Evening star., 1915-05-30


Hampshire and Vermont were in his
power, like the rest of New England
Blockaded from the sea and cut off
from railroad connection with the in
terror. they were subjugated even with
out the unfolding of forces that now
BEGAN through their area.
Here. too, the invaders. despite their
grown power, moved slowly, cautiously.
They cut districts from each other and
oc supied them one by one systemat-
ica.ly. making united action by the
population impossible, ever had it been
feasible. BY the simple method of dis
organizing all the accustomed political
and governmental affiliations, they
turned to their purpose the ever-pres-
ent lack of conference between state
governments and city governments.
township authorities and county au-
thorties. The machinery fell apart,
and the enemy dealt with the bits as
he chose.
The few big cities of the three states
could offer no resistance. Within
few days the conquest of all New Eng
land was complete. Not a word came
out of it to the rest of the United
States. The city of New York was
equally sealed. Nothing was permitted
to pass out of the gagged and fettered
towns The messages that stormed at
it were delivered to censors who did
what they pleased with them. and
passed practically none to the persons
for whom they had been destined.
in mems memory, there were no crowds
on the streets. Broadawy from 59th
street to the Battery was almost naked
of people by day and by night. Its
electric signs were dark. It's hotels
and theaters were all but dark.
Whenever. by chance, people found
themselves in given block in numbers
sufficient to make a throng. there al
ways was hasty scattering, as if they
feared to touch each other. AS these
little knots scattered. they cast swift
glances of apprehension at the high
roofs
There had been an official notice on
the front pages of all the New York
newspapers on the morning after the
occupation:
ALL ASSEMBLAGES OR GATHER
INGs ON THE STREETS ARE STRICT
LY FORBIDDEN.
by ORDER OF THE MILITARY GOV
ERNMENT."'
There was no thread as to penalty for
infraction. None was needed. The ma
chine guns in all the towers and sky
scrapers were sufficient warning.
The shape of the island on which the
borough of Manhattan lay. with i'm
mensely long straight streets running
north and south through its narrow
widths. made 1t a simple matter to
isolate all sections in which there were
populations who might become unruly.
The crowded tenement districts of the
east side were cut off from those in
the west. They were separated into
units within themselves. Very soon
the soldiers moved around the city
with the ease of careless visitors. Of
ficers, mounted and in automobiles,
went where they pleased. They paid
apparently no attention to the people,
and these. in turn. could not guess any
thing that the conquerors had in mind
or what would be their next act in the
next minute.
Boston and all New England. were con-
trolled and edited by military censors.
They were permitted to tell their read
ers nothing of Importance. This utter
ignorance in which the multitudes were
kept made them more helpless than
did even the guns that watched them
everywhere.
1t was a city surrounded, perpetually
confronted and oppressed by the un-
known. The veil of secrecy and silence
was lifted only when newspapers or
placards printed some new proclam anna
tion in formal legal Verbiage.
The first one to be issued had pro-
claimed the occupation, and the insti-
tuition of a military government. 1t
had added that the existing civil
authorities had been empowered and
ordered to continue their administra-
ton with the sanction and particfpa-
that all civil and criminal laws re-
manned in effect subject to changes de-
manded by military exigency.'
But Immediately under this announce
ment was paragraph headed:
LAWS SUSPENDED.
''On and after this date the following classes
of laws suspended. q, The Right to Bear
Arms. q, The Right Of Suffrage. q, The Right
p on Other Mse to 81 se Esh
TO Quit Occupied Territory or Travel Freely in
same
Another announcement that struck
home after the people saw it's real
meaning under its smooth wording,
was:
The municipal and other civil and criminal
laws administered by the civil authorities
population. Their continued enforcement is not
for the protection or control OF officers and sol
diers Of the occupying army. who are subject t"
the rules OF war, and amena5le only to thelr
own military government
At first this announcement seemed to
the citizens to be for their protection.
but the sharper readers soon pointed
out that it was only a skillful way of
intimating that the soldiers were above
all the laws that controlled the con-
quered population.
A few days after the surrender, peo-
pie along the waterfront noticed
great movement of vessels. The Fall
River line and other sound steamers
moved up the North river toward Yonk-
ers In long procession. with some
steamships seized at the wharves.
The next day they came down the
river again. They were full of troops
Some of the vessels towed railroad
floats with fiat cars on which were
lashed cannon SO big that even from
the shore the eye could perceive their
unusual size. Other craft towed strings
of small scows. and still others toWed
floating derricks.
The hotilla passed down the upper
bay, but II did not go out through the
narrows. 1t disappeared in the narrow
waterway of the Kill Won kull, that
winds between Staten Island and the
mainland Of New Jersey and connects
with the lower harbor through Rari-
tan bay.
The story of the mysterious fotilla
spread quickly throug a city whose
lack of newspapers made its apprehen-
sive curiosity only the more keen.
Robbed of its news and bulletin serV-
ice. the people. without any conscious
plan. had organized a news service of
their own. They had fallen back on
the primitive method Of circulating in
formation from man to man.
Within twenty-four hours of the sup
preston of the liberty Of its press, the
highly modern. highly artificial city
had in operation the same form of news
transmission that has so often puzzled
and even awed travellers in savage
lands. Under the skyscrapers the
bush telegraph" carried its messages
with almost the same astonishing
swiftness as in the Jungle.
II was done by hasty whispers and
by iortive conversation, for among the