Big Celebration Real
Thing in City
Hickory’s peace jubilee came to a close some time during the
night. It rounded out a day of celebration in which town and country united in
a grand, continuous demonstration that culminated last night with the hanging
and burning of William Hohenzern, former Kaiser of Germany, who has fled his
once proud empire and taken refuge in Holland.
If the crowds on the streets yesterday seemed large, they
did not begin to compare with the number last night. An estimate would be
impossible, but the number was placed anywhere from 3,000 to 8,000, and
probably 5,000 would be conservative.
The parade last night was the feature event—that and the
burning of an oil-soaked effigy of Kaiser Bill. The parade formed at the North
school, got under way at the intersection of Fifteenth street and Eleventh
avenue and proceeded to the lot to the rear of the post office. Red flames
glowed occasionally, horns and other noise-producing instruments were used ceaselessly,
and everybody cut loose.
There were not so many marshals a-horseback as the program
indicated there would be, for some of the “marshals” confessed that they had not
been astride the genus for some 20 years—and there is no reason for setting
forth various objections and alibis. Marshals Zeb Buchanan and Ned Raynolds
(Reynolds?) attended to that part all right, and Donald Applegate afoot
assisted them.
At any rate the parade was headed by the fire truck, was
followed by the guards who were onto their job and then by the automobile
containing the mayor, two members of council, Frank Henderson and another
guy—the other celebrities being lost in the shuffle, it appears—and the West
Hickory band and other automobiles. Let it be said that the band was equal to
the occasion and its playing of Over There, America and a number of other
anthems and popular airs simply made the celebration a success.
Arrived at the lot at the rear of the post office, the crowd
saw the solemn ceremony performed. Kaiser Bill was yanked from the band truck,
quickly attached to a pole and suspended in the air. A torch was applied and a
lot of stuffed something, soaked in oil, made a merry blaze, while several
thousand persons in a great circle looked on—and saw it well done.
Mayor Yount was master of ceremonies and he did everything
he could think of that seemed likely, and Dr. Ramsay, with his Templar uniform,
impersonated Marshal Foch, and right dignified he was.
It can’t be done—this celebration cannot be set down in
print. It was simply all to the good, and everybody was proud of the occasion.
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