Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1918 — THOMAS PADGITT WRITES OF MINNEAPOLIS CELEBRATION [ARTICLE]

THOMAS PADGITT WRITES OF MINNEAPOLIS CELEBRATION

November 12, 1918. Dear Folks: — Yesterday was a big day here. The celebration started at 2:00 o’clock in the morning and was still going last night at 12:00. No one went to work at all, and the stores were all closed. There were several parades in the forenoon, knd if the autos didn’t have a garbage can or cream can or some kind of tin tied on behind them to make a noise, the owner wasn’t patriotic. Everyone was pounding on something to make a noise. The taxi-cab drivers found out they could back-fire their motors, so they kept them busy most of the time- Five or six of them would get together and it would sound like a battle in the streets. We made a parade in the afternoon. All the sailors and pilots were in it. When we got up town the streets were so full of people we couldn’t get through, and the police couldn’t get them back, so the captain and other officers who were riding "in front had to stop, and that stopped the whole thing. We stood in one place for about ten minutes while the police tried to get the people back, but they didn’t have any luck at all, so we put a company of pilots up in front and the officers had to pull in behind the band. We had to march four abreast for several blocks to get through. I guess it was the biggest crowd the town has ever had. The people were crazy. There were so many people here that the street cans couldn’t run down the main streets. Weill, the quarantine is still on but we got out Saturday and Sunday till midnight and last night till midI night. . Last Saturday the navy won from tihe -army here in a football game 6 to 0, and that made us feel pretty good, and bur dog licked the fighting bull dog of the town yesterday. They had to pull him off to keep him from killing -the other ope. , ' This is about all there ns to wrote now, so will dose. I am well, and most every one else is, but some civilians still have the “flu” and the schools and shows are closed yet. THOS. A. PADGITT. U. S. Naval Band, Minneapolis, Minn.