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B. of E. Wash.D.C.  12 Nov.,1921.

Dear Folks:

I have so much to write to you that I am beginning the day before my usual time. I think you would like to hear all about Armistice Day celebration here, and as I went to everything there was agoing, here it is:

We got up about 5.30 and were off by 7 and had our choice of places down on Pennsylvania Ave. We located down in front of the old Post-office which is where the cars start for Arlington. For once we had a first line stand right next to the wiring off. We stood waiting there for a good hour and a half. Weren't our feet cold, though. There had been the first frost of the season and itwas a thick white frost and a chilly wind there before the sun got over the rooftops. The crowd gradually gathering all felt the same way about it, and the little boy scouts who thronged the place with their long poles to keep order were hopping up and down and running back and forth to keep warm. We were amused by watching the autos that were speeding down the way with people for the procession. We saw Coolidge in one, Taft in another and various others. At last the first horsemen of the procession appeared, then the band, and the picked troops, and after them the casket borne by three pairs of black horses and on a black cart, and covered with a flag. Right behind it were the dignitaries, - Harding with Pershing, the Vice President, the Supreme Court with Taft big as life, the Governors, all looking very big and magnificent in their tall silk hats, the Congressmen, and tagging them the little messenger boys who felt just as big, and then more troops. I liked the horses best, they were beauties and they pranced and held their heads up and their ears pointed and their tails out and put their feet down as if stepping on eggs. They were fully alive to the occasion in every proud movement.

When the bulk of the procession had passed, and the old Grand Army men who had marched as far as they could were falling out, and Wilson in his open barouche with his wife in her best black furs with a red poppy in her buttonhole had driven by, we edged our way out and to the cars. The rush had just begun, and we fought our way on. But according to all accounts we were more successful in getting over to Arlington Cemetery than the majority. Anyhow we got there, chilled to the bone. We found a spot on a little knoll where there is a clump of fir trees, that overlooks a reserved plat and then the west entrance to the Amphitheatre. This entrance is directly opposite the platform where the speakers sat, so we could look in and with the aid of Sid's glasses see more, or less distinctly the speakers. Aside from this view [[strikethrough]]of[[/strikethrough]] into the Amphitheatre, it was a wonderful position. The Amphitheatre is circular with many collonades, and is set in a background of scattered fir trees which set off the marble beautifully. Away in the background and down below is the Potomac and beyond the city and the Maryland hills. On either side are the brown rolling hills of the cemetery with their white slabs and trees. Directly in front of us was the reserved open space, and to the left the road to the amphitheatre by which all the procession must come. Even as we an hour ahead of time, sat there, the road was full of grand cars bringing