March 27, 1919. New York's 27th Division receives a parade, Wyoming veterans reported on way home.

American Red Cross Volunteer Motor Corps transporting wounded veterans of the 27th Division in a parade held on this day in New York City, 1919.

A huge parade was held on this day in New York City where the 27th Division, which had been formed from New York National Guardsmen, marched.

West Point cadet receiving hot chocolate from a Red Cross volunteer.

 Wounded and nurse viewing from an open window on Millionaires' Row.

Camp Dix, March 25, 1919.

Probably more than a few of those soldiers had come through Camp Dix at some point.

Closer to home. .  or not, Wyomingites read that 147 Wyomingites in the 264th Infantry were on the way home.

March 21, 1919. Jams.

Cpt. S. A. Mitchell, American Red Cross, demonstrates the can opener he invented to open jam cans for canteens.  Ostensibly, Red Cross volunteers, mostly women, staffing the canteens were cutting their hands opening the cans which were opened at a prodigious rates due to servicemen's fondness for jam.

Cpt. S. A. Mitchell of the American Red Cross was photographed on this day with the can opener he invented for Red Cross canteens.

American servicemen visiting the canteens consumed jam at a prodigious amount.  Indeed, servicemen in general did, and the uniformity, in terms of offerings, of jam in the British Army was a frequent source of jokes.  At any rate, the Red Cross staff of canteens, mostly women, reportedly cut their hands frequently trying to open them, and Cpt. Miller put his inventive mind to work on the problem.

Bela Kun put his inventive mind to work and came out on top, briefly, in a struggle in Hungary that saw the Hungarian People's Republic become the Hungarian Soviet Republic and then seek aid from the Soviet Union against the French and others.

The Hungarian Soviet Republic was a dangerous development but not a large one.  It controlled only 23% of the country whereas the rest of it was either under Allied occupation or under control of other entities.  It occupied a region of large cities and therefore not surprisingly it had a lot of Socialist under its jurisdiction.

The Socialist in fact had caused the change in government to come about when they merged, without their leader's knowledge, with the Communist party in a move that they thought would increase their strength.  It did not.  The leader of the Communist, Bela Kun, was a mere tool of Lenin's and Lenin effectively ran the new state from afar and by way of radio contact with Kun.  One of its first moves was to purge the Socialist.  The government was hugely unpopular in the countryside where resistance to it was massive and in turn it utilized increasingly brutal measure to try to enforce its will.  

The Hungarian Soviet Republic existed only for 133 days and only for that long as it at first had the support of Hungarian nationalist as it promised to restore Hungary's borders, which were decreasing due to post war adjustments.  It attacked areas in the north that had been given to Czechoslovakia but then its formation of a new Czech soviet republic caused it to lose nationalist support as it was realized that the governments only goals were Communist.  A war against Romania went badly and the government fell to armed opposition.

Kun fled to the USSR and lost his life in Stalin's purges, a victim of the evil system whose stooge he was.

March 19, 1919. Red Cross Post Office in Paris.

Red Cross post office department in Paris, March 19, 1919.

March 18, 1919. Pershing inspects. King Albert loans. Red Cross drives.

General Pershing adderessed the 4th Division at Kaiseresch, March 18, 1919.

 Red Cross garage at Rue Laugier, Paris.  March 18, 1919.

Red Cross garage at Buffalo Park, Paris.  March 18, 1919.

Red Cross dining room at St. Germaine en Laye, a chateau that was loaned to the Red  Cross by the King of Belgium.

March 15, 1919: The busy post war Red Cross, a busy Poncho Villa and a League of Nations.

Female American Red Cross personnel in Paris, France, March 15, 1919.

French women employed by the American Red Cross repurposing bed linens in Paris, March 15, 1919.

American Red Cross hostel, Paris, with beds pulled from former hospitals.

 American Red Cross rest camp for American servicemen near the Eiffel Tower, Paris.

Americans getting a hot meal in Paris.

The war may have ended, but the duties of the Red Cross kept on.  Thousands of servicemen remained in Europe and their needs continued on, as did those of the thousands of refugees that were displaced as a result of the war.  For those folks, the Red Cross kept in operation.

