AMERICAN LEGION

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 70, 20 September 1927, Page 9

AMERICAN LEGION

MARCH THROUGH PARIS

TRIBUTE TO THE FALLEN

A EOYAL WELCOME

(United Press Association.—Copyright.)

(Received 20th September, 1 p.m.) PARIS, 19th September. The march of-the American Legionaries under the Are de Triomphe was a stirring spectacle. As they passed the tomb of the Unknown Warrior the Legionaries dropped flowers until a great mound of blossoms piled up on the sacred spot. It took three hours to pass and the constant dipping of'banners formed a touching tribute to the fallen. General Pershing and Marshal Foch had a great reception.

The entertainment of the Legionaries is in a lighter vein. There has been dancing in the principal squares and numerous dinners and supger parties, including a banquet in the Palais Dcs Invalides, where there were 4200 guests. The first intimation the cook was a laconic '' Mayonnaise for 4200 forthwith.". A hundred chefs were engaged and 66 gallons of oil, 2400 eggs, and 28 gallons of vinegar were ordered, to which were added a ton of beef, 12 cwt of salmon, etc. The mayonnaise was prepared in cauldrons operated by electric motors.

When the Legionaires start out by autobus from Paris in mid-September to tour the battlefields they once fought upon they will travel , over a road familiar to many of them and significant to all. For the route these exdoughboys will take on the pilgrimage, which is the main object of the Paris convention, is that of Gallieni's famous "taxicab army"—the overnight reinforcement which won the first Battle of the Marne and saved Paris.

Along this same road the Legion boys will meet reminders of that gallant all-night dash of 11,000 Frenchmen. They will see the same long stretches of roadway lined, with double rows of trees, cutting straight between level acres of farm land. They will notice on either side the same "crimson poppies blowing in the wheat,and barley, popies tinging the whole countryside with a red glow. Then, outside of Meaux, the Legionaires will come upon something which did not grace that road in war times— a statue of General Gallieni, the saviour of Paris.