Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1916-12-29
Lieutenant Zanghieri Calmly Re-
cords His Impressions of
the Moment.
BOMB is LITERARY ASSET
Most Exciting Adventure in Officers
Career Occurs While He Is Quietly
Seated in His Home Engaged
in Literary Pursuit.
BY TANcRED ZANGHIERI,
Lieutenant in the Italian Army.

OF MS poems now he sought happiness
all over the world without ever find
! ing 1t (; returning home disconsolate, h
met it seated on the hearth of his owl
! house. 1t is an adventure which ma!
happen even to a newspaper CORE
spondent A city like Goritz is an Ell
dorado for the sensation seeker. Yel
| had the most interesting adventure Of
my sojourn today, without moving from
NY table.
Permit me to tell you about it in de-
tail and with precision, divided into
three chapters of varying length, and
admit that even when one is the prin-
cipal parsonage of a story one still has
the right to consider oneself from more
than one viewpoint.
ChSpter 1.-The Setting.
Up till September q the weather
was bad. 1t was not rain; it was a
deluge. The Italian trenches, like those
of the Austrians, are all cut into the
slopes of mountains and hills; despite
the shelters, the rain pours in, forms
bitches and flows through them; the
trenches become small noisy torrents.
To fight in these conditions is not pos
sible. The official bulletins express the
situation in the words: bad weather
hinders the operations"
Hence a forced truce to the work of
destruction. Nature takes care of the
destruction by a sudden cold wave,
dampness that penetrates ones bones
n, nd cir trifa fr1naffnnG
But on the pod the weather deter
mines to better itself. The clouds, con-
founded in a gray veil, take on forms,
thin out, show bits of sky. The day
becomes divinely beautiful; the air is
limpld as crystal. One can distinguish
every tree, every bush of Podgora, a
green mass. The SabOtinO, more bare,
wells its reddish scars made by hun
dreds of thousands of shells, in the
viOlety vapor of cloud, vast but tenu-
Gus, interposed between 1t and the sun.
Monte Santo, San Gabrielle, San Dan
tele, gathered up beneath the crest of
the Selva di TarnOva, seem to smile at
their unhappy brother, the CarsO,
which innocently stretches it's low arid
knobs to the sun, as though TO intOxi-
cate itself with warmth and quiet.
No sound of cannon is heard; no
rifle crack disturbs the silence of this
spring, like fiorescence.
The 23rd-net q cloud in the spot
less sky the solar warmth raises light
mists which tint the distant mountains,
palest azure.
And not a conclusion, not shot ; |
only above, the airplanes are flying and |
little cloudlets of white smoke follow |
them.- But it is not "our" war; we are |
down on the earth, breathing the viyi-
flying air in great gdlps. Like the little |
dog of Maeterlinck we do not deign to |
east glance at that sky which is not |
deemed "eatable" by our desires. The
province of the air, the theater of war
5000 feet above, does not interest US.
The bursting shrapnel is so far away
that one has to pay attention to hear
It.
This truce of God" is strange, so
strange that t seems the armies have
forgotten the war. | have never felt
ny soul more peaceably inclined, more
less warlike. l forbid my
orderly to wake me early tomorrow.
And in truth this morning got up at
J, full of crazy ideas, with the desire
o climb up, up over the wooded slopes
# mountain. TO throw myself on the
round upon carpet of moss, TO look
It the trees, hear the chirping of
irds, enjoy all the beauty of this en-
hanted region. And the Austrians? I
Sut do the Austrians still exist? '
Some books lying on my table tempt |
ny fancy. / half close the curtains of
be two windows, which are filling the s
hamber with light, raise the shutters
nd sit down, taking up the reading c
study of Alphonse Daudet by Doc {
Or Bake. And ! read. read until a /
urious statement strikes me: 1
Whereas, Daudet as bachelor l
'rote only when the inspiration struck
i'm, after his marriage he acquired the C
abit of daily work" r
This fact interests me. l go over to I
lie table and make a note of Doctor S
alke's statement.
Chapter Il-From Another Anqle. f
Lieutenant Puviani. an officer in the u
Ime battalion to which your CORE
,ondent has the honor of belonging, is s.
tached to the local command at Co II
tx. He is a strong man, rather heavy. fl
,tting on in years Che completed the
rtieth few days ago), good father Il
Id a brave soldier, who has been at n
e front and in the immediate neigh m
'rhood since the beginning of the fl
ar. At present he has rather quiet h;
st and takes advantage Of it 10 make SC
rrible photographs for which he goes f;
out begging compliments. and copies 81
which he distributes to all his as
ENDS. Ell