The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1915-01-29
DROPPING SHELLS
CAUSE LITTLE FEAR
Even Children of Rheims Accustomed
to Constant Bombing and Firing
Fails to Bring Comment.
SIMMS TELLS OF EXPERIENCE
Witnessed Youth Balance Can of Milk
While Bullets Kissed Obstru-
sively Overhead.
(By William Philip Simms)

(By William Philip Simms)
Paris.-(By Mail to New York. -
At Rheims, while lunching, 1 sent
the 12-year-old son of the hotel pro-
prietor across the street to buy some
postcard pictures of the badly dam
aged town. While he was making
the selection, German shell fell and
exploded almost in the middle of the
street, making an Internal racket. A
few minutes later the lad returned
with the postcards. Was he out of
breath and all eagerness to tell the
strange foreigner about the shell
which had fallen near him? Not at
all.
I'm sorry, SIR" he said, quite as
he would have done had he merely
waited for street car to pass in
stead of the smoke of shell to clear
up, "they are out Of cathedral cards.
Perhaps you can find some down the
street; there is another place down
there"
l thought of the shells and told
the boy to never mind. Think of it :
\ boy so used to shells falling in his
street that they have ceased to be
a subject for comment.
Later on. on that same day, a small
boy in the streets Of Rheims brought
me a piece of shell, still hot, which
had fallen near him. Being of, the
gamin type, with wits sharpened be-
yond his years, he asked if I would
care to buy his piece of hot shell as
a souvenir.
Boy Not Afraid. :
Then there was another boy. This
paraded past the cathedral
at the height of the bombardment,
while from various quarters near him
came the s-h-e-e-e-e-e-e of big shells
and the bang of their explosion loud
as the keenest crack of lightning. He
carried between his two hands a pan
Of milk which, hess alanced most GIN
gerly, taking very short steps to keep
the liquid from Earring over the pans
edges He was we'll dressed and
and his face was the
rose-pink. of well-cared-for-b boys, boys
adored by their mothers. -
S-h-h-e-e-e-e-e-e-e! A shell Kissed
overhead. BANG! came
the explosion not more than two
squares from the boy with the milk
He stopped, and then looked around
as if to see if he was being watched.
Then he slowly raised the pan to his
lips and took little drink. Just
as slowly, he lowered it and began
his careful march homeward, past the
statue of Jeanne dare and the House
of God and on down in the direction
of the canal.
Pan Too Full.
Two minutes after he had passed
the statue, a shell came directly be-
tween the towers of the cathedral,
barely cleared the head of the Maid
of Orleans horse and tore a great
hole in the Belgian blocks, 80 feet
in front. At the moment the boy
was having further refreshments
from his pan.
"You're going to lose that milk if
you don't mind" I said to the lad
from my position in a doorway. He
had not seen me before and he looked
up sheepishly, realizing he had been
caught cheating his mother. Then
he grinned perfectly honest, whole
some grin and replied with a good
little devil look out of the corner of
his blue eyes:
''The pans too FULL" H..
The last I saw of him was taking
gingerly steps homeward with a pan
less full, but fuller stomach, utterly
unafraid.