Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1915-09-16
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPARD

oS "IAL1AM W. Sf1cIA AND
Copyright 1915 by the United Press)
LONDON. Sept. lit is Wednes-
day night, September 8th. Above the
din Of the orchestra there sweeps over
the theater cavernous bass boom.
Zeppelin, whispers the pretty girl
next to Scotch officer.
NO. you hear him whisper. Its
door banging" He's lying. and
knows 1t.
Zeppelin" Zeppelin"
The whisper runs through the audi
ence.
II you knew what is transpiring in
the street, you would be out there in
stead of waiting for the last act. Such
a scene is being enacted out there as
old London, in all her rich. thousand
year history, has never beheld.
The curtain goes down. You file out
into the street. Traffic is at a stand
still. A million quiet cries make a
subdued roar. Seven million people
in the biggest city in the world are
gazing skyward from the darkened
streets.
Here is the climax of the twentieth
century.
Among the autumn stars floats a
long, gaunt Zeppelin. 1t is of a dull
yellow-the color of the harvest moon.
The long fingers of the searchlights,
reaching up from the roofs of the
city are touching all sides of the
death messenger with their white tips.
Great booming sounds shake the city.
They are Zeppelin bombs-falling-
kllling-burning.
Lesser noises-of shooting-nearer
at hand are the noises of aerial guns
shooting shrapnel skyward
For Gods sake! Don't do that"
says one man to another who has
struck match to light a cigarette.
Whispers and low voices run all
through the streets.
There's a red light in the sky over
there, our house may be burning" eX.
claims woman, clutching a mans
coat.
There are a million houses In Lon.
don; why ours particularly" he re.
spends.
A group OF men, talking French, are
gazing up from the street. They are
in walters clothes, and have rushed
out of one of the most luxurious no.
tells in the world.
THE Devils" eXclaims one, then
We've got It! 1t can't get away!
There's shrapnel all around it,"
"Oh, my neck" says a pretty girl
In evening wraps. Il can't look up a
minute more"
But she does.
All about you are beautifully garb.
ed women, and men in evening cloth
es.
"Oh's," "Ah's"-long drawn out-ex.
carnations of admiration like sounds
made by American crowds watching
fireworks. greet the brilliant white
flashes OF shrapnel.
Suddenly you realize the biggest
city in the world has become a night
battle field on which seven million
harmless men, women and children
live. Here is war at the very heart
Of civilization, threatening all the mil.
lions OF things that human hearts and
human minds have created in past
centuries. Moumers tonight will leave
the side OF their dead to look sky.
ward. Little children, who have said
Now lay me down." and have gone
to sleep will be awakened and rushed
to cellars to save them from death.
Good God! It's staggering" ex.
claims one as shrapnel flashes appar.
emily near the airship.
But the Zeppelin moves on steadily.
What a roar Of joy would go UP from
millions In this great city If they could
suddenly see the yellow object trans.
formed In a flash into one gigantic
gas explosion! Little white gloved
hands would clap approval in smiles
men would roar with delight. These
men, and women, flowers of twentieth
century culture. would become ele,
mental. Dirty, bloody, battle-made
soldiers feel the same way In battle
Killing has been put into the hearts
of these crowds,
II the men up there In the sky think
they are terrifying London, they are
wrong. They are only making Eng
land white-hot mad.
The redness Of burning building
fills the sky. The dome of historic St
Paul's cathedral looms up against the
redness. You pass 1t In side street
Az the gateway, stands an old verger
half dressed.
It has been his duty for fifty years
to guard the church against thieves