New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-04-09
Paris and the Zeppehns
Bv Catherine d. GrOh

Il when the Zeppelins came back TO FarS
after having stayed away for almost year.
They came as total surprise TO the people
and had as great a Success OF curiosity "a
at their first visit. Few Of those who heard
the shrill bugle call followed by the GREATNESS
honking of the fire patrol felt, let alone
showed. any anxiety, but every one became
possessed of an insane desire to get glimpse
Ct the airship.
1t all happened very quickly. OF course
Paris was dark and quiet, as it has been every
evening. practically, since the outbreak OF the
war. and the crowds that have made the SIDE
walks into parlors, now that the restaurants
close so early, were forming. as usual AM
mated groups discussing the events OF the Day
Then. suddenly, came the alarm. Mildly sur
prsed. at first people looked around and
shrugged their shoulders. A Zeppelin? I'm
possible! But. as they look, the light from the
struggling lampposts grows paler; in minute
it is out Paris is plunged in almost tota'
darkness. Doubt is possible no longer
Zeppelin is on its way.
.If at least, we could get look at it, says
a voice that must belong to fat lady Last
YEAR | slept through it all. ! was that pro-
voked. did want to see what they were
like"
Sitting on this bench you won't see much
saws another voice. $50 to one OF the squares
by the Opera, for instance
There is shuttle of feet and the family
starts off.
The crowd is different from what 1t was
moment before 1t had been conversing IN
more or less animated way. but now people no
longer talk, but whisper and chatter Ike mag
pies and not only with their friends, but with
strangers Around the newsstands and at
street corners groups are formed, all specu'
latine as to the nature and extent OF the
Zeppelin raid The shopkeepers come out IN
ioin the crowd. and after them their wives ard
children.
What? One Zeppelin. you say? Ha! Five
Of them"
give? | should say So And each
one guarded by thirty-fve aeroplanes'
a voice: II say, where are o'tr avlators!
..If Won think they can see anything in this
fog!"
"And the Zeppelin what about that
oft inst drops the bombs when it feels like.
"Sunposc it dropped them here, hoin|'
4 general laugh follows this suggestion.
ITS no use trying to escape your fate sup
bose" says philosophical voice, amid gen
cral approval.
Won return 70 your own home, and, lgnor-
irg like every one else. all Instructions 20
TO the window and peer into the sky. No
Ieppelin is visible. nor any lights IN the WIN
oows. You face a sea Of darkness, broken
only by the sickly light Of a lamppost soy
cra hundred yards away and the red flash
Of a passing taxicab. Through the next street
tears maddened tramcar, its gongs changing
Then all is silence.
Yet not quite. For. as you listen, 1t is a.
though all the walls around you had been
given tongues. From all sides there is gos
siping and chattering. 1t is too dark to see
ANYTHING. but it is easy TO guess that everybody
else in all the other houses IS doing the same
as YOU. namely. standing at the window and
looking out. and their subdued conversation
somehow reminds you of the sparrows at sun
down. Upstairs in the servants quarters the
cackling reminds you Of barnyard; there
voices ring out from one housetop to another
You see anything, YOU"
NC: but if a bomb should fall we'd get il
FIRST
you want 10 90 in the cellar
Not on your life. No power on earth could
make me sit up on a stone when | can sleep
in my bed
Laughter I'm not like the man on the
fourth. Last year he had bought new bed,
YOU know, a beautiful big bed. Then the
Xeppehns threatened So he had his cellar
padded and fixed up with electric light and
heat. but he never even put his nose inside it,
because he couldn't take his bed along
You go back into the street. IN all the open
squares and places the crowd is dense.
On the banisters around the subway en-
trance at the Opera, for instance, more than
q hundred people must be seated, staring into
the air. The night is cloudy, and nothing
whatsoever is 10 be seen except the fantastic
MAY Of searchlights on the clouds, but still
thew remain there, staring upward. The
Place is filed with hundreds more, all equally
intent on getting a view Of the monster. Sud
denly thrill seems TO pass through the crowd.
There is an instructive forward movement.
Z man has come from Of the outlying
quarters with news. lie has seen bomb fall.
house has been shattered. More news pours
io. There are five, ten, thirty, fifty dead, hun
areds wounded. The words spread from
mouth 10 mouth and are caught excitedly.
Al 18th T.. al tho croud continues 10 sit