The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-11-02
Confederate Veterans Grand
Army, Gold Star Mothers
and Nurses in Line.
KANSAS CITY IN TUMULT
Thronged Streets Yield Only
Before worlds Greatest
Fighting Men,

BY a Stat Correspondent Of THE New YORK
AraALn
KANSAS CITY, Mo, Nov. 1.-They
didn': look like military sutomatons
Some wore derby hats, now and then
lad would appear in blue denims.
Lots OF them limped. their saluting
was not e~erything the manuals pre-
scribe; now and then they forgot to
salute and substituted a genial wave
OF the hand.
They came along dragging bob cats
and hounA dogs by ropes and chains
Sometimes there were bands leading
them and sometimes they supplied
Their own musio-sin ring and whist
ling. Here and there 4 man used
eane to help him along. and there were
Grutches to be seen. They wore their
bid tin helmets, their ancient campaign
hats, their cippy overseas chapeaux
and, to repeat. sometimes derbies that
had seen much service. There were
those who dared to sport top hats,
while caps and soft felts were fire.
quent.
About $4,000 Of them there were, out
of step in lines that wavered and
turned askew. But these were the
fighting men In the world. That was
the difficult thing to understand-how
these heller SHELTER. undisciplined boys
and men were whipped and can be
whipped again into an army that can
slash Hindenburg lines and hurl whole
corps of professional soldiers out of
towns and countries.
Rut such they were as they marched
this afternoon-the American Legion
past the Marshal Of France, the Ad-
miral Of the British Grand Fleet, the
Italian war lord who smashed the
Austrisns at the Piave. the General
issimo Of Belgium's heroic regiments
and their Commander in Chief, PERISH
ing.
Even From South America.
1t was difficult to understand until you
had heard them singing and seen them
limping. 1t was not so hard to compre-
bend if you knew them and had been
one of them. There were empty sleeves
and mechanical legs and every so often
you saw men with their faces twisted
and blackened. They had come from
thirty States in the Union, from Alaska
the Philippines. Hawaii. Europe and
South America. All this distance to
march in a procession to dedicate a vast
memorial to the fellows that hadn't
come back. and to listen to the Marshal
OF France and their old Commander in
Chief tell them 1t was up to them to
preserve what they had won and keep
an eternal silence upon autocracy, what
ever form It might assume.
As great parades are reckoned and
weighed 1t was not the most gorgeous
nor anything like that. 1t lacked the
brilliarce. maybe. of the great Empire
Day affair in London and that pageants
predecessor in Paris celebrating victory.
New York has seen mightier spectacles
that IL, mishtier to the eye
But It conquered all difficulties lust
rs the same men In 1917 and 1918
laughed at difficulties and marched
ahead to make a shambes of an inn
posing foe. These $4,000 marchers
demonstrated all that at the very outset.
IL
crowded Grand avenue before and dur
ing the parade. But they filed that
wide street before the advance guard
apparel and neither the police nor the
regular army soldiers who had been
called upon to help maintain order i'm
Kansas City this day had any more
effec, upon those throngs than a child
would have upon the Palisades were
he TO seek to push them over.
No Parades hut just Walt
The crowds broke through the police
lines and filled the streets from curb to
curb. The police used their clubs. The
soldiers used their rifle butts. Now and
then a woman fell and was dragged out
TO go to the hospital. Occasionally
man collapsed. 1t seemed certain
thing that the parade could not take
place.
In front OF the reviewing stand the
mob was at its worst Even the self
contained Pershing and Marshal Foch,
men not given to being concerned about
things that have not happened. were
shaking their heads In recognition OF the
generally accepted fact that there would
be no parade because the crowds had
taken and would not surrender the
streets.
The first line of tire former service
men broke the jam. You would have
been willing to bet that tank couldn't
have done 1t. But down the avenue
toward the reviewing stand came band
composed OF 200 musicians--the Ivanhoe
Band Of the Sanford Brown. Jr, Post OF
Kansas City
And just as you would cleave a snow
drift with shovel that band marched
through the mob playing Onward.
Christian Soldiers" and the glorious
"Adeste Fidelis." The jam was broken.
Then came the huge Mexican band sent
here by President Oregon of Mexico
the CHEF OK 5taffs band OF Mexico city
Staying IN raloma," OF course.
80 Gcughboys again had Accomplished
the impossible. For two and a half
ours then came the army, the navy and
the Marine Corps. Interspersed were
grandfathcrs who had worn the shabby
butternut under the Stars and Bars. and
along with them marched the Grand
Army Of the Republic And these old
boys kept UP with the kids. Not only
that. but they had fetched their own
rrusfc along. little fife and drum corps.
playing Dixie" and John Browns
Body" somewhat off key and minus
whole bars when breath was coming
hard.
And although they weren't exactly
supposed to appear, there were Gold
star mothers in the parade. out to show
the world that they were proud OF hav-
ing borne such sons. They simply Joined
in because they felt like Il and. uncon-
sclously perhaps, to set the noisy dcma-