The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1915-08-07
SHEPHERD TELLS OF
CONDITIONS NEAR
ITALIAN FRONT
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD

(Un1ted Press ata0 oo1rsspondent)
Udine, July GBy mail. -
Udine is the Italian front, that is,
it is as near the Italian front as you
can get. And you're; not supposed
to be here. ~zz 3E LIZ AZ
You've journeyed from Paris to
Rome, then from Rome to Venice and
from Venice to this little Italian
town and when you get here you st1lnds find
you're not welcomed.
Other nations got excited T when
their part of the great. war started
but 1taly's frenzy outdid them all,
The censorship in Italy was, the
strictest, the tie up of the railroads
the completest, the silence Of the
telegraph and telephone the deepest,
the secrecy the greatest and the rah
horrence of correspondents the most
thorough. .@,s
It's for this latter reason thataa'
soldier meets you at the train. I'm
some way he has heard that you were
coming. Little does it matter to
him that you have travelled thou
sands of miles, that you have spent
hundreds of dollars and scores Of
hot, dusty hours to get to this place.
His duty is to take you to certain
hotel where unwelcome persons can
be visited by the military police and
probed. =,
When you get to the hotel you
take the room the hotel man gives
you. In a way, you're a guest; in
another way you're prisoner. Little
difference does it make that you're
an American and that the hotel
mans brother is a barber in San
Francisco and that he's doing we'll
there. The hotel man is under mill
tary rule, too; he must give you one
of the rooms that have been set off
by the military authorities for un-
desirables.
After you get your baggage into
your room you decide to go out and
face the music with the police; it's
better to go to them than to have
them come to you. So, in q rattly
cab, you start off to the police sta.
ton. It is Sunday evening, at seven;
the streets are. filled with soldiers
hundreds and thousands of them.
They go about in groups; they laugh,
but, mostly, they sing. You hear
snatches from all the operas.
Everybody sings tenor; there are
scores of Carusos about. The SOL
diers walk through the streets with
their arms about each other; Italian
men are great for arm holding and
hugging. II
The soldiers are huge; it is pick
ed regiment; six-footers are, only av-
erage. Of all the gatherings I have
seen on both sides of the great war
this gathering at Udine was made up
of the biggest men have seen in
one big group. Among these Italian
soldiers you are in a boydom. Your
carriage, going through a. narrow
street, passes a moving picture
theater which is just emptying itself
of soldiers; they're shouting and
laughing and gesticulating; you see
hundreds of pairs of hands. waving.
Your carriage comes to a halt, the
horsesis pulling in vain; twenty sol
diers have caught the spokes of the
hind wheels; the rear end: of the cab
kicks up; the soldiers have, lifted
it into the air; the horse and the cab,
and you suddenly shoot forward !;
thirty giant Italian soldiers are push
ing the rig from behind it Il like. a
wheel barrow. Then someone <yells:
Oh, you American!"
American! American! American!"
runs through the crowd. Then
someone yells, Long live the Amer
icans." In moment Everybody
yells it. .''Three cheers for New
York; yells another. in good New
York English. Long live New
York. yells the army.
The rear. wheels of our carriage
come down with a thud. As. you
drive away you stand UP and bow and
every cheers, again for America.
| You find the police station closed
for the night. -
You've come all this way to Udine
with the curtains Of your train win
dow closed tight; when you go to the
hotel you find the wooden shutters
closed You cannot open them; It's
against the military rule. You cant
open them, even after you've put
your candle out at night. The hotel
keeper doesn't know why; you don't
II rr,1,y oire S{e,fS