ABSTRACT
On 14 December 1918, James Shotwell (1874–1965), professor of history at Columbia University, observed the crowd as Woodrow Wilson’s carriage passed by his window at the Carillon Hotel. Shotwell was a member of the American delegation for the coming Peace Conference.
Looking down from our windows we could see the crowds converging down the different streets into the square like a solid black stream. … The soldiers tried to keep a single track way open for the President [Wilson] from the bridge over the Seine through the Place de la Concorde. But the pressure of the crowd was so great that the line of soldiers was moved in and out until the space which they were to keep clear was all indented and twisted instead of being a straight line … 1
