The attached two page article appeared in one of the 1936 issues of The American Legion Monthly, a magazine intended for U.S. veterans of the First World War. The article is about the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph in London and was written by a journalist who was deeply impressed by the collective sense of gratitude and respect that marked that occasion.
“This chill November morning the Cenotaph is surrounded by serried masses of men. Up and down Whitehall as far as one can see are thousands and thousands packed in so tightly they cannot move…Suddenly from St. James Park comes the sound of a gun. They used to say it was impossible for a British crowd to be quiet. That was before Armistice Day. For the hum of London dies at the sound of the gun…Somewhere in the distance a horse paws the ground and neighs. A flag flaps in the breeze. Never such a silence as this. A King and his people pause sixty seconds in solemn celebration for the dead. It is the Great Hush.”
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