Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1918 — 300,000 GREET FRENCH TROOPS IN STRASSBURG [ARTICLE]

300,000 GREET FRENCH TROOPS IN STRASSBURG

Gen. Gouraud Leads 4th Army Into Beautiful Alsatian City. FOCH ANR PETAIN ARRIVE Soldiers March Arm in Arm With Happy Populace, While Everywhere the Tricolor Blazes Forth Again. * Strassburg, Nov. 26.—The French trl-color now flutters from the citadel of this ancient fortress city, dating from the time of the Romans. At the head of the French Fourth army, amid a furore of enthusiasm on the part of the populace, Marshal Foch, King Albert of the Belgians and General Gouraud and Marshal Petain entered the historic town on the Rhine, through the famous Schirmeck gate amid the tremendous enthusiasm of 300,000 people. Never did an army have such a triumphal greeting. “Such a spectacle pays all our sufferings,” said General Gouraud, who issued a proclamation to the city beginnlng with the words of the “Marseillaise:” “The day of glory has come.” A quick inspection of the Alsatian capital shows that the de-Gennaniza-tion of the town is proceeding with prodigious rapidity and is characterized by the frantic rechristening of business houses. Every few yards there appears a white cotton band with a French name that has hastily been draped over the German firm name or the German trademark. There are now the “Case de I’hris” and the “Restaurant de La Marne,” replacing Teutonic names, while some proud houses have hung in their windows a discreet card on which is written: “French house, dating before 1870.” Strassburg Gay With Flags. The enthusiasm of the French troops grew with that of the population as they advanced toward the Rhine, and when StrassbuYg was reached by the advance guards Friday afternoon came the climax of the celebration. The superb Alsatian capital was already one fluttering mass of red, white and blue. Automobiles arrived with officers in advance of the troops and the officers were taken out and carried in triumph into the city. All afternoon and all evening the troops inarched through the town arm in arm with Alsatians in their national costume. All day Saturday they did the same and Sunday evening they continued by torchlight—long lines of horizon blue, interspersed witli the gay colors of the Alsatian costumes; ribbons stretching from’ curb to curb; singing, dancing, the people seemingly oblivious to the sharp cold. The reoccupation of Alsace-Lorraine by the French troops has been accompanied by growing enthusiasm on the part of the population in proportion as the forces pehetrate farther toward the Rhine. Nearest to the old German frontier the rejoicing is greatest and the manifestations most picturesque.