The Benson signal., 1916-12-23
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 ZANGHlERI,
Lieutenant in the italian Army.

Ol Ills poems HOW lie SOuSAL AdpPAAO0N
all over the world without ever lind
ing it; returning home disconsolate, he
met it seated on the hearth of his own
house. It is an adventure which may
happen even to a newspaper CORE
spondent. A city like Goritz is an El.
dorado for the sensation seeker. Yet
I had the most interesting adventure OF
my SOjOurn today, without moving from
my1table.
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 story one still has
the right to consider oneself from more
than one viewpoint.
Chapter 1.-The Setting.
Up till September 21 the weather
was bad. 1t was not rain; it was
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 forced truce to the work OF
destruction. Nature takes care of the
destruction by sudden cold wave,
dampness that penetrates ones bones
and slows up the vital functions.
But on the 22d the weather deter
mines to better itself. The clouds, con-
founded in gray veil, take on forms,
thin out, show bits of sky. The day
becomes divinely beautiful; the air is
limpid as crystal. One can distinguish
every tree, every bush of POdgOra, a
green mass. The SabotinO, more bare,
wells It's reddish scars made by hun
dreds Of thousands Of shells, in the
violety vapor of cloud, vast but tenu-
Gus, interposed between it and the sun.
Monte Santo, San Gabrielle, San Dan
iae 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
knolls 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 florescence.
The 23rd-not a cloud in the spot
less sky; the solar warmth raises light
miSts which tint the distant mountains,
palest azure.
And not a concussion, 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 vivi-
flying air in great gulps. Like the little
dog of Maeterlinck we do not deign to
cast glance at that sky which is not
deemed "eatable" by our desires. The
5000 feet above, does not interest u.s.
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 It seems the armies have
my soul more peaceably inclined, more
bourgeois, less warlike. | forbid my
orderly to wake me early tomorrow.
And in truth this morning / got up at
8, full of crazy ideas, with the desire
to climb up, up over the wooded slopes
of mountain, to throw myself on the
ground upon a carpet of moss, to look
at the trees, hear the chirping of
bfNls, enjoy all the beauty of this en-
chanted region. And the Austrians
But do the Austrians still exist?
Some books lying on my table tempt
my fancy. half close the curtains of
the two windows, which gre filling the
chamber with light, raise the shutters
and sit down, taking up the reading
of study Of Alphonse Daudet by Doc
tor Bake. And l read, read until a
curious statement strikes me:
Whereas, Daudet as a bachelor
wrote only when the inspiration struck
him, after his marriage he acquired the
habit of daily work."
This fact interests me. l go over to
the table and make a note of Doctor
Balke'S statement.
Chapter Il-From Another ANGLE.
Lieutenant Puviani, an officer in the
same battalion to which your CORE
spondent has the honor of belonging is
attached to the local command at Co
ritz. He is strong man, rather heavy,
getting on in years Che completed the
fortieth few days ago), good father
and brave soldier, who has been at
che front and in the immediate neigh
borhood since the beginning of the
war. At present he has rather quiet
post and takes advantage Of it to make
horrible photographs for which he goes
about begging compliments, and copies
of which be distributes to all his
friends,