The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1914-09-18
PARlSEWITH0UT
NERVES AS BOMBS
FALL FROM SKY
City Regards German AerOplane
Visits as New Sport, Writes
a Correspondent.
Furious Fusilade From Rifles
Falls Harmless on ArmOred
Aircraft.
(By William Philip Simms.)

AL ~ al
(By William Philip Simms.)
PARIS, Sept. 2.-(By mail to New
York, Sept. 17.)-Paris is the city
without nerves. Paris refuses abso-
lutely to be frightened. Drinking
grenadine sirups, diluted with water,
and watching, quite nonchalantly, the
dropping of German bombs on the
city, is now the favorite pastime.
This afternoon l was sitting on the
terrace fronting the Cafe Cardinal.
1t was quite warm, brilliant sunshine
having poured down upon the city all
day. Scores of men and women
mostly women with scattering of
youths and old men-were sitting
about me, imbibing favorite sirups
Ind water. Walters hustled to and
tro-if the amble of the aged and
crippled walters, the only sort avail
able at present, can be termed a
bustle-and everything was quite
peaceful and serene.
Presently passerby stopped and,
shading his eyes, gazed into the sky.
Hostile Craft Appears.
"Another German aeroplane," he
said, quite as if accustomed to watch
chem fly over his head many times
day.
The people on the terrace looked up,
aead, was a "taube," meaning "pig-
CON-" a German aeroplane.
A pretty young French woman
near me, slipping her pomegranate
mixture, remarked:
what gall!'
She did not move. Her face did not
pale. Her voice was as steady as if
she were asking the waiter for a
,arafe Of fresh water. She looked up
now and then, alternating her upward
glance with sips Of rosy grenadine
Bomb Let Fall.
Suddenly there was boom. A bomb
exploded just around the corner. The
German aviator had let it fall from
MS "taube." Two English troopers in
khaki, seeing all eyes gazing upward
stopped in front of my table, fired
seven times each at the passing air
craft, and grinned sheepishly when
they saw it did not falter, but went
impudently on.
The people on the restaurant ter
race kept their seats. They went right
on drinking and gazing upward alter
nately. The little French beauty
said:
"Such a poor bomb. Not nearly 50
loud as cannon"
Armored and Unframed.
Then another bomb exploded and a
third. The aeroplane turned deliber-
ately over the Eiffel tower and from
the top Of this tall structure a ma
chine gun ratified away. Then a can
non roared from somewhere near the
Champ de Mars-again and again.
The German pilot turned now and be-
gan to back track. Near the Sacre-
Occur, the church on the top of the
Montmartre hill, the aeroplane flew,
and presently the patter of machine
gun, working from the dome, reached
our ears.
Funny they can't get him." said
the pretty little Frenchwoman, dab
bling her straw in the grenadine.
"Armored," said her companion in
bored sort Of way. "He's flying an
armored acceptance
"Why doesn't French pilot go for
nim ?" asked the woman.
"Search me-" replied the man.
The aeroplane disappeared and the
crowd on the terrace went right on
with it's drinks.
Another Flying Visitor.
While writing the above, the sound
Of gun firing reached me through the
open window. Looking out l saw
everyone below me gazing up. About
1000 feet over the Rue Montmartre
directly over my head, a "taube" was
blithely making it's daring way toward
Eiffel tower. From the roofs men were
firing by the dozens. Soldiers in the
streets blazed away at the speck in
the sky, but through the glasses
could see that the machine was an
armored one and that the bullets were
doing no harm.
The people we're not excited. They
were only curious. Those who have
watched a crowd at an ordinary avia-
ton meet can picture the Paris
throngs mentally and perfectly, as
they watch a bomb-falling aviator
from the enemy's lines sail over their
heads.
Parisians Laugh at Danger.
After circling the great steel tower,
receiving a baptism Of fire from the
top Of it, the ''taube" returned, pass
ing over the bourse. A number of peo-
pie collected under the terrace roof
there as matter of precaution.
One man expressed the sentiments
of all the others:
German bombs don't. always ex-
plode," he said, ''but I'll bet one
would hurt mans head if it fell on
it,
Everybody laughed. The German
aeroplane over their city didn't worry
them bit. They were not in the
least panic-stricken. They took it as
new sort of an exhibition, providing
a new thrill. They watched the Ger
man pilot disappear in a hail of bull
let's, quite as if accustomed to such
things all their lives.
Paris is still smiling. She is almost
deserted, but she is gay.
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