one admirer.

"'Funeral for them bush Germans, boy! Sure a funeral for them
bushes.' shouted Henry.

"The official reviewing party, after the parade had passed 60th
street, had hurried uptown, and so had the Police Band, and so
there were some doings as the old 15th breezed past 135th Street.
But no one up there cared for Governors or ex-Governors or
dignitaries. Every eye was on the Black Buddies and every throat
was opened wide for them.

"At 145th Street the halt was called. Again there was a tremendous
rush of men and women with outstretched arms; the military
discipline had to prevail, and the soldiers were not allowed to
break ranks, nor were the civilians (save the quickest of them)
able to give the hugs and kisses they were overflowing with.

"As rapidly as possible the fighters were sent down into the subway
station and loaded aboard trains which took them down to the 71st
Regiment Armory at 34th Street and Fourth Avenue. Here the
galleries were filled with as many dusky citizens as could find
places (maybe 2,500 or 3,000) and so great was the crowd in the
neighborhood that the police had to block off 34th Street almost to
Fifth Avenue on the west and Third on the east.

"As each company came up from the subway the friends and relatives
were allowed to go through the lines, and, while the boys stood
still in ranks, but at ease, their kinsfolk were allowed to take
them in their arms and tell them really and truly, in close-up
fashion, what they thought about having them back.

"When the entire regiment was in the Armory, the civilians in the
gallery broke all bounds. They weren't going to stay up there while
their heroes were down below on the drill-floor! Not they! They
swarmed past the police and depot battalion and so jammed the floor
that it was impossible for the tired Black Buddy even to sit down.
Most of the boys had to take their chicken dinner--served by
colored girls, and the chow, incidentally, from
Delmonico's--standing up with arms about them and kisses
punctuating assaults upon the plates.

"'Some chow, hey Buddy?' would be heard.

"'Pretty bon.' You'd get the answer. 'I'd like to have beaucoup
more of this chicken.' There was noticeable a sprinkling of French
words in the conversation of the Old 15th,