Evening star., 1916-07-31
OF
EVERYWHERE.


perthwaite's, windows had been shat
tered in thousands Of stores. Jewelry
sections like Maiden lane were at the
mercy of the looters. Glass crunched
under our wheels. and how we ever
got through without a puncture is
more than 1 can figure out People
were gathered about different scenes
of local catastrophe, cursing the
blackhanders and anarchists1not ye.
the great explosion. However. at about
this time came the second awful
Grassland then the populace jumped
to the conclusion that the armed fleets
I'VE were now well along West
street, the water front of the North
river The fire ahead fiared up to great
er proportions. Our first idea Of the
land and the interned German ships at
Hoboken. but soon saw that 1t was
even farther south. AS We pulled into
Battery Park we saw that possibly a
hundred automobiles had beaten US to
1t, and the spectators were occupying
grand stand positions for a view over
the bay of the best imitation ever saw
of the bombarding of New York. The
scene from the film. The Battle Cry OF
Peace was a poor imitation An entire
city seemed to be burning. and here and
there were blazing barges. There was
a constant put put put as the ma
chine gun fodder exploded. This was
augmented by the eruption of hundreds
Of thousands Of shells. Shells and
shrapnel were raining down on the i'm
migration station, the Statue Of Liberty
and a couple of miles away at Gov
ernors Island.
Burning Barges Adrift. p
But worse than that. there drifted
about with the tide-to the especial
terror of the poor immigrants at Ellis
Island, who thought they were leaving
war behind-burning barges. bursting
hellish kind of ammunition in exist
ence. 1 might explain here that this
is one of the main reasons we never
got nearer than couple of miles from
the main nre itself (Which we could
see so plainly across the illuminated
bay). 1t is true we talked Of ap-
preaching it a little closer, but about
that time I interviewed the captain of
tine harbor precinct station.
I'D keep out of there, my boy he
said We sent a police launch across
while ago to see what was doing. 1t
came back with its lights blown and
hunk of shrapnel on the forward
deck
THAT was enough for me. and. after
I had reported the captains observa-
ton to my fellows, we all agreed that.
little old New York looked pretty
good to u.s. l might add, however. that
in spite of the dangers and In the face
of what appeared to be almost certain
DEATH police launches and a feet of
New York fire boats repeatedly went
to the rescue.
"Daybreak approached. but there ap-
peared to be no end to the rattle OF
the musketry or the cOnf1agration it.
self Then for the first time l began to
feel a bit chilly. Accordingly / bade
good night to my automobile friends.
telling them l would proceed home via
the subway. which was warmer.
Bare Ankles Drew Attention.
There had been so much excitement
that I had hardly given a thought to
my neglige appearance until once I
had boarded the underground train and
we were passing Astor place. when l
noticed a woman looking toward my
feet. And no wonder-for as the breeze
of the speeding train caused my trou-
sers to flap back and forth 1t revealed
the startling fact to the observer that
I wore no socks But rather than have
YOU scandalized at such q revelation
will you believe me II tell you one
final fact in connection with the ex-
plosion which turned New York upside
down-here goes. the man sitting next
to me didn't have on any socks either.