Judsonia weekly advance., 1917-05-30
FOURTEENTH EPISODE
The Sky Monsters.

tssS SiNJ istStbSeOs Os
 The mounted patrol, guarding the outskirts of the city in it's thinly popu- lated sections, had begun their nightly vigil without prospect of unusual ad- venture
 It was a warm summer evening, with very little moonlight Far to the south, the busy night life of New York, was moving in joyous streams under the bright lights of the theat- ricaI district. Usually O'Donovan, the mounted policeman, who had patroled the same section for years, might as well have been riding through the open country for all the excitement that came his way.
 But tonight the Irishman searched the sky, trying to discover the cause of the strange intrusion upon the custom ary stiffness of the night. Suddenly there appeared string of lights high in the heavens, at first faintly discern ible but growing rapidly brighter.
 Then came louder "hum,' increas- ing in volumn, until, as it approached high above the ground, the policeman at last concluded that some strange ship of the air was cruising south, in the quiet night, bound for the city still several miles away.
 O'Donovan forgot the sweetness of his pipe, as he suddenly wheeled his horse and dashed away for the near est patrol box. The airship was now directly overhead, humming along to- ward New York at an even speed that might send it to the heart of town within an hour.
 Its O'Donovan," said the patrol man over the police 'phone Look above you at the airship. It's a big one, going south."
 The deck sergeant in ODonovan's precinct sent an officer to watch for the dirigible, and passed the word along to the other station houses far ther south. In this way the approach of the airship, manned by anarchists and bent on a mission of destruction, was made known to every police sta- ton in the city.
 And as precautionary measure the department headquarters had called up Governors island and the forts down the bay, warning the officers in command that New York was having a visitor in the sky, who looked sus- picious but not, of necessity, danger ous to the welfare of the city.
 The. cafes and restaurants were af1ame with excitement
 Eo pQr1u tho crowds xuoito1 and watched, as thousands of eyes scanned the sky while necks grew distressingly stiff from the unaccustomed strain of bending backward.
 As the giant skyship passed over block after block of the northern dis trict of New York, without creating anything more than intense excite ment the residents who felt that they had escaped some dire calamity, grew joyous in celebrating their good for tune.
 Just as excitement in the heart of the city was at it's most intense pitch, and thousands stood in terror of some unaccountable disaster, an unprece- dented thing happened-everyl light in StIccl OI DulluAHS WdS SuulIcu Out. 1uo "Tenderloin," for the first time in the history of New York, was in utter darkness.
 Police headquarters, acting upon ad- vice from the commandant at Cover nor's island, had ordered the power company to shut off every electric light, from Columbus Circle to the Battery wall. In twinkling the or der had been obeyed.4
 While the panic-stricken crowds in the street watched the sky for the threatened peril that might come, Pa tricia Montez, in her biplane, was speeding toward New York from the aviation field on Long Island.
 As the airship, freighted with de- structive bombs sailed down toward the bay, piercing the sky above the center of Manhattan island, the watch CTS found relief in the fact that noth- ing any more serious than giving fright to the multitudes had marked the jour- ney of the air-raiders thus far. But the satisfaction that came to the crowds in the theater district, was not shared by men who owned property further downtown.
 When the crowds in Union square saw the great airship approaching