Evening star., 1915-05-23

Chester presently WAS sufficient to con
vince even the most recklessly daring
that IL would be madness in the face OF
the IRON VIII that actuated the enemy.
The telephone call was from fhe corps
commander. who asked for the mayor
n have the honor he said. to in
form you that the American army. hay-
ing abandoned the defense of the ciir
Of New York and surrounding terri
tory. all military resistance against us
has ceased and We claim occupation
Under the rules of war. your civilian
citizens lay themselves open to penal
ties II they destroy bridges. railways
or other lines of communication. Should
such destruction occur. shall have 10
exact compensation for any suffering
that IL may cause 10 the troops under
my command
He is straining the law" cried one
of the citizens committee. who was an
authority on international law III.
has not yet occupied the territory con-
tiguous to the city"
II think that ne has made his occupa
tion good. said another. In our own
army's Rules of Warfare. paragraph
2so expressly states that it is sufficient
that the occupying army can, within a
reasonable time. send detachments OF
troops to make its authority felt within
the occupied district"
1t makes little difference" interposed
the mayor. We can't take him before
court Of appeals to argue hair-split-
ting distinctions. He has us. and can
do to us what he pleases. He needs
only the color OF Law to go to any
extremity. We should be insane 10 ar
que with him. The only thing to do is
to give renewed and urgent orders that
the population must absolutely avoid
any act of violence
Again the cold logic of inexorabIa
circumstances forced humble submis-
sion. Through all the districts north
OF the Harlem and through Westchester
county almost to the line of the enemy
patrols there was sent by every pos
sible method of communication the fol-
lowing warning:
The invading forces assert occupa-
ton OF the territory in which you re-
side. Under this occupation, any act
of disorder involving raiding, espionave.
damage to railways, war material.
bridges. roads, canals. telegraphs or
other means of communication is pun
isha BILE by death as war treason Com
munities in which such acts occur NAV
be punished collectively. All persons
are warned earnestly to yield full
obedience to the occupying military
forces and TO abstain from all Of
Thus for the men of New York war
was no matter of glorious resistance or
of splendid death. 1t was a matter of
cold lawyers logic with imprisonment
or execution as felons the only answer
should they try to assert their man.
hood
The knowledge held all the territory
passive. Men and horses and motors
moved into Westchester county with
no more opposition than II they were
pleasure seekers moving through
friendly country. Guns jolted along the
highways with their artillerists sitting
at ease. The Westchester hills and wall
leys echoed no shots. no cries of battle.
In every village and town the Ameri-
can flag fluttered down from the flag
sfaffs of schools and town halls
The corps commander that evening es-
tablished his headquarters in one of the
great houses in the famous residence
colony of orienta Point, Mamaroneck.
His columns. advancing along the
shore. spread out. occupied New Ro-
chelle and Mount Vernon, and encamp-
ed for the night in a great line that
stretched from the Long Island sound
TO the Hudson river. fencing New York
city on the north with a wall of men
and artillery.
1t was a wall of silence Not a word
came through to the city from Yonkers.
from Mount Vernon, from Pelham or
from any of the other places already
taken.
Only the harbor defenses of the sound
were still speaking to each other From
the forts on Throggs Neck, in West
chester county, and from Fort Totten. on
Long Island. the commanders at Forts
Hamilton and Wadsworth In the Mar
rows received requests for more men.
Large forces, said the sound defenders,
were closing in rapidly to invest them
on land from the rear. 1t would be IN
artillery and infantry fight, in which
the mammoth coast guns could take lit
tie part. II any. The end was certain
II refnforcements could not be sent
through the East river and the sound .
The commanders of the Narrows were
helpless to give aid. The commanders
of the Sandy Hook defenses were help
less. All the men. regulars and militia,
OF the coast artillery who could be OBJ
tained were not enough. Fort Hamil-
ton, being on the Long Island shore it,
self. dare not denude itself further than
1t had done. At any moment there
might be an attack on II, too The
southern defenses had no choice but 10
tell the eastern defenses that they must
do the best they could.
1t was about I o'clock in the morning
when the people OF northern Long
Island and the inhabitants of the bor-
ough of the Bronx and Westchester
county sprang from their beds in wild
alarm. Without warning, as if a hur-
ricane had struck with instant con-
centrated force, all their windows had
crashed. Their walls were shaking and
pictures and plaster falling. The air
itself was shaking like a throbbing
pulse.
1t was like no gunflre that men ever
had imagined. 1t was not a series of
explosions. 1t was like one explosion.
whose crescent violence would not
dwindIe. The people of far Brooklyn
and the people of lower Manhattan
heard IL. To their ears II was as II all
the thunders of a storm-riven heaven
had been loosed to roll necessarily.
Men on vantage points along the
sound that night saw the attacking
lines from end to end plainly as IL it
were day. So continuous was their fire
that 1t painted their positions with
broad, unwavering bands of flame. it
needed not the star bombs and rockets
that curved everywhere under the sky
to fall glaring into the defenses. It
needed not the magnesium lights that
foated from parachutes dropped by
aeroplanes. On both sides of the sound
the night was a red sea.
Into the mortar pits and gun em-
placements of the defenses. like red
surf from that red sea. beat the unending
fire. Shrapnel that walled like the bride
of the storm. and flew apart in the air.
flung bullets as If mines had burst
inside of the defense! Eleven-fnch
shells that hammered into concrete fac
ing and split it apart with the ire
sistible agony of their explosion! Five
inch shell and solid projectile! Bombs
hnf