"Much as the white population of the town demonstrated their
welcome to the Regiment, it was, after all, those of their own
color to whom the occasion belonged. And they did themselves proud
In making it an occasion to recall for years in Harlem, San Juan
Hill and Brooklyn, where most of the fighters were recruited.

"At the official reviewing stand at 60th street, the kinsfolk and
admirers of the regimental lads began to arrive as beforehandedly
as 9 o'clock. They had tickets, and their seats were reserved for
them. The official committee had seen to that--and nine-tenths of
the yellow wooden benches were properly held for those good
Americans of New York whom birth by chance had made dark-skinned
instead of fair. BUT this was their Day of Days, and they had
determined (using their own accentuation) to BE there and to be
there EARLY.

"The first-comers plodded across 59th Street from the San Juan Hill
district, and it was fine to see them. There seemed to be a little
military swank even to the youngsters, as platoons of them stepped
along with faces that had been scrubbed until they shone. Had a
woman a bit of fur, she wore it. Had a man a top hat--origin or
vintage-date immaterial--he displayed that. All heads were up,
high; eyes alight. Beaming smiles everywhere. No not quite
everywhere. Occasionally there was to be seen on a left sleeve a
black band with a gold star, which told the world that one of the
Old 15th would never see the region west of Columbus Circle,
because he had closed his eyes in France. And the faces of the
wearers of these were unlaughing, but they held themselves just as
proudly as the rest.

"Few of the welcomers went flagless. No matter whether a man or
woman wore a jewel or a pair of patent leather boots as a sign of
"class," or tramped afoot to the stand or arrived in a limousine,
nearly every dark hand held the nation's emblem.

"Nearly every one wore white badges bearing the letters: "Welcome,
Fighting 15th," or had pennants upon which stood out the regimental
insignia--a coiled rattlesnake of white on a black field.

"Those colored folk who could afford it journeyed to the stand in
closed automobiles. Gorgeously gowned women alighted with great
dignity beneath the admiring gaze of their humbler breth