| OCR Text |
Show Not until General Pershing leads in grand review alohg Pennsylvania avenue the victorious troops of America will this National Capital experience the thrill or be the scene of a demonstration comparable with the peace parades of yesterday afternoon and last night. Tliis is not the story of a commonplace celebration. It concerns no superficial emotions. The parades and pageants of domestic history pass into insignificance beside it Except for the great review which is to come or the possible march of allied troops down Unter den Linden, in Berlin, the outpouring of Washington on yesterday is unapproachable. Into the Sunlight. Here there was staged the thanksgiving of a world liberated from war; here cheered and marched the prototypes of men and women throughout the earth who had come into the sunlight of peace. Here the Frenchman, the Britisher, the Belgian, the Scot, the Italian, the Serb, the Japanese- men of nearly all nationalities, races, and creeds-proclaimed the coming of a new era in an oppressed age. The spirit of the American soldier dead in Flanders or on the fields of ! France was with Washingtonians yesterday. The ghosts of the heroes of "No Man's Land" were abroad in the Capital of the savior republic. The | mothers and fathers of men dead on the battlefields of freedom will tell ! one so. Thi3 is written at the past midnight hour. The city comes to its period of ! repose. On the streets there are heard the final blasts of vagrant horns. A soldier and his girl are homeward bent Twelve Delirious Hours. A commandeered truck has emptied its load of excited war wor ers, who declared a holiday without consulting their chief. The traffic "cops" I have set their signals at a neutral angle and wearily "turned in" at the patrol box. Here and there corr^s the echo of a final shout. The colors of most of the Allied nations flash triumphantly under the electric lights as belated celebrants start toward their resting places. It is the end of a frenzied day. For twelve hours Washington, and all the men and women in it, have lived in ecstacy and peace delirium. In the life of everyone there comes some time a moment which he would not have missed. Today was that time for the resident of the Capital of the United States. The news which electrified Washington came shortly after 12 o'clock with the first extra edition of The Times. It reported the signing of an armistice with Germany, the last of the central powers to capitulate. It meant, in effect, the end of a world war, of more than four years of travail, of the sacrifice of human life and the destruction of billions in property. It meant the end of Kaiserism and autocracy and the return home, of two million boys now in the trenches of warfare. At noon the siren on the Evans (Continued on Page 2, Column 3.) and the wildest excitement the city ' has ever known. To the White House. As of one mind the earlier throngs turned toward the White House, where the President of the United States and the central figure in the pe&ce affecting all of civilization, had just received unofficial advices of the signing of the armistice and the virtual acceptance of his fourteen principles. Five thousand or more persons rapidly surrounded the packet fence to the north of the Executive Mansion. The movement of street cars was blocked. Traffic officers were powerless to restrain a city gone mad over peace- Although then without official confirmation of the news dispatches, the President came to the northern portico of the White House and bowed repeatedly in response to the tumult- j uous greeting of fellow Americans, i The great crowd whipped itself into ! parade formation and began a trium- | phal peace march down the street. | Meanwhile there had been gather- j ing in the wide spaces between the ! White House and the State, War and | Navy building another throng of war i workers from that building, the War Industries Board, Council of National Defense and other Government bureaus located in Potomac Park. They came, hundreds of them, tramping L over the fallen leaves and the half- i green places left in the parks by recalcitrant frosts. Stirred the Soul. ; As they met by the executive offices and in the shadows of the imposing War Building common im- i pulse brought from thousands of [ throats "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." There were other songs, including, probably, "Over There" and "Keep the Home Fires Burning," but one forgets the details of outward manifestation when the soul is so stirred as it was moved yesterday. At any rate the President came out again and there was more flag waving, and singing and cheering-and then this crowd went away to merge itself into the panoramic picture of happiness that made Pennsylvania Avenue yesterday afternoon a highway of liberty and joyousness. In their wild parading the peace I crowds knew no restraints. They commandeered everything from automobiles to mail trucks and a farmer's rickety wagon. Stores were figuratively raided for horns and flags, confetti, paddles and other noise-making