The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1918-07-31
THRILLING TALE OF
PARIS AIR RADE
NOT A SOUND HEARD NOT
LIGHT SEEN

Washington, July. Writing of a
German air raid on Paris, one of the
American Red Cross inspectors gives
thrilling account of how American
troops and Red Cross workers gives
aid to the city in such desperate NOM
ents. He decribes raid In the this
fashion:
Nowhere is there any sound but
the echoes of footsteps Not street
light is to be seen, not single ray
iof -light--nothing but the inkiest
and most impenetrable darkness. Then
all of the the noise Of the world seems
to break loose. clang clang clang
booms the tocsin--like angigantic pne-
umatic riveter working on a colossal
bell Whooo-o shrieks the siren. rum.
ing up and down the scale in an awful
wall
"The streets come to life. Doors
open and slam shut. The sidewalks
are full of ghostly figures hurrying
towards the caves, where the inhabit-
ants have fitted up cots and banks.
They get up now to make a sitting
place for the new corners, The place
lie Eft tn
sleepy and bored. The children go to
sleep with their heads on their moth
ers shoulders, and girl in the uni
form of a street car conductor swaps
war yarns with 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 eX-
ploding torpedo. Thewires and it's in
mates were unhurt. The poilu looks
a mite in credulous and murmurs, 4
can we'll believe you, Mademoiselly,
outside the noise continues for
subsi lrsas \ row rCise starts the
Arches, or anticraft guns, which com
mence to bark furiously from half
dozen different points. Searchlights
rake the sky. The Arches continue
their clamorj but they are not firing
at anything, merely keeping up bar
rage fire to prevent the Boche from
flying over the city.
Suddenly there is an earthrocking
WHOOM. No more doubt as to where
the Boches are. Whoom, Whom,
Whoom:: One involuntarily ducks and
tries turtlewise to cover his head with
his shoulders. A hideous noise re-
sounds up and down t he deserted
street falling walls, and the tinkling
and crash of showers of broken
glass and roofing tiles.
Through the glass and litter of the
street an American Red Cross cam
cinete comes ploughing its way. One
of the city firemen stands on the
board. They stop and the fireman
flashes an electric lamp into the ruins.
makes hasty inspection, and then
runs up the street and dives into red
light cave
!. Anybody here from numbers 40 to
81? he calls. A half dozen voices
yell out that there is.
is everybody here from those num-
bers? Was there anyone left in either
Of those building?
IS There is an anxious calling back
end forth and rapid counting of moss
All here is the answer:
Good! Not much left of those two
building. Don't enter the ruins the
Poor if you want food or place to
sleep"
"a vial 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 nine O'Clock.
and experience has shown that the
Industrious and methodical Boches
will keep coming back again and
again until after midnight.
"A half mile away bright red
glow getsl- ger and larger and lights
the sky. A fire has broken out in the
railroad yards and making great head
way Several cars of oil are burning
fiercly and spreading to cars of mere
haudise. Half a dozen American sold
iers are working feverishly try to
get the untouched cars away from
the fire.
Two of them have got hold of
switch engine and are shunting out
whole strings of cars.
30 Sou know anything about these
French engines. Sir? asks the i'm
French engines. Sir? asks the impro-
mptu engineer, 4 can't find the dam
brake.
THE fire is eating its way towards
a nier on which stands a line of drums