The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-26
Marvellous War Picture 'The Retreat of the Germans" lncites People to Do Their Bit" Most Nobly Both In the Liberty Loan Campaign and Food Conservation
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE


 ! IF you happened to be at the Lyric l theatre Wednesday evening and saw = the 200 soldier boys from Camp Me Clellan, khaki clad, their bright, eager, young faces in "watchful waiting, for the next series to be flashed on the 1 screen in the marvellous war picture, 1 The Retreat of the Germans At the Battle of Arras," your heart must have been deeply touched because you must have known that every last one of these splendid, high spirited young Americans living their lives under the same con- dition In a very short time.
 You must have felt as you looked upon that scene that if you hadn't already bought a liberty bond you would go right straight and rake and scrape up every single solitary blessed cent you had on the face of the earth and buy one; you must have felt that if by giving up good things to eat and sitting down to "meatless dinner and "sugarless cof- fee" you could assist MT. Hoover in his food conservation, why, you'd do it with all your might and main, for those 200 young soldiers, and that picture on tho screen brought things mighty close home to you and made you realize that your bit' was more necessary than ever before in aiding to win this war.
 The picture brought to you conditions as they really are lover there;' the discomforts of tho trenches, the charge lover the top" tank sickness" the newest malady to be developed in the allied armies; the sunset call for camp fire gatherings; the general work a-day atmosphere that modern warfare has taken on all were there depicted in col orful nuances by the British government pictures which to the American public are liberal education bringing directly before our eyes as they do the scenes enacted daily and giving a better under standing of the real problems which confront the soldiers.
 The photograph in 'sThe Retreat of the Germans At the Battle of Arras" is nothing short of wonderful; it shows tho heroic drive of the allies in every de- tail; it brings to every spectator the dust and smoke and the din and death of actual warfare; you see the great gun spouting steel; you see the machine guns raining lead; you see the hand grenades explode; you see the shells burst and blow whole attachments high into the air and dig huge craters into the soil; you see the rush over the top of the trenches; you see hand-to- hand bayonet struggles with the enemy; you see the enormous supply camps; you see the ri ch r,10 every obstacle, tearing down barbed-wire entanglements, vaulting crater holes, battering down various Instructions and finally landing at their objective, a Ger man trench.
 One of the most interesting things shown in the British governments off, ciaf war pictures is the tank situation. Riding the tank has been written of, but never brought before the eyes of the American public until ''The German Re- treat at the Battle of Aras'' was pictur- ized
 Riding the Tank is the excogitation of Tommy Atkins, adventurous, try-any- thing-once, Tommy Atkins, and it is nothing more or less than standing or the top of a battle tank while it is in ac- tion That doesn't sound very formidable, does it? Certainly not, on the face of it, but never go by the face of anything; wait and see for yourself and after you've witnessed one of these great, lum- bering, notwithstanding giants plow- ing through the trenches over. the hills and down the dales, then JohfIy Cow puncher from the plains who boasts. and deservedly, too, that he can ride the buckingest broncho Beelzebub ever bad- gered, and who, by virtue of that iaudable l achievement boasts also that he can ride 1