New-York tribune., 1917-10-14
Italy Advances
Bu Arthur Gleason

fight from p. m. on with the sun at their
back. In Flanders you are safe enough wren
the she'll explodes if a silver Of its metal
does not strike. The bursting will send
cloud of smoke and a spray Of dust or mud
into your face, and you emerge looking Ike
a stoker. but unhurt. On the hills OF italy
a she'll bursting in the rocky bed sends
stones travelling like ten shells. The colonel
with whom we lunched on Mount Pasubio
was imping from splinter Of shell-sYlit
rock in his right foot.
Like the Greatest of Films
Now at last we fight on equal terms, sad
a member of the General Headquarters, as
his hand swept the relief map, where lay
ridge on ridge Of mountains surmounted IN
the slow, sure push to the east. have lived
for MANY months in the utter fatness Of the
Western front al its northern flank, where
acres of sand and dust and mud lie level
under the heavy sun and the dreary rain.
Then suddenly | come into land OF the
perpendicular, where men cling like lizards
20 the rocks. and climb instead Of walk;
where the heart and the breathing register
the height; and after the hours OF effort we
stand on San Michele with the Duke Of
Aosta, cousin of the King commander Of the
Carso Army, and look over to the shelling on
the ridge across the valley. and we sight the
great glass made by Carl Zeiss, of jena.
To see war unroled beneath in little dots OF
men and tiny pufs Of smoke, and the high
hills thrusting up in the vast panorama Of
the Alps, is no longer to be a part of war
on a dead level, but to be a spectator of war.
My Italian experience was TO me as il were
seeing the greatest film Of Griffith. The
spectacle was glorious in the distance, but
of course men had never done these things
in real life, whitfield these miles OF road
and conquered a mountain desert. One a.
most expected to see great gates close and
the word "Finis" on the screen, and then
the audience filing out
And yet in all reality we looked out on
the hottest of the fight on the Hermada, just
across. Little dust clouds and gentle roll
ing Of sound were all that marked place
where men were dying at the moment The
Italians have not scaled the Heights OF
Abraham and left one impershable name Of
Wolfe at the summit. They have scaled
hundred Heights Of Abraham, unknown. sim
pie peasants-the graves Of them, twenty
fifty, two hundred in heap, marked by an
anonymous wooden cross, and then the sur
viyors, pausing little, so on 10 a height
that is higher. That very mountain Of San
Michele. on which we talked with the Duke
of ba 80 Ls,t.
from base 20 summit.
Then comes point on high and rocky hills
where not even so skilful an engineer as the
Italian can tunnel and lift the perfect road
and here the mule takes up the burden o.
food and ammunition. One hundred and
fifty thousand mules are working beyond the
zone of camions. Their numbers have been
kept up 70 full strength by supplies locally
and from Spain and the United States.
The earlier campaign in the immense snow
mountains OF the Trentno was of two sorts
The defensive was absolutely necessary The
winning of dozen peaks and the locking
up of the mountain passes. As General
Porro said TO US:
Ice Fighting Abandoned
"lf we had gone forward 10 the east TOO
swiftly and weakened the line of defence at
the north the Austrans could have cut our
line in two
The Trentino offensive has been abandoned
by both sides Climbing ice and lodging
avaIanches is picturesque. but it isn't war
The race OF sturdy Alpini, numbering 10000,
tackled those final cold heights and died ike
the Austrians opposite them Then both
Austrian and Italian decided that an active
offensive among the clouds and glaciers was
impossible, and both sides have dug them.
selves into caverns, built stout huts of the
trunks OF trees. and stone houses. with ce.
ment walls and electric lights, and there
they live, ever alert. but holding rather than
advancing We stood on one tooth OF rock
at the peak of Mount Pasubio, 600 feet
high, and looked across 10 the Austrian cave
dwe!lers on the ether tooth, 450 feet away
in straight line, but between the forces
there was great gulf fixed, deep rocky
chasm Of sheer drop. We sat and smoked in
the Post OF Observation, where rifles, machine
guns, cannon, liquid fire and hand grenades
were ready for any sudden sorte But so
Jagged and zigzag s-c the mountain trails