The Washington herald., 1916-10-29

proof OF this change of spirit be asked,
the burial rites accorded the slain Ger
man commanders, who have been carried
to their graves on the shoulders OF Brit
ish airmen of the anti-Zeppelin service,
may be cited. There has been no protest
against this, excepting from small knot
Of fire-eaters, but a year ago all Eng
land would have been in arms at the
proposal to treat the bodies with more
holors than those accorded executed
murderers, who are buried in duicklime
after mutllated burial service.
ZeDpeiins as Tonic.
1t Is often argued now, and I think
correctly, that the visits of the Zeppelins
are proving an excellent tonic for the
nerves OF Englishmen. For the German
mind to understand this would be impos-
sible, since the Anglo-Saxon sporting
spirit is absent in the Fatherland, but
the poirt will be clear at once to Ameri-
cans. Here in London for more than two
years the people have groped about the
streets in darkness, most of their amuse-
ments and recreations have been taken
away from them, and Of the excitement
and thrill of war they have not had
particle-excepting for the Zeppelins The
one desire OF civilians who cannot go to
the front Is to see something, feel some
thing OF the war, for the outstanding i'm
preston produced by the war upon the
overworked Briton at home is one of
intense boredom. And the Germans, by
staging these wonderful shows above our
heads in the night. have gratified the
insistent craving OF millions of people
for something to get excited about.
When things came in the night and
dropped trinitrotoluol and incendiary
bombs and invariably went away safely.
the sporting element was absent fror.
the affair. But what are the horse races
football and cricket matches, which the
average man used to attend in peace
time, to the fights he can watch now half
dozen times year, at least, between
st. Georges of England and evil muir
derous dragons which now and then are
brought flaming to death amid a pyro-
technical display, dazzling beyond the
imaginations of those who have not see
it?
The old thrills will ever be absent, now,
from the sports of peace; Nero never
put on anything in his circuses for his
faded public half so exciting as the de-
structiOn Of Zeppelin.
And it isn't only Englishmen who con-
Tess that they have come to like the
raids. as they all admit now. a little
shamefacedly, for to enjoy spectacles
which mean mutilation and torture for
many people would have seemed to US all,
in the faraway epoch which ended in 1914,
a reversal to barbarism. The other night
met New York friend in the Savoy
Hotel
What brings you over?' hailed him.
Il came over TO see the Zeps," he said
with enthusiasm. "Of course, I had to
convince them I had some business to get
a passport. but that was the real reason.
and. say. I just got here in time to see
that one come down at Potter's Bar I'm
giving up the worlds series for it, never
can get excited over a baseball game
again"
The speaker, two years ago. rooted so
vehemently four afternoons a week at
the Polo Grounds that he verged upon
apoplexy, but I fancy he never let out a
yell from a grand stand so loud as the
one with which he greeted the successful
shot last Sunday night
1t would be too much to expect Germans
to give up killing people and smashing
houses because OF the effect OF their raids
In heightening the cheerfulness and gen
eral morale of the British public, for no
German can understand how "frightful-
ness can have such a result. But it may
well be asked why the raids are persisted
in, now that the British have demon
strated their ability frequently to bring
Zeppelins to earth for the ridiculous Ger
man bulletins concerning the damage
done here by their air fleets cannot de-
ceive those in authority in Berlin The
German espionage service is too good for
that.
There Is probably no one in America
who does not know by this time that the