The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-18
Grandest and Most Dramatic
Spectacle of War.
Peaceful Farm Scenes Mingle
With Terrific Battle.
BROAD AND NEARLY LEVEL LAND
Peasants Are Driven From
Their Threatened Homes.
Cows. Crows and Tabby-CatS
Are There Uncopcerned.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP sIN1Ms.

With the British Armies Near Bail
leul April II (night) The fight now
progressing is the most spectacular or
the war.
be observed in pantomime as tho from
a balcony seat. Miles upon miles, from
around the Passchendaele salient
from which the British were voluntar-
lily withdrawn-to far southwestward
of Bailleul, is visible to the naked eye.
With field glasses, infantry can be
plainly seen on the move.
The battles of Cambria. Verdun and
Messines were all in a hill country, af-
fording the scantiest glimpses. But
from elevations around Bailleul, the
wars most dramatic panorama
stretches out with scarcely tree
cIump obscuring the view.
Across fertile miles of farms. men
are visible going into action. Shells
burst in pasture lands. Abandoned
cows cease grazing and stare in mild
astonishment at the strange eruptions.
The sky is filled with black and white
cloud puffs and with low flying air
planes in contact with infantry. drop
ping signal rockets to point out tar
gets to the artillery.
Flashes From Concealed Guns.
The rattle of machine guns and the
bass thunder of heavy artillery COM
mingled with the ear-splitting, vol1ey-
ing bangs" of field guns. is a worthy
| orchestra to the greatest drama of all
time.
Flashes from guns and howitzers
cleverly concealed, or frankly out in
the open. leap out dazzlingly. some
times startlingly meanwhile the hori-
zon flickers like thousands of pocket
mirrors flashing in the sunlight
| In the foreground, a German shell
crumps fairly into a farm house The
| former occupants probably are tramp
ing along the roads. regretting they
ever left their home. The house gives
| off a white smoke for a few minutes,
then a flag of flames mounts toward
the sky. Gas shells flop into idyllic
fields in full cultivation. Strangling
vapors are trailing heavily across the
| sprouting crops. An apparently fear
| less crow is due for the surprise of his
| life.
All Seems an Unreal Tragedy.
| The whole business looks unreal
from this hill top. 1t gives the i'm
preston of a monster open-air spec
tacle in commemoration of an impor-
when l see gunner duck from a
blazing battery, bucket in hand, and
chase an ownerless red cow-fora ging
for the supper milk, like an awkward
| stage hand engaged in some ridiculous
thing in the midst of an Irvingesque
| tragedy.
All the while you are standing in
front of tiny, white washed and
| Ieelng alone IN a
world where everything is soldiers,
| death and war.
You turn to go and halt-startled.
Peering thru a little square-p aned
window, you see, outlined against the
darkened interior, the white face of
an aged woman. Behind her is that
of a bent old man, staring fixedly
toward the plains. They have lived
in that cottage too long to leave it
Like the End of the World.
A little way down the slope a Ger
man shell bursts above a similar cot
tage. Bits of red tiled roof fly in
every direction. Now the enemys ar
tillery is registering on the hill
tabby cat, licking a discarded
bully beef can, scamper@ off thru
a hole in a hedge. Even he is desert
ing the old place. But inside the cot
tage the old man lays his hand on
the woman's shoulder. Together they
watch the fields below.
You move away, but something
makes you walk on tip toe For ttess
folks, and those they symbolic. the
end of the world seems to have come