The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, August 05, 1919, Page THREE, Image 3
STREETS OF PARIS AT
ARMISTICE SIGN1NC
(Continued From Page Two)
er found one yet that was satisfiei
with even a generous "pourboir"
(tip). The first thing I saw when
got there was some French soldier
(and I had particularly noticed tha
they were French) turning over ai
empty taxi. The next one that canv
along had a "fare" in it so they con
tented themselves by rocking it era
die fashion. Outside of breaking al
the springs, they didn't do any harm
Pretty soon the Americans got th
habit. It was a gentle hint to th
taxicab drivers that the people want
ed the streets that night for them
selves. The drivers weren't slow t
take the hint after such treatment
In one case I saw the driver was i
little more determined to carry hi
tare 10 ms destination, ana triea i'
move forward. French taxis yoi
know have only a two-cylinder engin
and only high and low gears. Th
. soldiers held him and even pulled hin
backward while a French soldier am
an American soldier and a couple o
Italian soldiers walked up the radia
tor, calmly seated themselves on to]
and leisurely lighted cigarettes, muc]
, to the amusement of the onlookers
About this time a battery of horse
drawn French artillery came along
Whether they were out to parade o
whether they were out changing sta
tions I don't know, but I do kno\
that if there was a single place lef
uu nurse, gun carriage or uaisuj
where a human being could fim
even a hand hold, I failed to see il
This outfit created the biggest sen
sation with the most cheering an<
clapping that I heard during th
whole night.
If you didn't want to be carried a
long with the tide you had to hold oi
to something and the next thing
knew we were on our way to th
Madeleine. About half way dowi
we came to a wide place in the roa<
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in front of the Grande Cafe where
; the Rue Scribe comes into the Boulevarde
des Capucines we found a
large congregation industriously
, dancing to the alluring tunes of a
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. licv tenant a?nl his lgrec Em Say Ah
(Y) girl were as much in evidence
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as tOie demobilized "Apache" and his
'Connaissance" and the doughboy
[T j *
, and his pretty "Midinette". And
say, cara mia, that bunch was certainly
having a good. time.
,1 Here I lost the others and amused
t. myself watching a crowd having a
q perfectly glorious time. With as
e much glee as a crowd of small boys
i- they were throwing wooden paving
. blocks under all the machines that
o passed by just to see them bump.
American, French and English trucks)
a however, were left entirely alone, i
s Probably because they were loaded!
o to the guards. Every one whoj
n wanted to and could find a place to.
e hang on did so. Some of those trucks!
- hod o hiorcror "Hvp lnfld" than the de-!
c, _
n signers ever figured on and it's real-;
i ly a woner some of them didn't smash.)
f I joined hands with some merry-!
- makers and started back towards the
p Opera. If we met others coming in
h the opposite direction neither would'
give way with the result that there j
- would be a mixup and all the girls in;
the party got themselves hugged andj
r kissed of course. That is unless J
- they were awfully pretty, but kissed:
v after the French fashion of touching!
t cheeks alternately. And right now!
n let me tell you something. When you,
d people hold up your hands in holy:
horror when you read of some French
- general kissing a soldier that he has)
i just decorated, please remember that!
e this is the way they do it. It's a'
great deal more sanitary than our!
- kissing and a lots nicer than the Aus-j
i tralian native custom of rubbing'
I noses. I am not in a position to speak'
e from the point of an expert in this!
i latter form of amusement, but I '
I? j
leave it to your own judgement.
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You know that I told you once that
I liked it over here because an old
bachelor was more popular here. I
am more than ever convinced that I
was right about it. A .e^l pretty'
thing danced .-.p to me ^ayin.u': "Ih, i
rsion net.it c ihaine. cmbraSL.-mci.
embrasse-moi". Think of that, sister
dear, being called "my little captain"
and then asking me right out1
plain to hug her. Of course you.
know, Polly, I'd never think of refus-j
ing such a charming request. I wasn't!
quick enough though and she waS|
gone, laughing over her shoulder and
covering me with a handful of confetti.
Further on up the street I found
the Georgia lieutenant and a girl who
were struggling along with a "Follies
Bergere" sign. They went along
with me and a few minutes further
on we found the Indianapolis Engineer
Cantain dancine dow nthe mid
die of the steet with a jane. Someone
suggested another beer to 'cele?
brate our reunion so we dropped into
a cafe. The cafes here close at 11:30
and . it was already 11:00. We
thought that surely they would keep
open late that night above all nights
but not so. They turned out the
lights promptly at 11:30. Not, however,
before we had a chance to rest
a while and quench our thirst. While
we were resting one of those "handsall-around"
danced in and circled the
cafe and danced out again.
When we got out in the street we
discovered a dance going on; we
joined in of course. The music consisted
of a clarionette and a drum,
bu\ that didn't matter to anyone. The
only trouble was that we had to stop
every now and then to let an overcrowded
truck through. The taxis
had long decided that it was best for
them to keep off the crowded streets.
