The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-07-24


rSow, scarcely an hour after sunrise.
the army aeroplanes had come back
after only haphazard scouting. They
had not been able to fly over the in
vaded coast. Wherever they tried it,
they reported, they were met by enemy
planes in superior numbers.
One United States air man had been
driven by four enemy planes into Mar
ragansett bay, where he had been
picked up by boats from the Newport
torpedo station. Two others, borne
down by three enemy machines faster
than they and fred at by anti-air craft
gans from an inlying ship. had barely
managed to escape behind the defenses
of Fort Wright in the sound.
The others had been pressed back
inexorably by the screen of naval
planes that sWarmed over the coast
The enemy planes came from the
sea. To the marveling eyes in the
American defenses it seemed as If the
ocean were spewing them forth. One
after another rose from the Atlantic
under Block island.
Three strange vessels lay there.
They had tunnels set extremely far
Aft. like certain types Of clumsy tramp
ships, but they were big as passenger
liners, and their lines showed all the
| efficiency OF the naval architect. The
great sweep OF their decks forward
was as bare as the deck Of racing
schooner yacht.
A structure on short trestles like
skidway rose from this deck at the
bow, projecting slightly.
1t was there that the aeroplanes were
being spewed. These were mother
ships.
Torpedo melted, guarded by destroy
ers, guarded even by a small semi
rigid dirigible that lowered thousand
feet high overhead, they were sending
out their spies to search the land.
The two United States fiers, stand
ing by their machines in Fort Wright,
looked at the ascending swarm. mo
wonder" said one. "You know how
many one of those nations had at last
accounts? Twelve hundred"
and we've got thirteen in the army
and twelve III the navy" His com
panion laughed. "And Servia had
sixty before the great war"
They said no more, but watched in
silence. That ascending, continually
| growing line Of flying things was Ike
something that was writing into the
sky the word resources"
Suddenly the American air men
noticed that these new machines were
not flying to the coast near them. They
were turning of, in regular order One
turned west to fly over Long Island.
The next one turned east, toward Bug
yards bay. They alternated thus till
the entire division had separated and
disappeared.
| One Of the scouts slapped his thigh.
81 believe" said he, 4'that they are
going to show themselves to Boston
and New York"
That was at o'clock in the morning
At noon the crowds in the two cities
were startled by distant roar that
grew. almost before they had first
heard it, into laundering that shock
the air. They stared upward and be
held the first squadron of armed fly.
ing machines that America ever had
seen.
Armored, with the bright colors o.
the enemy on their under bodies, thu
aeroplanes from the enemy feet few
low. They skinned close to the stat,
house on Boston's Beacon Hill. The.
few over the tall municipal buildin,
of New York and dipped toward tn,
city hall. They appeared over Provi
dence and Fal River, over Brockton
over Bridgeport and New Haven
They passed over every one of the fac
tory cities Of New Jersey that crows
to be near New York's harbor.
Where they appeared it was as |
they bore some instant charm to tur1
the world to stone. All the city noise
stopped dead All motion stopped
! Then the people fed Motormen an,
, drivers bent low and yelled, and sen
their vehicles ahead blindly. TIL
! crowds rushed every doorway. The
J fought for the protection of marrow
cornices as If they were bomb proofs
They squeezed themselves close to tn
; sides OF buildings, and chung to smoot
] iron and granite, and stared upward
waiting for bombs.
Instead of bombs they saw thing
raining down gently. nghtly-littl
> weighted pennants that circled dowr
! ward In lovely spirals and dropped o
: the streets with scarcely a sound. Int
every crowded street, into every ope
! square Of half a hundred cities tbs
I day. the hostile air men dropped thes
b pennants. They were printed The
: bore proclamations addressed to th
: people OF America.
"our armies have landed" said tn
proclamation. I'VE shall advance on you
cities at once Any attempt to defen
e them win mean their destruction. Civi
Y ians are warned against making any den
. onstrations whether with arms or othel
: wise. attractions of this rule of war wi
i be punished by summary execution
! Houses from which hostile acts are con
mitted will be destroyed. Towns who's
+ civilian population resists viii be destroy
Y ed Take warningl''