Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-04
EYE FOR AN EYE
ON THE 'BOCHES,'
BERNHARDT CRIES
Divine Sarah Calls for Ven
geance in Swift Retalia-
tory Air Raids
WEEPS FOR WAR VICTIMS
written Especially for EVENING LrDoER.
BY ELLEN ADAIR

LONDON, April 17.--Like a brilliant
meteor on war-darkened London, the "di-
vine Sarah" has come and gone. But in
the passing she has left behind vivid i'm
presslons of personality so magnetic that
one cannot question her right to be held
s,nl as the worlds most famous actress.
For Sarah Bernhard is woman through
and through-not merely on the stage, but
off Il. Before you have spoken with her
for five minutes you feel that here Is
some one who has lived and felt and suf-
fered and rejoiced to far greater heights
and depths than the average woman
could attain
1T is Of the war that you wish to
talk?" she inquired, seating herself in her
tiny dressing room after wonderful
performance of Les Cathedrales." "Ah
but those are sad sad times for us all. My
heart is wrung over the suffcrinEs Of my
beloved France what a war this is COM
pared to 1870. In those days we thought
the Franco-Prussan war was the most
gigantic conflict the world would ever see
WHOLE WORLD a HOSPITAL
"I was in Paris in $40 in charge of an
ambulance for wounded soldiers. | turned
the Odcou Theatre into a hospital Mon
Dieu, II seems today as If the whole world
were n hospital!
MY only son, Maurice am missing
him so! Although his time Is filled with
military duties. he writes me each day.
Yet I am longing to be back in France,
although the British are enchantingly
kind to me"
The great actress sighed. I'm this war
the agony falls so heavily on us women,
and lie bon Dieu alone knows what we
have to endure" she continued, but my
message to women Of the fighting coun.
tr{. to-. hro, Il rn 6N.irp
BY the thousand, this Is no time to wcer
And Bernhardt smiled pathetically, lut
with so much charm that I was carried
back to a sunny day last August In Paris.
when l had wcnded my way TO her house
in the Boulevard Pereire, in hopes of
finding her. Her concierge informed me
that the great Sarah was in Bordeaux
recovering from her operation.
But she is Of charm quite incon-
ccivablc. my MISTRESS" said the simple
concierge; "if you had but met her you
would know" And at her words three
other concierges who were gossiping in
the sunny boulevard came up and con-
frmed tire statement with dramatically
uplftcd hands
The most remarkable woman in the
world and the most charming" !" they de-
clared
When Bcrnhardt smiled her slow, sad
smile, felt that these simple French.
decd the most magnetic creature l had
ever met
ALLIES TOO KIND" SHE SAYS.
I'VE are too kind we Allies" continued
the actress. look at our air policy It
should be blow for blow. and for every
German raid, a counter raid from us. If /
had my way, we would bomb Berlin But
that is impossible at present. Yet the
Germans richly deserve that II should he
done
Think of the tragedy of Rheims Thinl,
Of beautiful Iouvain! All, the ruthlessnes5
of the worlds enemies Think of the
heart-brcaking slaughter Of the innOcents.
the babies whom the Zcppe!Ins bombed to
death l weep over the ravaged homes of
England and of France.
And when news comes to those Ger
man towns of Zeppelin outrages and of
the women and children that are dead and
dying, there is mOCkGry on German lips
and there is rejoicing and celebration Ia
German towns Mon Dieu they are laying
before themselves a terrible reckoning at
the day of Judgment.
Retaliation say, retaliation Blow for
blow For myself l believe that Cologne
should be bombed from the air II is a
Rhine town. beautiful as Rheims was
and it stand unharmed, while Rheims Is
ruined. The Germans have great love
for Cologne Cathedral, just as we love our
Rheims Then strike at Cologne, drop
bombs on it, strike hard, avenge the bar
barous killing of the innocents avenge our
murdered women -
The wonderful eyes of the great actress
were flashing fire. Not even on the stage
had she ever looked more like an out
ragged goddess, or an avengng spirit come
to judgment.
The wlckedness Of it," she cried. rails
ing an accusing arm. "The inhabitants
of those German towns are rejoicing In
the fendish acts of their submarine COM
manders ana their Zeppelin pilots They
cheer and applaud and fete the murderers
who deserve a fate worse than the gallows. |