New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-06


When one reached the great Venetian
plain near army headquarters, the
Italian fronts were explained with a
clearness that made maps unnecessary.
Owe have three fronts" said my IN
formant. ION the first, the lsonzo
front. which is the road to Trieste, our
troops can walk, though the walking
is not good. On the second. the Tren-
tino. to the north. where the enemy
comes nearest to our plains, our troops
must climb. Everywhere else they
must climb and mountaineer, you will
Sec"
/ He pointed southeast and east across
the heat haze TO some evil looking
ridges a long way off where there was
a sound Of guns debating ponderously.
THAT is the Carso where we are go
ing now" he sad then he turned
northeast and north, where, nearer,
higher mountains showed streaks OF
snow in their wrinkles.
Those are the Julian Alps he went
on. "Tolmno is behind them, north
again. Where the snow is thicker
do YOU ee?-are the Carnic Alps; we
fight among them. Then to the west OF
them come the Dolomites, where tour
/ lists used to climb and write books.
+ There we fight. also. The Dolomites
Join on to the Trentino and the Asiago
Plateau. and there we fight. And from
there we go round north till we meet
the Swiss border. All mountains, you
see"
He picked up the peaks one after
another with the ease Of a man &C
customed 10 pick up landmarks at any
angle and any change Of light. A
strangers eyes could make out nothing
except one sheer rampant Of brooding
mountains-"like giants at hunting
all along the northern horizon.
The glass spit them into tangled
crosschains of worsted hillocks, hollow
Aanked peaks cleft by black or gray
rayines, stretches OF no-colored rock
gashed and nicked with white, savage
thumbnails of hard snow thrust up
above cocks combs of splinters, and
behind everything an agony OF tortured
crags against the furthest sky. Men
must be born or broke TO the noun
tains 10 accept them easily. They are
too full of their own personal devils.
The plains round Udne are better
the fat, fat plains crowded with crops
wheat and barley patches between trim
VINEYARDS, every vine with her best loot
forward and arms spread TO welcome
spfinr. Every field hedged with old,
strictly pollarded mulberry trees Tor
+ the silkworms, and every road ilanked
with flashing water channels that talk
pleasantly in the heat.
At each few score yards Of road there
was neat square of limestone road
metal. with the water channel led
souarely round it. Each few hundred
wards an old man and young boy
/ worked together, the one with long
/ spade, the other with tin pot at the
. end Of a pole. The instant that any
wear showed in the surface the elder
padded the hollow with spoonful OF
/ metal. the youth sluiced IT, and at
once il was ready to bind down
beneath the traffic as tight'as an inner
tube patch.
There was curiously little traffic by
our standa rds, but all there was
moved very swiftly. The perfectly
made and tended roads do most OF the
motors work. Where there are no
/ bumps there can be no strain, even
under maximum loads. The lorries
glide from railhead TO their destlna-
! ton, return, and are oil again WIN
/ out overhaul or delay. On the simple
principle that transportation Is CIVIL
/ ization the entire Italian campaign
is built. and every stretch ana curve
/ of every road proves IT.
/ But on the French front Providence
does not supply accommodating river
| beds, whence the beautiful selt-Dlnd-
/ ing stuff can be shovelled ready-made
! into little narrow-gauge trucks al
over the landscape Nor have We in
/ France solid mountains where man has
/ but to reach out his hand to all the
/ stone of all the pyramids. Neither,
anywhere. have we populations expert
/ from birth at masonry. To parody
! Nacaulev. what the axe is to the
/ Canadian, what the bamboo is TO the
J MALAY, what the snowblock is 70 the
Esouimau. stone and cement are TO the
Italian, as ! hope TO show later.
They are a hard people, habituated
TO handling hard stuffs, and, ] should
imagine. with a sense of property as
keen as the Frenchman's. The in
Vulnerable gray-green troops In the
bright fields moved sympathetically
among the crops and did not litter
their surroundings with rubbish. They
have their own pattern of steel he'll
met. which differs a little from ours,
and gives them, at a distance, a look
Of Roman legionaries on frieZe OF
/ triumph. The infantry, and, to a less
extent, other arms, are not recruited
locally. but generally. so that the men
| from all parts come 10 know one an
other and losses are more evenly
snread. But the size, physique and,
/ shove all. the pose Of the men struck
one nj every step. They seem more
eunple in their collective movements
and less loaded down with haberdash-
cry than either French or English
/ troops. But the Undesirable differ
ence lay in their tread-the very fall
Of their feet and the manner in which
they seemed to possess the ground
/ they covered. Men whose life runs
normally in the open own and are
owned by their surroundings more
naturally than those whom climate or
trade keeps housed through most Of
the year. Spade. sunlight and air.
the procession Of life under vivid
skies. furnish the Italian with n great
deal OF his mental background. so
that when. as a soldier, he IS hidden
TO sit down in the clean dust and be
still as the hours while the shells