Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-01-06

 Now there were firemen standing i'll the theater lobby. the fire engine was in the orchestra floor, and the engine horses had the green rooms.
 All Hotels Wiped Out. There was no use looking for a hotel, for there were no guests now, and besides all the hotels had been wiped out. The main hotel. hand some structure on tho main corner. was demolished by the explosion of two 12-inch shells, which landed squarely inside. The loss Of life must have been great, and the material destruction was complete, not a veStige of the building remaining, eX- cept great heaps of debris. The ca thcdral near by had also received a shell through the roof just over the altar. All the stained-slass windows were shivered and the bits lay or the ground Looking through one of these empty windows we coulG see the wrecked altar with its railngs twisted and it's marble sides blasted into fra g. mentS.
 The visit to the citadel was the event of the day. This is a huge pile with old-time meat and battlements, and a great tower dominating the whole country for miles around. Here we were to view Mount Gabriel Mount Michol, the BiansizZa, plateau and the whole range of ground which had passed through this upheaval. It was uphill to the citadel. Everything showed the havoc of long continued fire. In one great court there was a pretty little chapel which had come through the ordeal untouched, though all around was wreck.
 Once up the battlements con- manding view >was ahead. There was one point of vantage where this view was particularly good, known as the observation post. We halted a mo- ment, about to enter the post, but others wished to push on to the very front of the wall. and this view pre- vailed. It was a most fortunate de- cision, as we soon after had reason to know.
 View of Mountain Battlefield.
 On the battlements splendid view stretched out for miles over this bat tlesround of mountains, valleys and plains, with the city houses clustered below and the roads winding off through the valleys and foothills. There in front was Mount St. Gabriel, this side held by the Italians the other by the Austrians.
 "There runs the dividing line" said the escort, pointing to line of trees and depressions near the summit.
 The Italian trenches could be plain ly seen. But there was no need of indicating dividing line. for the bursts of smoke along one side of the summit. and the answering bursts from the other side, told where the line was. Off to the left was Mount St. Michoel. once swept clean by she'll fire. but now green again. Nestled in a hollow was the convent of St. Catarina. The Biansizza plateau vas off to the left, and through the mist were the dim outlines of sncw-topped Mount Nero, that outpost of the Ital- ian advance.
 Shell Strikes Near.
 As we stood surveying this scene there was the steady rumble of guns then the long "whiz" of ever-passing shells. But there was one "whiz' which instantly engaged every atten- tion. We could hear it coming and it was not going over, nor under, nol at either side. Everyone in5iinctive- | ly recoiled, and then
 Crash.
 Five of us went down in heap stunned as with a hammer blow There was a great enveloping noise with the smash and crack of walls the flying of fragments. and then tn, heave of tons of earth, mortar an( masonry ploughed up by the hug' l missile.
 It had struck that observation post just fifteen feet away, which we .Mer about to enter. There was no mor observation post; it was swept clean But fortunately the shell had gon straight through battering down mas sive walls and digging a deep trencl into the earth where it had eXplode' under ground throwing up grea geysers. Bnt while the earth an' stones flew like hail, the undergroun explosion had held the shell-fras ments Stunned as we were. the frs impulse was of self-preservatiOn. nasty glance showed no one wa seriously injured, though the trick of blood on the right temple Of on of the party told that flying ston had found a mark.
 They have this range" said tn
 escort as we struggled to our fec "and one shot means that another vii follow"
 There was a hasty scramble frol the battlement over the tons of debri
 thrown up, which now compldtel
 blocked the three-foot path skirtin
 the wall, Will Irwin of New York Ina
 been nearest the shell when it struc and was not only half covered by tn upheaval, but the flying clay cam with such force that it fastened to hi stormcoat as though put on by ma sons trowel. The man with the bloc on his temple was taken to the neal
 by military hospital. located in tn citadel. where the triflins cut Wa dressed by the surgeons as a matte of precaution against infection. Shell Stops Visits. This shell had suddenly brouSht | 1f l,nit