The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. IX, 1910Various
History
The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. IX, 1910
Various
American-Irish Historical Society -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- United States -- Periodicals; Irish Americans -- Periodicals
Notable was the passage of the Clermont float. It was well known to all
that Martin Sheridan and John Flannagan were to be there, and where
there was any doubt among the onlookers as to which was which, were not
the policemen along the route ready to tell them? “That’s Martin
Sheridan, the man in the bell-topper,” alluding to the remarkable
headgear under which the great athlete stood for the great inventor. So
the cheers billowed for the Clermont all the way, a cheer for Robert
Fulton and “a tiger, boys, for Martin!”
THE POLICE AND THEIR TASK.
And as to those great-bodied policemen who held the swarming, sometimes
obstreperous, but generally patient crowds in check, how finely they did
it all. I would hesitate to say whether their faces or their accents
indicated sixty or seventy per cent. of live Celtic blood in them, but
it was not less than the lower figure, and may have been more than the
greater. They won golden opinions on every side and from all classes
that day, and for the many long, arduous days until the celebration was
over. It was not merely to hold the line—a task calling for firmness,
tact, strength and continuous good nature, but handling with skill the
enormous crowds that filled the avenues when the processions had gone
by, and all were rushing for their homes, filling to overflowing every
car-line, every elevated roadway, and particularly cramming to
congestion in the subway. In addition they had at all times to be
“guide, philosopher and friend” to the full million of visitors new to
metropolitan ways and pavements. And that was a task in itself.
THE MILITARY PARADE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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