Evening star., 1917-09-15
ROME AIR DEFENSES
IN ANCIENT LAT|UM
But Presence of Pope Is Be-
Iieved to Be Best
Safeguard.
BY MAGDA sINDICI.

BY MAGDA SINDICI.
Especial Correspondence of The Even
ing Star and Chicago Daily NewsD
ROME. Italy. August 3.-Rome is sit
uated in an admirable position from the
viewpoint of anti-aerial defense. Not only
is it in the usual sense a fortified city.
with its encircling ring Of fort-concealing
green mounds but it lies in a wide plain
surrounded by hills at successive levels
that render minute and long-distance OBJ
servation sfngularly easy.
The theory of a hidden and possible
important aeroplane base somewhere by
the Tyrrhenean sea, that could SEND lts
aircraft to Rome along the fat shores or
the Maremma marshes. has now proved
to be highly improbable The latter would
be the best side on which to attack. only
1t has the great disadvantage, as
scheme. Of not being-so far-feasible
Seashore and Maremma marshes would
have to be approached, failing this west
ern base, by crossing the higher Apen-
mines. 1t is, perhaps. difficult to place
anti-aircraft batteries along these peaks
sufficient in number to protect the whole
mountain chain: but spur after spur OF
the Apennines run at right angles to the
main range from this spinal column OF
Italy to the sea: and these spurs are
protected at every strategic point. that
is, wherever the mountainous district
merges into a plain.
Munition Works in Umbria.
All over the dreamy province Of Um-
bria, so called because of the shade"
once cast over the land by the thick
woods that covered it, batteries are con-
cealed. This province seems to have
gathered to itself all the gentleness Of
Italy, as If the spirit Of its ancient agri-
cultural inhabitants, older than the
Etruscans, had managed to survive the
impact Of fierce medieval war. Umbria
holds the town OF Terni, with its unrest
ing steel and munition works-a great
goal for bomb throwers and many times
attacked The little river Nera comes
tumbling along close by it, between high.
cool banks. so hasty and vivid that its
waters lash themselves into perpetual
foam; and just above the Nera, the gray
gleam of guns adds a contrasting touch
to the peasants in blue overalls and the
red tasseled white cattle for which the
district is famous.
Close under an old rambling convent
watched by ageless expresses, which
strike warm brown note in sur
rounding scale of hard grays, another
battery turks: Calvi, perched at the top
of the last hill before the Apennlnes es
dwindle away into the valley OF the tt
ber. must not be left undefended. /
know an old peasant there, who per-
haps still trudges along the same road
every dawn and nightfall with his ak
and his spade, who asked me, not SO
long ago, if it were true that there now
existed some mad folk. among other
iniquitous children of this wicked CEN
tury, who were trying to fly in the air.
I told him the report was quite true.
Flying in the face Of Providence. he
said sadly. tempting Providence"
Battery at Tivoli.
On the hills above Tivoli. in view of
the temple where the prophetic books
and where a wise sibyl uttered oracu-
lar truths tempered with probability.
another battery of straight muzzles
takes heed only of the deep. silken
than the village of Calvi. and the in
habitants, lulled to a semi-hypnotic
somnolence by the never ceasing spell
of their waterfalls, know little of the
wary guns that guard their slumbers
Along Rome's immediate coronet OF
hills. above that Latium where ghostly
lines Of aqueducts and here and there a
ruined group or gnarled old towers spell
out the tale of Roman and baronial
days. more batteries guard the security
of the Eternal city. and the same is the
case farther down where a little we'll
of acidulous water that is much drunk
in the hot weather sends in its daily
supply on summer mornings, together
with Cne ColoTeu
to be sold in the streets heralded by a
strange. singsonging cry.
AS far away as the Simbruni hills that
lead in gradations of wildness to the
harsh heart of central Italy. the Rome
Sulmona railroad has its grim guardian
angels. And at Subiaco, the cradle of
western monastic orders. all is ready
against the incursion of ill intentioned
creatures of the air. Well might the
ghosts of st. Benedict's first cenobites.
if hostile aeroplanes were to venture
thus far. take them for a modern form
of those weirdly evolving demons that
sorely vexed them at their vigils for
purposes of temptation-not to be
routed. nowadays. by prayer and fast
ing alone!
Vatican Real Help to Rome.
And vet. it is perhaps the Vatican that
constitutes the best and surest anti
aerial weapon. The Pope lives within
it's walls. and Austria, the most Cath