Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-14

hill. Below us was the valley OF Cos
tornio, and four miles away beyond the
valley, were other hills like ours, where
the Bulgar artillery was hidden.
just quarter OF mile further and we
reached the shelter of turn in the road.
The huge English gun behind us kept spit
ting out its roaring challenges across the
valley. BY the watch It was possible to
hear the whine of its shells for six sec
onds; the whine always ended in a deep
dull roar. where the shell had broken some
five or six miles away
BULGARs TAKE POSITION.
When we tumbled out of the ambulance
we saw narrow ravine running behind
hill. There were tents and dugouts on
its sides. This was a secret / couldn't
have told two weeks ago. But It doesn't
matter now. The Frenchmen, with their
steel-blue casques. have all gone from
the ravine. Hill SIS. which sheltered them,
belongs to the Bulgars now and the
battlefield of the valley of Costerino Is
quiet and peaceful again, miles behind
the Bulgarian battle line.
But now It was a battlefield. A cannon
on the top of the hill roared. Another
cannon further away roared. The Brit
ish cannon behind us roared. They are
all allied cannon. And then came a diff
ferent sound. IL was a shrek that didn't
grow less with the passage of seconds.
but louder Look into the sky above you;
YOU can see nothing; you feel helpless;
all around you the air is filled with that
growing whine; II may burst near you.
II that's the case YOU won't hear the
burst in all likelihood. In common par
lance the light will go out and you won't
know what hit you. You have an in
finitely intense desire to hear the boom:
you want to have the thing over with;
as long as that whine Is In the sky over
hpp1 ha kilIa1 n N
minute.
| am not writing this in order to boast
chat | have been under shell fire, but in
order to point out that being under she'll
fire is an alarming thing. and that II
the experience doesn't stir up n heavy
thrill within you. then you must be
dumb animal that cannot understand the
things that are going on around 1t. Some
men say they like this thrill; that the
feeling is pleasant. Others say they
don't like II and am among them. It's
too much like being in terrific electric
storm with harder lightning than human
beings ever saw in the sky, any bolt of
which means death.
BUT ALL ESCAPE INJURY.
But here the shell is in the sky about
us. There Is a terrific roar. on the hill
side above us huge cloud, bigger than
n siX-story building, of mud, stones and
earth arises. The shell has burst. Let it
be recorded that Richard Harding
Davis John McCutcheon, of the Chicago
Tribune; John Bass, of the Chicago Daily
News, and James Hare, the war photog-
rapher. were not hit. Neither was /.
said didn't like 1t. / had been under
shell fire In Russia, in Serbia, on the
English 'front.' had lodged both A llied
and anti-Allied shells, and I had made
up my mind months before that the next
time I was near flying shells would try
to study the workings of my mind and
nerves and discover. II possible, whether
| was frightened and whether or not
the shaky feeling that comes from know
ing that death Is somewhere in the sky
nearby is really pleasant one; whether
the thrill of kiss or drink compares
with the thrill of being in danger of
sudden death by bullets or shells. 1 had
made the study this time and found
that l did not like the thrill. In the
presence of the other war reporters /
said that didn't like II.
WELL said Davis. I'm old enough
he's almost 80 and he's seen a score of
wars-Tm old enough to admit. without
being accused of bravado. that like it."
Which | took to mean that all young
reporters are afraid to admit that they
like shell fire. l was to have some ex-
perience with shell fire before the day
was out.