The Georgia Engineer lieutenant's
girl, who said her name was Yvonne
and that she was a dancer at the
Casino de Paris, complained that her
feet were tired. The lieutenant sug5
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gested that we carry her. So we put
her up on our shoulders between U3
and held her hands to keep her from
falling. Everybody smiled at this?
nd ;;he wasn't a bit heavy. The
'.iad swapped hi-, garrison
:ap J.ur her broad-brimmed white silk
affaire and I guess we did present a
rather odd appearance. The lieutenant
amused the crowd by saying:
"Look fellows, this is what we came
over to fight for". In a few minutes
we found ourselves at the head
of a wild parade. I promised not to
tell about the lieutenant swiping a
twenty-franc note which he somehowj
found on the girl. Anyway h*
swears he put it back.
We nearly got run over. Some fellows
had a French ''75" dragging it
around the streets. They got it
started down a slight incline in the
street and it got away from them and
smashed into a lamp post. It hit with
h pretty good bang and broke the post
up near the top, the lamp falling to
the street with a crash. We hurried
Qway because we did'not want to be
called as witnesses. That instance
?.nd the rocking the taxis were the
only acts of destruction I saw during
the whole night.
I -forgot to tell you that we had
quite a little party by this time. A
sailor and his girl and a Chicago private
and his girl had attached themselves
f.r? nnr nart.v. Thirurs were be
ginning to quiet down and people
were going home. We passed a
crowd of French soldiers and the
lieutenant's girl shouted "Vive 1'Amerique"
at them. One of them replied
in slow and laboriously enunciated
English "Go, to hell". Mademoiselle
Yvonne was terribly worried
about it and said it wasn't a bit nice
of them but they were awfully peeved
and jealous because the Americans
had taken all of their girls away
from them. Honestly though, Polly
dear, there's some truth in what she
said. We had an afterdinner speech
here at the hotel recently by the
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ALL WHO A
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Ington. The Tei
sold at auction t
id two years, 8 \
)ay for Land Bu
BAND?
UCTED BY
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French Director General of Educa- s
tion who accompanied General Joffre 1
to the United States and in summing 2
up what the French thought of the. t
Americans after having told us what s
v..- chink of the French that was the I
vdy fir.;; thing (he said that the !
French had against us?taking their 1
sweethearts away from them. . Yes, I t
guess there's something in it because c
the papers this morning said that the <
Y. W. C. A. was preparing to care g
for the ten thousand French wives 1
of soldiers still over here. ' 1
ft
But let me tell you one thing be- t
fnro T finish A verv conservative ^
estimate would place that night's
crowd at at least a million people on '
that one main street alone. With 1
cafes running wide open until eleven- ^
thirty I didn't see one single solitary *
instance of drunkenness. Every one *
7.*as having too good a time to think ;
about getting soused and why worry 1
about it there would be plenty there '
the next day. There's a lot of food s
for thought in that statement.
The Chicago private's girl was very 1
amusing. She kept the crowd laugh- 1
ing recounting her experiences. She J
had just gotten out of jail. She said 1
they arrested her for asking a soldier '
for a cigarette on the street after '
eleven o'clock. They let her out the 1
next morning when she told them '
that was really all she had said to 1
him. Smokes of any kind are still 1
(*aa?aa Aval* linra on/1 f V? a ori T*1 G roallv ^
ovaiwc u ? bi nwiv u?iu w**v w
do make a habit of stopping you and 1
asking for cigarettes. Fact is that
it is getting to be a nuisance because '
you don't know whether they really 1
need a cigarette or whether they are
simply collecting a week's supply. Of !
course no one objects to sharing his 1
last cigarette, even, with a person (
who really needs a smoke, but when ;
you only have two left and have a 1
mile,to walk, and no chance of getting
any more until morning you
rather object to being asked for both
of them.
But I decided I'd had enough and t
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tarted for home. I thought just for
uck I would count the times I was
isked for cigarettes., I had about
wo miles to walk. By this time the
streets were pretty well deserted.
Down in front of the offices of "Le
tfaii.n", one of the largsst daily pa
)ers here there was a large crowd siting
around looking like the last rose
>f summer. I asked a man the
>ccasion for the sad, sleepy looking
gathering. "Oh", he said, "we've
)een dancing and the music has just
eft." I laughed and went on beting
to myself that they were waiting
:or the subways to start running.
Crossing the Place de la Concorde
i girl stopped me and asked me for
i cigarette. I told her in my best
French that I had no cigarettes and
?or that matter not even a match and
;hat if she wanted to be real nice
;he could give me a cigarette and a *.
natch. She dug down in her satchel
md got out a couple and we lit up and
;at down on a captured cannon and
iiscussed the night. She was waitng
to go to work, not considering it
arorth while to go home and go to
sleep, and I wasn't in a hurry. She
vas the eighth person who had asked
i ciearette. She said that it had
seen much better the night the armis;ice
was signed, because the revelry - '
iad started at eleven o'clock in the ' norning,
whereas, that night no one
thought anything was really going to
happen at all and that they hadn't
gotten started until after seven.
So, Caris9ima, I've told you all
about it. It wasn't so shocking after
ill, was it?
This has been along letter and
should make up for my. sins of omission.
Write me whenever you have - '
the time. Always glad to hear from
pou. Send this letter over to mother
ind tell her I will write soon.
> Your affectionate brother,
William.
.
Engraved cards and wedding invi;ations
at Press and Banner Co.
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