Closer to home some were dreaming of their 1919 gardens.

And some were imaging adventure and probably romance.

J. C. Leyendecker was imagining fruit filled homecomings.

Villa was imagining a victory in Mexico and took some hostages towards that end..  The Mormons had a colony in Mexico at the time, and Villa apparently didn't take kindly to it, or at least saw it as an opportunity.

And alcohol interests were imagining a few more months in business to try to keep up their struggle to keep their product legal.

Woodrow Wilson was imagining the League of Nations as part of a treaty to end the war, which all the former warring parties were now working on.

March 13, 1919. Pershing visits Treves, Women seek to hold on to jobs, Communists seek global revolution, Ireland seeks independence, Anti Saloon League seeks to stop 3%.

General Pershing at the American Red Cross facility at Treves, Germany.

General Pershing was touring part of the American Zone of Occupation on this day in 1919.

American Red Cross personnel in formation for the inspection of General Pershing at Treves, Germany.

In doing that, he stopped by the Red Cross facility at Treves.

He clearly delivered a speech while doing that.  Note how the Red Cross men appear as soldiers, which they were, many male members of the ARC having been taken into military service by the U.S. Army upon the American entry into the war.

Further to the East, the Communist were meeting in what was becoming the Soviet Union and advocating for a world revolution.  On the same day, interestingly enough, Admiral Kolchak's Whites launched the start of a spring offensive, the second White spring offensive launched this year, both of which were seeing a lot of initial success.

Women, who are commonly believed to day to have been introduced to commercial labor by World War Two, were arguing to retain their World War One jobs.

And the Anti Saloon League was arguing against even 3% booze, 3% being the typical amount in some session ales, such as Guinness Stout, and modern "American light lager", i.e, light beer.

March 10, 1919. The arrival of the USS Nebraska, Anticipating the arrival of Company I in Casper, Tennis in New York, Romantic comedies in the US

The battleship USS Boston, carrying soldiers on their way home from France, arrives in Boston.

People familiar with the efforts to bring the far flung U.S. military home after World War Two are familiar with Operation Magic Carpet. That operation employed sufficiently large U.S. Navy surface ships as troops transports, something they really weren't designed to be, to bring home soldiers and Marines.

Red Cross workers, also in Boston, awaiting the arrival of the USS Nebraska.

Almost forgotten is the fact that the same thing was done after World War One, an example of which we have here in the form of troops that were brought home on the USS Nebraska, a pre dreadnought Navy battleship.  It would have been a quite uncomfortable ride.

Wyoming National Guardsmen from Casper were coming home as well, by train.

The Casper men were set to arrive back in Casper by train on Tuesday, March 11.  The 20 plus men had been part of Company I of the Wyoming National Guard and had been assigned to the 116th Ammunition Train when the Wyoming Guard was busted up and converted from infantry to artillery and transport.

These men had been in service since the Guard had been mustered in the spring of 1917.  They had not been part of the earlier group mustered for the Punitive Expedition, or at least Company I hadn't existed as part of that group, in that form, as Casper had been too small in 1916 to have its own Guard unit.  That tiny status had rapidly passed, however, due to the World War One oil boom which built Casper.  By the spring of 1917 the town was big enough to contribute its own Company and some of those men were back, having just been mustered out of service at Ft. D. A. Russell in Cheyenne.

In New York, where the Nebraska had arrived, things were returning to a peacetime normal.

Betty Baker, who had won round at the indoor national women's tennis championship on this day in 1919.  She was sixteen years old at the time.

Betty Baker, about whom I know nothing else, was a tennis standout in 1919 at age 16.  Does anyone know if that continued?  I don't, but if you do, put in a comment and let us know.

And Monday movie releases continued to be a thing.

The public seemed to be in the mood for romantic comedies.

In other areas of speech, the United States Supreme Court was okay with restrictions:

1919 In  Schenk v United States, the US Supreme Court holds that the Espionage Act, restricting speech, does not violate the First Amendment to the US Constitution.