Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1918. 'Shouting, shrieking mob of humanity' celebrates war's end

The siren on the Journal building shredded the night, announcing to Providence at about 3 a.m. that the World War was over.

"In an hour Westminster street from Dorrance to Union was a seething, jostling, shouting, shrieking mob of humanity, through which a steady stream of autos flowed," the paper reported Nov. 12, 1918.

The headline of that story: Greatest Day in History of City.

The story started this way:

"God smiled down on Providence yesterday.

"The greatest day in its history: the day which will forever mark the surrender of the Germans, the flight of the Kaiser and the triumph of right and the arms of the Allies over wrong and beastliness could not have been made more perfect.

"Overhead the wonderful blue of the sky, clear from dawn to dusk with the sparkle of brilliant sunlight canopied thousands of shouting, shrieking, singing people, gone mad with joy over the triumph of the United States.

"Providence never witnessed such a celebration before. It will never see another."

The Journal's editorial page was more sober. Germany must be "fettered" the paper warned in November 1918, so she can never again threaten the peace.

Courtesy of the Rhode Island Historical Society

Crowds fill the streets of Providence for Armistice Day 1919.

Courtesy of the Rhode Island Historical Society

The Victory Arch stands in Exchange Place, Providence, that same year.

"It would be the height of folly to leave [Germany] any loophole through which, in a few years hence, to renew her crafty foray upon the world."

At the time, Adolf Hitler was a 29-year-old corporal.