PARIS IN A BLAZE OF COLOR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14984, 11 August 1919, Page 8

PARIS IN A BLAZE OF COLOR

LONDON, July 19.— The victory celebrations m Paris on July 14 provided a blaze of color unexampled m French history for variety and artistic resource.

The principal avenues and buildings ■were enveloped m beautiful schemes of red, white and blue, .while gold and white monuments were hung with ropes of golden' leaves. f A great cenotaph, with gleaming figures of Victory, gave off incense from colored lights as the surging millions passed silently by, paying a tribute to the nations dead.

The celebration of solemn masses m the " churches and the presentation of swords of honor to Marshals Foch, Joffre, and Petain by the Paris Council, preluded the main celebrations.

Past heroes and patriots were : not f orgotton, and the municipalities .decorated the statues of \ Leon vGambetta, and Lion de Belfort, and many, others. , A feature of the illummations ' was an enormous girandole of 25,000- lights borne by soldiers along the Rue Rivoli and the Boulevards St. Michael and St Germain.

The correspondent lof The Times m Paris says the ensemble of the great march through Paris on July 14 presented a spectacle of\ extreme grandeur when approaching the Arc de Triomphe. Almost every member of the detachment of 1000 disabled men who the march had lost a limb or /an eye, and all were decorated, the . majority .wearing the yellow ribbon of the coveted Medaille Militaire. They passed near the cenotaph- under a shower of flowers thrown by Alsatian girls. Roars of cheering marked the progress of the British, headed by Sir Douglas Haig, - and carrying the tattle flags of all the most noted regiments. This waa> regarded as the finest show of national colors m the whole march..

Marshal Petain was a conspicuous figure as, mounted on a spirited white charger, he led the units of 21 army corps. Other famous French leaders f ollowjed, M. detnenceau being greeted with 'thrilling enthusiasm everywhere.