The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-05-16
WOMAN TELLS OF HER ADVENTURE
 INSIDE A TANK

It was the most peaceful of spring mornings! From every roof top, ban ners of smoke waved. My glance dropped from those emblems of a soldiers at work on their great war engine. And my heart flowed to over flowing with love and gratitude. These "boys" had been in the battle of Arras, and so had the tank. Both were battle-scarred in our defense.
 I knew that any expression of grat- itude would only bore the men; but the tank would not mind. So I reach ed out my hand where I stood, and stroked it.
 It broke into violent purring. The crew had started the engine! I look ed up. The young recruiting officer was mounting the Fifth Avenue bus which was to follow the tank and from which he was to address crowds all over the city.
 Ready" one of the crew called 70 me.
 I looked for the door. Somehow I had expected to step into the tank throungh a tall, narrow door or to chamber to the top and descend in- side. But instead, a horizontal slit opened under the bulging side, and through that I scrambled (with as freat dignity as possible) into the warm, dusky interior of the monster.
 The crew called in after me, clos ing the door. The engine beat louder. There were excited sounds from the crowd (now invisible). We were off!
 Instantly a terrific jolting set up, accompanied by deafening chatter. Talking was almost impossible. The throat ached with the escort. I know nothing to compare the din to, unless it might be riding in wabon without tires, loaded with steel rails, over a rutty road.
 Dazed by the racket and vibration, I sat in the rear, beside a gearsman. At the front sat the driver. The oth- CTS were in their places.
 The entire middle of the 'tsteel ca terpillar" was taken up by the en- zine; a great 150-horsepower affair, using eight gallons of gasoline for every mile. Around e, on the walls were the cases of ammunition. Be- fore my face were two machine guns. Two others were on the opposite side of the tank; and there was a gun at the front and one at the rear. It was all very grim. And as I sat there, in the semi darkness in that jolting, clattering fort, with the faint odors of stale powder and grease and gaso- line in my nostrils, and those quiet khaki-clad men all about, something clutched at my heart
 Just then we turned g. corner, one side of the great caterpillar standing still while the other was kept in mo- tion. Now we were on cobblestones, l apparently. The jolting became al- most unbearable. The din, too, in- creased. I thought of a boiler factory shaken by a continuous earthquake.
 Could a shell pierce this?"I asked. ''If direct hit; not otherwise. The steel is -16 of an inch thick" How many men in a tank, when in action?''
 Usually eight; driver brake man, two gearsmen and four gun ners." He added, smiling, ''This tank is 26 feet long, seven feet, 10 inches high, and nine feet broad. It weighs 32 tons And when in action, even the drivers window is closed, peri. scope being used. At night we fol. | low white tapes laid down for us." could not have listened longer. great faintness had swept over me and I ached in every joint. I asked te | be put down. The tank stopped, one of the slit-1ike doors opened and ] rolled out into the sunlight of lower New York, to the huge delight of z great crowd which had instantly gath | cred.
 We were at the Williamsburg Bridge; so the tank started on across it, toward Brooklyn accompanied by the bus from which the recruiting of f1cers addressed the fascinated, fol lowing crowd.
 I watched until the tank had wad. dled out of sight, then-with little prayer for the success of the days re. cruiting and a feeling of thankful
 ness that I had had a small (if un. seen) part in it-I made my way
 dizzily to the nearest street car.-
 Vera L. Connolly in The Christian
 Herald.