Mexico weekly ledger., 1917-10-11

My Dear Sis:
LONDON, September 25th. /
suppose you will have been surprised
that / have not said a word about our
air raids but l simply had to wait un-
til / could talk about them as sour"
and the first time l was in one |
honestly thought it a contemplate
performance. l could not even take
it seriously and as for being afraid, it
never occurred to me. It was MOTH
ing to a Kansas cyclone. The second
time the Gothas came we had been
dining with friends and somehow, [
don't know exactly why, we realized
on the way home that there was men
ace in the air.
Hardly had we reached the hotel
when the distant vibrating drone of
machines began. Twice the silver
silhouettes were cut sharply against
the harvest moon. 1t was some min
utes before the firing began and then
it sounded SO far away that it did not
even cause a thrill in me. Presently
it grew sharper and more rapid and
we were able to distinguish between
the guns and bombs. Then came a
flash and the terrific crash of a bomb
which fell in a neighborilg street and
presently it was all over and we
turned in, to be shot out of bed within
half an hour by another crash.
That was all, except that l went
around the next morning to see tho
damage, and it was then that l be-
came so filled with rage that even
now | feel l must do something vio-
lent to avenge the suffering of the
women and children and wounded
soldiers l found sitting in the ruins of
what had yesterday been houses and
hospitals. One woman was trying to
make a kettle boil over a gas burner
all twisted and charred by the ex-
plosion. | held her baby, a white
faced mite with big staring eyes, and
asked the mother if she wasn't going
away, out of it all. mo, I'll be STOP
ping here" she said and made pitiful
Little dabs at a torn red curtain
hanging in streamers out of the win
dow place. And the woodwork AM
glass of the windows had been clean.
cd away as neatly as if by a car.
penter, and the wall was sucked out
The furniture of the room was II
splinters and a shoddy varnishet
dressing table, the woman's pride
which she had bought last week witt
some of her daughters savings, wa.
sitting astride some wires hangin,
in a tangle halfway across tn
street. l asked her where the daugh
ter was and she said, "Why at wor.
in munitions to be sure; where woul
she be-" Where, indeed, except tina
somehow l didn't expect anybody t
go on with their routine just as i
nothing had happened.
l was surprised to find so few PEG
pie standing about; crowds of work
ers were swarming up and down with
out so much as turning their heads
Only after working hours did the PEG
pie begin to come to see the grea
hole torn up in the street, and tn
hospital where the wounded soldier
in their light blue flannel suits wit
their crimson ties were still wonder
ing aimlessly about in dismantled an
windowless wards.
These light blue suits are anon
the queerest sights of England to m,
When one of our soldiers first sa'
men wearing them he said, 81 cam
over here prepared for anything an
l expect to die out there in Franc
but l swear they'll never make a gu
of me by putting me into a baby bio
pajama lined with white, tie a re
ribbon round my neck in a bow an