New Britain herald., 1914-08-11
LEE BOYS COMING
 HOME THIS EVENING
Were at Sea When They Heard of
 War Bting Declared.


 ert E. Lee have arrived in New York after their visit to Europe and will be at their home in New Britain this evening. They have had an interest ing as we'll as exciting trip and were as close to the European armies as they ever care to be. The young m ,n reached New York at 3 o'clock this morning: before noon the Herald had them on the telephone and this is what Bob" had to say concerning his experiences:
 While in Switzerland we were amazed at the preparations that were being made there for war. At Strass- burg we saw 10000 German troops and when we went to Lenz we saw 30,000 more, all belonging to the army of the Kaiser. There was all the en- thusiasm that goes with such a gath ering, the crowds on the street being large, the actions of the people suy- gesting great military excitement. From there we went farther north, going into Holland, from there to Bel gium, where thousands of more troops were seen, and we then crossed over to England, going to London, and from there we crossed the Irish Sea, visiting Belfast, and there witnessed the various demonstrations that have become peculiar to the home rule agi- tation. We went to the south of Iro- land and were surprised to find troops were being mobilized and sent to the borders. This was particularly true of Cork and Kerry, the harbor of the former city being closed. At Queens town there were large crowds of peo- pie, all anxious to get ship home.
 Hears of War.
 We sailed July 31 on the steamer Cedric. which was on Friday, and on the following Monday while we were at sea the captain received news by wireless that England had declared war on Germany. Things went along all right Tuesday and Wednesday,, but on Wednesday night it was being noised around the decks that the ship had changed its course and on the following day if was well known on that the course was not for New York, where he set out for, but for Halifax There was intense ex- citement on board, no one knowing | what might happen. Some of the were frightened. As we neared Halifax we met the English | cruiser Essex, which escorted us into | the harbor. There had been various | rumors all to the effect that there were German spies on board tho 1 Cedric and 1t was difficult to assure l the people of the untruthfulness "t | the reports. The Essex after it had | coaled steamed out Of the harbor | amid the most intense excitement. | Every one knew the war was on, that | If the opportunity presented itself | that the cruiser would do some fight ing and 1t seemed as if 1t was going | away for just that purpose. We sailed from Halifax on Saturday night and we had hardly gotten out of the har- Dor when we encountered dense fog and the ship proceeded with its ligh.s put and did not even sound the fog whistles, so wary was the captain Of attract attention. The passengers seemed to feel that the ship was on . perilous mission and there was sub iued excitement on board. I recall ,ne man sleeping on the deck with ais clothes on and life belt nt his side. As we came near New York We could hear the fog horns of other steamers far off. but we could not see hem. We got in this morning at , o'clock and feel all right