The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1915-08-28
ALL ROMANCE Of
THE WAR BELONGS
TO THE AIRCRAFT
The Thrills and the Danger OF
Scouting All Theirs, Says
Frederick Palmer.
ARCHIBALD is ON THE JOB
Exciting Work Of the British Antiair-
craft Gun Described-Sight Of Aer-
opIane Under She'll Fire Never
Loses Its Thrill.
By FREDERICK PALMER.

BY FREDERICK PALMER.
international News Service Correspondent.
British Headquarters, France.-A
crack and a whish through the air!
No sound is more familiar at the front
where the artillery is never silent
the sound Of a shell breaking from
gun muzzle and its shrill flight toward
the enemy's line to pay the Germans
back for some shell they have sent.
Only this one did not pass out over
the landscape in a long paraboia or
toward the German lines. II went
right up into the heavens at about
the angle of a skyrocket-for 1t was
Archibald who was on the Job.
Six or seven thousand feet over the
British trenches there was something
as big as your hand against the light
blue Of the summer sky. This was
the target, a German aeroplane. By
the cut of his wings you knew it was
q Taube, just as you know a meadow
lark from a swallow.
So high was 1t that 1t seemed al
most stationary. But it was going
somewhere between fifty and ninety
miles an hour. 1t seemed to have
all the heavens to itself; and to the
British 1t was sinister, prying eye.
1t wanted to see IL they were building
any new trenches, IL they were NOV
ing bodies Of troops or of transport In
some new direction. and where their
batteries we're in hiding. That avi-
ator, three miles above the earth, had
many waiting guns at his command.
A few signals from his wireless and
they would let loose on the target he
indicated.
Never Loses Its Thrill.
Other features of life at the front
may grow commonplace, but never
the work OF the planes-these wings
OF the army's intelligence. In the
hide-and-seek digging and lodging and
countering Of siege warfare the sight
OF plane under shell fire never loses
its thrill.
A couple Of seconds after that crack
Q tiny pun of smoke breaks about a
hundred yards behind the Taube. A
soft thistle blow against the blue, 1t
seems at that altitude; but 1t wouldn't
II 1t were about your ears. Then 1t
would sound like bit of dynamite on
an anvil struck by hammer. and you
would hear the whizz of scores of bull.
lets and fragments about your ears.
The smoking brass shell case is out
OF Archibald's steel throat. and an
other shell case with its charge
slipped in its place and started on its
way before the first pun breaks. The
aviator knows what is coming. He
knows that one means many, once he
IL in range.
Archibald rushed the fighting; II is
the business Of the Taube to side
step. The aviator cannot hit back
except through its allies, the German
batteries, on the earth. They would
take care of Archibald II they knew
where he was. But all that the avi-
ator can see is notified landscape.
From his side Archibald flies no goal
hags. He is one of ten thousand tiny
objects under the aviator's eye.
All the Romance Theirs.
Why he was named Archibald no
body knows. As his full name is
Archibald the archer, possibly II
comes from some association with
the idea OF archery. II there were
ten thousand antiaircraft guns in the
British army. every one would be
Known a. Archibald. When Abe Brit
fsh expeditionary force went to
France It had none. All the British
could do was to bang away at Taubes
with thousands of rounds of rife bull
lets. which might fall In their own
lines, and with the field guns.
II was pie in those days for the
Taubes. Il was easy to keep out of
range Of both rifles and guns and OBJ
serve well. II the Germans did not
know the progress of the British re-
treat from on high. It was their own
fault Now the business of firing at
Taubes 10 left entirely to Archibald.
Vhen you see how hard It IL for Arch
1bald. after al his practice. to get
1sube. you understand how foolish IT
Vas for the field guns to try to get
enc.
Archibald. who 10 quite the SWEETEST
thing IN the army. has his own pri-
vate car built especially for him.
While the cavalry horses back of the
Dnos grow sleek from inaction, the
oorUDlanes have taken their places.
Al Tie romance and risk Of scouting
aro Heirs. They get most Of the fun
tAoro = h this kind Of warfare. II
British aviator gets . days leave,
~ dooo not take = train or steamer.
He T1sos nom the aviation grounds
nbout halfDast four and u 1t home in
Eneland tor dinner and returns after
1uneh ~ nokt day. All the action the
onsolEy - = when they 60 into the
ts>nchoo - infantry.
roseant Work b Archlbald's.
- - Ne calvary's former part
- - paa1es DO not play. Archibald
49, >rl,>-~>~~~
FINDS WILL IN HIS SLIPPER
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