pf three words
until the atanistice waH signed His
knowledge of French would not have
| enabled him Ia embark OF Ho ventirous
| q grammatical sail ~ nous VOLTA, and
the remark ls simply too big Tor spon-
taneuus Inspiration THAT while at La
| fayette's tomb no commented on the
| fact America was now repaying France
| for what she had done in the dave of
| Lafayette ia not only probable but nat
ural. But nous voila ia too neat"
So far az is known pershing has
never denied officially saying the words
attributed 10 him. There is no real
reason that he should. even # he did
not 80 express himself. The thought
Of course was in hiR mind The phraae
| win he forever associated with him. and
| the A. n. y There is no stopping II
now
7 In this connection II iH interesting %
remember that a rafaphreRe If the
above saying was quite popular among
members ~ the A. E. T-.--a paIaphrasa
/ which wac uttered bv not ono man. hut
| bv hundreds of thousands % men until
| II finally swelled into a tidpl wave of
noise. II was the short sentence Ia
| favette. we are atill here
Il Is said these words we're aret
| spoken by lonely huck private. ~on-
/ yaIeeclns in the hoepital at at Denis
| who, being told fhat Iafay cites totnf
vas 10 ba decorated on George Wash
| mgton ? birthday, turned over in hts "o'
| and murmured 80, lafayette. we are
a,il here" The feeling waa echoed by
| every lad who longed 80 sec tho statue
~ liberty once again France may
have been the land of romance e
others. but - tho=e Ehaid ~earefa liz
lrR.A wns the country If rose scented
dreams
The New York Evening Pest MAY
ahatter all our Illusions regarding the
| famous sayings ~ famous men. bu'
yva rejoice 20 know that Il IS true that
| those American youths did cay. "a
favatte. we are stIll here II demon
stratss the saving eense If humoi
which - the blrthrisht Of every tfu'
American. which frequently carries E
man over obstacles and through III
hculties which sheer viii rower al"n'
| might not conquer