The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-07-10

in great breaths of fresh air. They fol.
lowed the ships toward the coast.
One of them hoisted a wireless appa-
satus and began to call. 1t was a weak
rail-, that had to be repeated again and
again. Then Montauk point heard,
over a temporary apparatus, and re-
ceived and began to send on to New
York, and the bulletins told that sub
marine Mo had sunk the admiraPs
flagship, that submarine G-3 had sunk
a destroyer and that submarine Oh
had been lost.
Victory! Victory! victoryF' ran
the news. They knew that it was not
victory, those great, anxious crowds
that stopped all traffic that day In all
the continent Of North America. But
for awhile they were thrilled, and they
cheered and forgot the slow, 1mplaca-
BILE grip OF irresistible power that was
closing in on their eastern seacoast,
not to be stayed, not even to be halted.
The rich had fed from the trembling
sea cities, but the others remained.
There was nothing else for them to do.
of streets and talked and argued and
prophesied just as they had done al
ways.
Extra! Extra!
In the soft dusk on the Rhode Island
and Massachusetts, coast there was
falling red hell and ruin. Streams Of
iron, streams of fire. streams Of scream
ing. bursting things-things that struck
the land and spun into it like beasts
biting and burst, blasting away for
ests and houses and men in crimson
whirlwind; things that plunged into
towns and richotted and pulled down
walls and towers; things that darted
at power plants and darkened the
world and things that burst into towns
with fierce fire and set the world
alight.
To the men at the receiving ends of
wires it was as If there were coming
to them one wild din Of terror. Here
were telephone messages that broke off
in the middle and were never to be re-
sumed on this earth. Here were tele-
graph dispatches that stopped sudden
~ and left the wire de; g. It's far end
dangling where a shell had torn down
the poles. From hilltops far inland
came raving words of burning towns
glaring red in the country below.
From somewhere unknown. from some
body unknown, came one word over a
telephone that instantly went out of
commission. It was-"God"
In the cabin of the new flagship sat
the new admiral The ship was shak
ing with the explosions from its sec
ondary batteries, but the cabin was or
derby and sedate. A shaded light was
shining on chart.
Another hour of this" said the ad-
miral, land / think the coast viii be
nicely cleared for the landing" He
selected cigar from its box and lit it
carefully.
The first American soil on which the
invader set foot was not on the main
land. Block islands men and women
| stood on Mohegan bluff and Beacon
| hill and Clay head watching their
/ sky fiji with fighting tops and enemy
flags and their sea oppressed by enemy
craft. Among those who stood there
that day were descendants of men who
had fought at sea in every American
war. Some were there who could
boast that their ancestors had crept
into Long Island sound in little sloops
and even in rowing boats to harry tall
Kings ships.
Strong hearted, like their forefath-
ers, were these men. They looked out
on their beset horizon and doubled
| their sunburned hands into fists, long
ing. to get among the foe with ship to
ship, gun to gun and the battle flag of
| America shining.
This was no tame population to be
| terrified like a driven herd. Smacks-
men were these, accustomed to looking
unafraid into the black snarl of storm.
Sword fishermen were here who went
daily without second thought to fight
the 1.-THE sportsman Of the sea in his
own element.
/ A crliser rushed at their island.
Heavy with turreted guns and broad
side batteries, tall with laced iron
mast towers and wide tunnels and
ponderous cranes, swarthy gray over
| all like a Vulcan's smithy, the enor-
nous thing stopped half a mile out
with the guns of the secondary bat
teries pointing at the land. From IN
der her quarter, around bow and stern,
swept destroyers with cooked tunnels
splitting smoke and with ready, alert
men at the lean little guns.
They moved straight for the little
harbor in a long line. On the bridge
OF the foremost an officer waved 8
hand at the crowd OF fishermen on the
shore, pointed to his guns and with 9
backward motion to the cruiser.
AYE, we take the hint, blank yer
growled an old man. lie means"-he
turned to the rest, that we'd better
not make fuss! Drop thatP BE
turned sharply to a younger man who