Jackson County, Ohio

Armistice Celebrated

Firearms Forbidden in Demonstration Monday Night

The announcement of the arrival of peace was duly celebrated here monday evening but the celebration was a tame affair compared with the one that followed the false announcement Thursday. Thursday afternoon and evening there was a pandemonium of bells,whistles and horns, and firearms were discharged in the city without regard for life or limb. Hardware stores disposed of practically their entire stock of powder and cartridges and shot fell like hail-stones over the business part of the city. During the evening the redlights over the town clock were turned on to summon the police but almost immediately they were shot out. Persons in the crowd stated that the marksman was in a sailor's uniform. Almost miraculously no one was injured although a number of narrow escapes were reported and several windows were broken. The use of firearms was forbidden by Mayor Ely Monday and the demonstration was shorter, safer and quieter. A parade of more than a thousand people, led by the Liberty Band and the Fife and Drum corps, formed at 7 o'clock and marched through the main streets with flags flying, their path lighted by red fire. At Oak Hill, where firearms were also forbidden in the city limits, a whole box of dynamite was discharged on a nearby hill and dozens of windows were broken in the village by the force of the explosion.

Wellston Telegram, Wellston OH; November 13, 1918