OCR Text |
Show iGfWEFUL NATION LEADER OF VICTORIOUS AMERICAN AMERI-CAN FORCES RETURNS HOME FROM OVERSEAS. United States Confers Her Highest Honors Upon Chief Who Led Our Army in Campaign Against the Huns. .Vow York. Honored by foreign rulers rul-ers and governments, Ccncrul Pershing, Persh-ing, the commander-in-chief of the mightiest army that ever fought its way to victory under the Slurs and Stripes, returned to his own folk on .Monday to meet a greater honor than any foreign potentate or power could confer the thanks of the world's greatest democracy to the man who had planned the decisive blow in democracy's de-mocracy's fight against tyranny. The stern-faced soldier who hail maintained his iron .self-control amid the shambles of the Mouse and the blood-drenched forest of Argonne was not proof against the tribute of praise and gratitude which was roared from hundreds of thousands of the throats and hearts of his fellow citizens. His voice trembled with emotion as he responded to the greetings extended extend-ed by Secretary of War Baker in his own behalf and thai of the president, as well as the welcoming addresses of representatives of the senate and j house, the state and city. As his car passed slowly through the ! cheering multitudes which jammed I Broadway from the Battery to the city J hall. Pershing attempted in vain to maintain his composure. At. first he replied to the cheers with the stiff salute which military etiquette demands, de-mands, but he was soon carried away by the storm of applause which swept in great gusts about him. ltising to his feet, he waved his cap above his head with a boyish gesture which told how deeply he was stirred, while the grim lines of his bronzed face broke into a smile which was as infectious as it was rare. Just, after the general walked down the gangplank at lloboken he received the first reward whiheh a grateful country has offered him. In the name of the nation, Secretary of War Baker handed him "his commission as foil general in the American army, a rank held previously by only three men Orant, Sheridan and Sherman. |