A WILD NIGHT IN LONDON
NELSON MONUMENT DAMAGED.
Charred heaps of all kinds of combustibles, in the midst of which were the remains of half a dozen seats, the frame of a box-tricycle, a ruined tar-boiler, and the barrel of a German gun, told the tale of the over-night rejoiomg in Trafalgarsquare during the armistice celebrations in London.
Workmen, Joo, wore busy repairing parts of the wooden roadway whioh had been torn up for fuel for the bonfires, which were lighted at the foot of Nelson's Column. Large pieces of granite were chipped off the massive plinth by the fierce heat of the flames. •
"The fire was started," said a spectator, "with the advertisement canvas and the scaffolding of the big War Bond posters on the column. The crowd then seized the heavy wood and iron seats in the square and piled them on to the flames. There were a wooden hut on wheels, and a pitch tank and furnace standing near for the repair of the wooden blocks of the roadway The crowd pushed the watchman's hut on to the bonfire, adding the wheelbarrows, poles, and trestles. The blazing pitch ran everywhere, and the heat was torrific. Blocks were torn up out of the road to feed the flames.
"Then someone though of the German guns in the Mall and the crowd were soon wheeling a huge gun on to the bonfire. When the fire brigade arrived, soldiers prevented them getting to work. Though the firomen tried to keep the crowd back by turning the hose on them, Australian soldiers wrested the pipe away and others slashed it with knives. Other soldiers attempted to drive away with the fire engine. They swarmed over the' engine, and humorously asked the "crowd if they wanted coffee or 'two slices and one hard boiled.' Other hose pipes were turned on the firemen themselves while the bonfires burned merrily for some time. Officers added to the flames by. throwing on to the fire a number of Very lights." In Piccadilly-circus the road was also torn up and. hoardings pulled down for bonfires.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 38, 15 February 1919, Page 10
Word Count
349A WILD NIGHT IN LONDON Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 38, 15 February 1919, Page 10
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