Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-12-30

those that blazed, and the countryside
was disordered by a multitude of wan
dering and lawless strangers. In some
parts Of the world famine ragged, and
in many regions there was plague.
The plains north of India, which
had become more and more dependent
for the general welfare on the railways
and that great system of irrigation
canals which the malignant section of
the patriots had destroyed, were in
state of peculiar distress; whole vii
lagos lay dead together, no man heed
ing. and the very tigers and panthers
that preyed upon the emaciated sur
vivors crawled back infected into the
jungle to perish. Large areas of China
were a prey to br1gand bands.
It is remarkable thing that no COM
plete contemporary account of the ex-
plosion of the atomic bombs survives.
There are, of course, innumerable al
lusions and partial records, and it is
from these that subsequent ages must
piece together the image Of these dev-
astations.
The phenomena, it must be remem-
bered, changed greatly from day to
day, and even from hour to hour, as
the exploding bomb shifted its posi-
ton, threw off fragments or came into
contact with water or fresh texture
of soil. Barnet, who came within
~ Do or1u IN
is concerned chiefly with his account
Of the social confusion Of the country
side and the problems of his command,
but he speaks of heaped cloud masses
Of steam "all along the sky to the
southwest and of red glare beneath
these at night. Parts Of Paris were
still burning, and numbers of people
were camped in the fields even at this
distance watching over treasured heaps
Of salvaged loot. He speaks, too, of
the distant rumbling of the explosion
like trains going over iron bridges"
Other descriptions agree with this;
they all speak of the continuous rever-
berations'' or of the "thudding and
hammering," or some such phrase, and
they all testify to huge pail of steam,
from which rain would fall suddenly
in torrents and amid which lightning
played. Drawing nearer to Paris, an
observer would have found the sal
wage camps increasing in number and
blocking up the villages, and large
numbers of people, often starving and
ailing camping under improvised tents
because there was no place for them to
go. The sky became more and more
densely overcast until at last it blotted
out the light of day and left nothing
but dull red glare extraordinarily
depressing to the spirit" In this dull
glare, great numbers Of people were
still living, clinging to their houses and
in many cases subsisting in state Of
partial famine upon the produce in
their gardens and the stores in the
shops of the provision dealers.
Coming In still closer, the investiga-
tor would have reached the police cor
don, which was trying to check the
desperate enterprise of those who
would return to their homes or rescue
their more valuable possessions within
the zone of imminent danger
That zone was rather arbitrarily de-
fined. If our spectator could have got
permission to enter it, he would have
entered also zone of uproar, zone
Of perpetual thunderings. lit by
strange purplish red light, and culver.
Ing and swaying with the incessant
explosion Of the radio active sub.
stance. Whole blocks of buildings
were alight and burning fercely, the
trembling, ragged flames looking pale
and CHASTITY and attenuated in COM
parison with the full bodied crimson
glare beyond. The shells Of other
edifices already burnt rose pierced by
rows Of window sockets against the
red Lit mist.
Every step further would have been
as dangerous as descent within the
crater of an active volcano. These
spinning, boiling bomb centers would
shift and break Unexpectedly into new
regions, great fragments of earth or
drain or masonry suddenly caught by
jet of descriptive force might come fly
ing by the explorers head, or the
ground yawn, a fiery grave beneath
his feet. Few who ventured into
these areas Of destruction and surviv-
ed attempted any repetition Of their ex-
periences. There are stories of puffs
Of luminous, radio active vapor drift
Ing sometimes scores Of miles from the
bomb center and killing and scorching
all they overlook. And the first con-
flagrations from the Paris center
spread westward half way to the sea.
Moreover, the air in this Internal in
ner circle of red lit ruins had peculiar
dryness and a blistering quality, so
that it set up a soreness of the skin
and lungs that was very difficult to
heal.
Ito be continued}