Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-12-25

stones as they ripped their way
through the foliage or smached against
the turf. 1t was too hot to be pleas
ant; but there was no cover, and l
stood my ground.
The result of all this fire, | learned
next day, was that out of some twenty
German airplanes that tried to get
over London and drop bombs. only two
succeeded in penetrating the barrage.
One of them / heard, during lull in
the firing; the deep note of the Gotha
double engine, which sounds like the
hum of a gigantic beehive, Is unlike
the noise of any other sort of airplane,
and cannot be mistaken. (Deleted by
censor)
Casualties Are Light.
Shrapnel and pieces of shell must
come down during barrage, but 1t has
been found that the fragments rarely
If ever pierce even the flimsiest roof.
Consequently the casualties from shell
fire would be none if everybody kept
indoors, and. since most people do,
they are very small. The danger even
from a bomb that explodes In the
street outside house is not great; the
| authorities after six full-dress raids
are convinced that unless the enemy
commences pouring gas upon a help
less population, he will not succeed in
materially raising the death rate.
The park from which | saw the great
struggle was deserted; so were the
streets from which l watched the next
two raids. The attacks seemed much
like one another; there was the same
rush for cover, the same sinister ST.
lence broken by the same noises, the
same lights in the sky, the same buzz
ing as Gotha or two won through the
barrage, the same noises of bombs in
the distant suburbs, and patter of shell
fragments in the street. Oeleted by
the censor.)
BY staying outside, l found that l
saw fireworks and heard noises, but
learned little of the way Londoners
were taking the attacks, so on a later
night, when another attack was sig
nailed as / was dining In a famous res
taurant in Regent street, | determined
to visit a tube. There was a crisis in
the restaurant; the walters sensibly re-
fused to go on serving dinner, and
pointed eloquently to the large sky
light overhead. The manager, frantic
at the thought of losing his nights
custom, insisted; but most of the
guests solved the difficulty by retreat
ing to the wine cellar. My companion
and l, having eaten half way through
the dinner, paid half the bill, and hur-
red to a tube station just before the
firing commenced.
People Rush to Tubes.
The London tubes are not built like
the New York subway, most of which
runs just under the street level. They
are bored one, two and three hundred
feet deep, and reached Dy elevators
and circular stairways, the latter sup
posed to be used only in emergency.
We found a crowd, admirably handled
by special policemen, being marshaled
rapidly from the street through the
doors of the station. The four eleva-
tors were running, each taking IS
people down per trip. We decided to
walk. All the way down. 200 feet
were men, women and children sit
ting huddled along the circular stair
way. On each landing was a special
policeman, who kept open a passage.
When we reached the bottom we found
the place packed to suffocation. The
trains were not running, for passen-
gers could not have forced their wav
through the crowd.
Most of the refugees were Russians
Poles, LithuanianS or southern Euro
peans. The crowd was like a typical
gathering on the New York East side.
Just such scenes would be witnessed
l thought, If enemy airplaneS lombard
ed New York. This station. on the
Metropolitan railway is not situated in
a foreign quarter.
The people most scared by the raids
were not English. / think the evidence
of the tubes, where the atmosphere
became unspeakably vile after a few
hours of overcrowding, where at least
two people have been crushed to death
and many injured during panics,
proves that the terrorism the Germans
seek to produce here is effective only
among the kind of people the Germans
themselves understand; and If the ma
jority of Germans In the great Ger
man cities behave like the foreign
quarter of London when their turn
comes to face sky bombardments, the
weapon of reprisal may become a most
important military asset to the allies.
Many Germans in Crowd.
There remains in London consider
able German population; and the per
centage of Germanic faces in the tube
station was striking and amusing. Dur
ing the ten minutes that we remained.
before the foul air compelled us to
withdraw, 1 counted more than one
hundred men of apparent Teutonic
physiognomy; and I did not see more
than one hundred English in the place.
There was a well-dressed English
woman near me, who remarked to her
companion in disgust, as she gazed on
the crowd about her, MY dear, If only
the trains were running, we might ride
to one of the Mayfair stations. I am
sure there would be a better-class
crowd there"
But the Mayfair stations. as 1 veri-
fed after the next warning, are not
filed during air raids. And most of
those who do take refuge, even in West
End residential districts, within the
tubes, are not English. The point
seems of Importance, because breath
ing foul air at the bottom of a deep
shaft for hours Is fair evidence of
panic, or at least of undue alarm. Sen
sible people go home, and stay there.
Crowds of foreigners congregate
around the tube stations hours before
the raid warnings are given, and
clamor for admittance, which is not