devices. For hours the sidewalks and streets swarmed with 'men and women, boys and girls who shouted until they were hoarse and next turned to mechanical things to create the din of unprecedented eel-1 ebration. This continued far into thu night, and despite the official reluctance or inability to5-confm the signing of the armistice, the crowds continued to cheer the most inspiring news ever put in type for reading by a war-weary civilization. Humor and Pathos. The peace parades-there were dozens of hastily formed parading bodies during the afternoon and evening- were replete in incidents of humor and pathos. No moment was ordinary, nor failed to produce something which touched the emotions. Above the marching crowds nine airplanes soared in battle formation. The more daring aviators swept low i over the streets of the capital and did | the tail-spin and loop-the-loop just i above the skyscrapers. The whirr of f the motors lent a modern realism to a scene which savored both of war and j peace. Extra editions of The Times were cast down from these airplanes, and fluttered to the earth like peace messages from the heavens. Never before had this been seen. An empty commercial truck stopped for a moment in front of one of the White House gates. When the chauffeur looked around it contained more than forty girls who had clambered over the wheels while his back was turned. 50,000 in Parade. "Drive on!" they shouted, and he did. They rode all afternoon through j the city's streets. Late in the day automobiles filled to the running board with yelling celebrants moved slowly three abreast on both sides of Pennsylvania avenue. Progress was at a snail's pace, but nobody cared. Every traffic officer in Washington, including captains of the precincts, did duty in the downtown section after the remarkable demonstration got under way. It was estimated that at one time more than 50,000 persons were parading through Pennsylvania avenue, F street, G street and Fifteenth street. So far as official records go the departments did not declare a peace holiday. The employes simply walked out with the cry of the first peace extra, and remained away from their offices for the remainder of the day. The war workers who "struck" were principally girls-girls from Iowa, Georgia, North Carolina, California, Florida, all the States in the Union- who have come to Washington to help win the war. Buy War Savings Stamps today and provide for your future. VICTORY BRINGS D. C. WILDEST JOY (Continued from First Page.) building had sounded, inviting to prayer all those who believed in a Supreme Being and, in time of war, a God of Battles. The city understood that, regardless of the time, the siren would sound when an armistice was signed and hostilities ceased. Within an hour the call to prayer was followed by a sudden screech of victory. The noise continued; a lumber-yard whistle joined in; bells were tolled; the shouts of newsboys crying an extra added to the din. Out of the Treasury Building there came a girl. She had a brother in France. Behind her, with slower steps, came wonderingly an older woman. She had a son "over there." And behind her there emerged another war worker-a temporary clerk she is listed-who is earning a livelihood while a husband fights three thousand miles away. The Avalanche Starts. Then they began to go out by dozens and scores and hundreds, these clerks in the Government departments. Women most of them were; women with all of the emotionalism and the sentiment of the sex, and with all the sacrifices. At some of the doors watchmen at- empted to stop the outpouring of excited girls. They brushed the .watchmen aside and ignored the demand that they show their passes. It was between hours, and the watchmen were within their rights, albeit one of this generation probably will never see again the end of a world war. Without official mandate, work stopped in all the departments,,typewriting machines and war records were forgotten, and the peace celebration in the world's greatest capital was on. Within ten minutes Pennsylvania avenue and Fifteenth street were packed by cheering throngs. The newspaper extras were quickly exhausted, and thrifty newsboys scurried back for more. "The Star-Spangled Banner." At Fifteenth and G some one produced a great American flag. A woman with a voice capable of reaching the higher notes began to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Hats came off and hundreds crowded about her. Some joined the refrain: "The Star-Spangled Banner, oh, long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." A great cheer was heard. Thp streets became congested. , Automobilists sounded their horns. "Germany surrenders" was the cry that went from month to mouth down the Capital thoroughfares. Additional hundreds of war workers from the Government departments, business men,' barbers, bootblacks. Federal officials, tourists, and "oldest inhabitants" mshed to the crowded centers of the city. Movie operators and camera sqtias quickly appeared. Downtown Washington was soon a scene of bedlam |
