Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-08-06
BOMB RAIDS OVER PARIS
Where Red Cross and Soldiers Show
Up Big.


Writing of German air raid on
Paris, one Of the American Red Cross
inspectors gives a thrilling account
Of how American troops and Red
Cross workers give aid to the city In
such desperate moments. He describ-
as an air raid in this fashion:
Nowhere is there any sound but
the echoes OF footsteps. Not n street
light to be seen. not single ray Of
light-nothing but the inkiest and
most impenetrable darkness. Then all
the noise Of the world seems to break
loose. Clang. clang- clang, booms
the tocsin-like a gigantic pneumatic
rivetcr working on n colossal bell.
Whooo-o shrieks the siren, running
up and down the scale in an awful
wall.
THE streets come to life. Doors
open anS slam shut. The sidewalks
are full Ci ghostly figures hurrying
towards the caves where the inhabi-
tants have fitted up cots and hunks.
They get up now to make sitting place
for the new comers. The place fills
up. Everyone looks apathetic, sleepy
and bored. The children go to sleep
with their heads on their mothers
shoulders. and girl in the uniform
of a street car conductor swaps war
yarns with a poilu in dingy blue. In
the last raid the front trucks OF her
car were thrown from the rails by the
displacement of air caused by an eX-
ploding torpedo. The car and its in
mates were unhurt. The poilu looks
a mite incredible and murmers. Il can
we'll believe you, Mademoiselle.'
"Outside the noise continues for
about three or four minutes and then
subsidies as new noise starts-the
Arches, or anti-craft guns, which
commence to bark furiously from half
Il dozen different points. Searchlights
rake the sky. The Arches continue
their clamor, but they are not firing ut
anything, merely keeping up bar
rage fire to prevent the Boches from
flying over the city.
Suddenly there is an earthrocking
whoom. No more doubt as to where
the Boches are. Whoom. whoom.
whoom! One involuntarily ducks and
tries tuftiewise to cover his head with
his shoulders. A hideous noise re-
sounds up and down the deserted
street-falling walls, and the tinkllng
and crash Of showers of broken glass
and roofing tiles.
Through the glass and litter of the
street an American Red Cross camoi-
nette comes ploughing its way. One
of the city firemen stands on the run
ming board. They stop and the fire.
man flashes an electric lamp into TN"
ruins, making n hasty inspection, ana
then runs up the street and dives into
the redlight cave.
Anybody here from numbers 10
10 51?" nc calls. \ half dozen voices
yell out that there is.
Is everybody here from those
numbers? Was there anyone left in
either of those buildingsT
There is an anxious calling back
and forth and n rapid counting of
noses. "All hero is the answer
Good. Not much left to those
two buildings. Don't enter the ruins
until they have been inspected by the
engineering department Go to the
Sisters of tn Poor If you want food or
n place to sleep.
IA wall and several curses compete
but the fireman Is gone.
"The Arches have stopped and there
are no more whooms, but people stay
in their cellars. 1t is only O. o'clock,
and experience has shown that the in
dustrious and methodical BOchcs will
keep coming back again and again un-
til after midnight.
"A half a mile away n bright red
glow gets larger and larger and lights
the sky. A fire has broken out In the
railroad yards and is making great
headway. Several cars Of oil are burn
ing fiercely and spreading to cars OF
merchandise. Half a dozen American
soldiers are working feverishly trying
to get the untouched cars away from
the fire.
1.-TWO Of them have got hold Of a
switch engine and are shutting out
whole strings Of cars.
What Is the matter with these
French engines. sir? asks the i'm
promptu engineer. can't find the
damn brake
THE fire Is eating its way towards
a pier on which stands line Of drums
Of gasoline.
Come on, boy! roll them kegs o gas
auta here yells the corporal, and the
line of drums starts trundling down
the pier. II Is Internally hot, and tho
average man does not know just how
hot gasoline can get before it begins
to misbehave; but the line never
wavers.
".Roll 'em along. boys! Keep EN-
goin. Everybody has got to die some.
time
Little by little things become quiet
er. The fires die down. The Arches
stop. Here and there a working party
still continues its labors in the ruins
Someone is missing, and they want t.
get him out Of cellar. Now the toe
sin sounds again. this time with slow
stately, measured beats. This Is the
Ais clear signal. No more enemy
planes are flying between here and thu
fighting lines. People come out o.
their cellars and go home. A few eau
tious souls are busily putting sheets o
paper and pieces of bedding across
their windows to keep out the dreaded
.courant da'ir.' Now and then there
is a small group in a doorway. re-
counting experiences.
"The Boche has dropped more thar
one hundred bombs tonight, many o.
them OF the $50 pound size. The net
100000 te MT vary preaf fpr houaas