Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-11-10

WARNED JIM
span Of Brooklyn bridge where the
smoke covered it. So were the other
guns all down the water front.
Men-quick moving specks In rows,
which must be men-merged from the
smoke. Shells showered upon them,
burst among them, above them. But
they came on. They came IN at a u
running not at all like the men who
had crossed the bridge when the shells
which burst there were coming from
the other side. Some of these men fell;
some of them vanished completely. But
the others neither ran faster nor fall
tered for that. They came on steadily,
evenly. at n pace. as long as they
kept their feet. And for each who fell
or vanished two more emerged from
the smoke and rushed on.
The American machine guns were
going now. The "trip, rip, rip, rip" of
machine gun fire was a constant clat-
ter in the air. AS it increased the
guns on the other side of the river re-
doubled their fire and concentrated it
no longer upon the western end of the
bridge. The regents. gunners were
searching in other spots along the river
front for the American fieldpieces
which played upon the infantry storm
ing the bridge. Guided by the aero
planes lowering ove the river-if there
had been American machines about the
regents had driven them from the
sky-shells from across the river ST.
fenced a gun which Jim had heard in
action just to his right. Now shells
were searching for the gun behind
N "a.
Jim. shrinking. crouched lower be-
hind his cotton bale. He stared glass
lily at the bridge and aimed his rifle
Mt the row of specks which-appar-
emily not mortal to shells of machine
guns-was rushing on to New York.
He fired his rifle, all the bullets in the
magazine, as quick as he could fire. He
was not conscious that. some seconds
before, he had emptied his magazine
end was simply pulling at the trigger
until Houston spoke to him.
The first of the charging troops
they had almost gained the tower at
the west end of the great central span
vanished altogether. The roadway
upon which they ran pulled upward
and was lost in a great black burst
of smoke and dust. From the cloud
fell dots of debris, bodies, and turn
ing, tumbling forms which might be
, 9TH and drannnd into fhn ,ivor
below. Farther out between the bridge
towers the roadway simultaneously
was blown up. 1t stopped the specks
caught In between, but stopped them
only for a moment. More men
emerged from the smoke, and the sur
vivors ON the span went on. The dy-
Mantle which the Americans had laid
under the bridge had failed to de-
stroy all the floor, for the specks pass
ed the places where the mines had ex-
ploded. They were reinforced and
came on.
tered again. but the troops of the re-
gent rushed. defiant. They passed the
piers and ran on when, behind them.
a mighty, %thunderous detonation-a
conclusion of shock more than a noise
shook N "a, as 1t was vibrating all
the rest of the water front. The clouds
of smoke and dust rose this time from
the base of the great bridge towers
near the New York shore-the other
towers already were lost in haze-and
as the cloud cleared the great towers
tottered and crumpled.
Down upon the river, down, down
slowly, evenly at first. and now faster
and faster. the whole mighty span Of
Brooklyn bridge was falling with the
towers breaking above 1t. Down II
fell with its thousands of specks which
were men upon it. Down. 1t was just
above the water. Now 1t met the wat
er. The conclusion, the thunder of
the meeting rumbled and rumbled.
Like a Titan's tuning fork, q thousand
yards all trembling, the bridge lay on
the water. Now it was sinking. The
towers had come down on the roadway,
and as they crashed they seemed to
bear the whole bridge below. The tidal
wave from the impact dashed against
the docks before N "a and Travelled
ON up the river. Now the water seem.
ed sucked back. The line of the bridge
was a maelstrom. 1t swirled up and
over the tiny stubs which had been
tower piers. The American artillery,
which had ceased firing when the
bridge was falling, doomed back to the
guns on the other side the volley Of
requiem. Brooklyn bridge was gone.
Figures were struggling in the water
above the maelstrom. Little boats
craft whose purpose could only be to
pick up those drowning men-put out