Evening star., 1915-05-23

to invest Fort Hamilton before tomof-
row morning. Surrender will prevent
useless loss of life and destruction of
property
A special train brought the deputa-
ton into Washington before daylight
next morning. The New York men went
at once to the White House, where they
were received by the President, who
had not been in bed. You have no
doubt that they mean to make good
their threat of bomba bardmento" asked
the President. after receiving their re-
port. Then. gentlemen, there is only
one action for this government to
take" He sighed. and echoed the re-
frain of all the past days There is
nothing else that we can do
An hour later the wires to New YORK,
cleared bv orders from the War De-
nartment carried a dispatch to the
commandants at Fort Hamilton and
Fort Wadsworth. 1t ordered them to
surrender.
From his headquarters the enemy
commander ordered detachments 10 go
down the harbor in boats and occupy
the captured defenses. Then he sent
his troops forward into the city
And now the New Workers who had
expected that their streets would De
flooded by great army were amazed
at the ease and simplicity with which
the city fell into military control. In
stead of brigades entering the city,
there were not even regiments. troops
of cavalry, companies of infantry, SIN
gle machine-gun detachments. moving
separately down separated avenues,
with big intervals between them, were
all the force that entered.
Some bo..tloads of men and artillery
passed down the river and landed In
BROOKLYN, some to occupy the navy
ward and others to reinforce the men
who had come in through Long Island;
but the army remained outside, holdlng
the northern districts from the sound
to the Hudson. and guarding the Hud-
son river and Putnam valleys against
surprise attack from the direction OF
Albany.
The officers in charge of the men who
entered the city asked no questions
insly each led his force to the point
that he wanted. Within two hours
New York was wholly in the hands OF
the soldiers.
Nobody had thought Of 1T before.
Now all at once, when ii was accom-
plished it amazed the people of New
York to learn how easy il was to con-
troll the city's whole life. civic and
commercial.
A battalion of infantry occupied the
Grand Central Terminal. Another bat
talon took the great Pennsylvania ter
minal with its under-river tunnels to
New Jersey and Long Island, Detach
ments appeared at the 23d street and
42d street ferries over the Hudson
river and by that one seizure con-
trolled all railroad connections with
the west from uptown. The occupa-
tion of half dozen other Hudson river
railroad ferries downtown. and of the
Hudson terminal tube system, COM
pleted the entire control of all the
city's railroad traffic in every direc-
ton.
Equally simple was the control of its
communications. Men appeared at the
the telephone building. Within half
an hour they had every trunk line of
wires In their hands, and could strike
the city dumb at will.
Thus less than three thousand men
had their fingers on the big towns
spinal nerves, and could paralyZe 1t
with slight pressure.
1t was still easier to control the city
from a military point of view. The
citizens who had expected to see their
streets commanded by cannon on linn
bers, did not at first comprehend why
there were hardly any of these to be
seen. while machine gun detachments
scattered and disappeared as soon as
they got well into the town. Only
gradually did the citizens discover that
their big, sprawling metropolis was
being held subject by a very simple
utilization OF the city's characteristic
feature.
This feature was the sky-scraper. To
the eye Of the soldier, these high build
ings were nothing SO much as inviting
and magnificent eminences for con-
trolling the street-valleys and their
population below.
Four men with a ma chine gun and
abundance of ammunition in one OF
these stone and steel submits could
control more area than half a dozen
heavy field gun batteries posted in the
streets could command.
These sentinel watchers were as aloof
and as sure as fate. They could neither
be rushed by a mob nor sniped from
concealment. At a word from the tele-
phone in their aeries. they could start
death dancing among the pygmy hordes
far under them.
r. From the top of the Woolw worth build
ing two of the little guns pointed down