The next day, Toronto tallied the cost of the party: the lost revenue to the streetcar company, the injuries, the death, the 22 “apprehended inebriates” who found themselves in police court. It was Day 2 of peace, but the cloud of anxiety that had momentarily lifted for Armistice Day celebrations had returned. What would happen to all the munition plants? Would there suddenly be a rise in unemployment? Would women take the men’s jobs? How would the soldiers do back home? Would communism spread?

In England, Prime Minister David Lloyd George read the terms of the armistice in the House of Commons: “Thus comes to an end the most terrible and the most cruel war that has ever scourged mankind,” he said. “I hope we may say on this fateful morning that thus came to an end all wars.”

The politicians cheered.