Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-01-18
HOW VENICE IS
BEING DEFENDED
Sefore Menace of Modern
Hun, Lagoons To-day Are
Practically Emptied

With the French Army in Italy.
Before the menace of the modern
Hun, Venice, whose lagoons GEN.
~1Iries ago furnished an asylum of
--afety for refugees fleeing from Atil-
la, Is to-day almost emptied. or the
10000 persons who ordinarily in
habit the city, only about 1000 re-
main. But this is not because Ven
ice fears for her own protection.
Across the battlefield of the reeds
Z Is believed that no invader will
penetrate to the islands of the Ve-
n9ttan lagoon. The city puts her
trust in the lagoons as confidently
as she trusted to the sea in olden
times.
To the visitor in Venice these days
when the invading army lies only
short march distant. one of the odd
memories of the war will be that of
tho music of the great guns BOOM
Ing from Ltdi and the nests Of reedy
islets in the northern lagoon. That
accompanies you all day in Venice.
The Queen of the Adriatichas her
face to the foe. She has shut her
shops and sent her merchandise
away The army or the navy have
taken her young men. Those that
remain have bricked up or sand
baEged her churches and monuments
and now await the issue in entire
calm, confident that, although the
enemy is no more than a long gun
shot away. it is not at her own gates
that Venice is menaced.
From Burano, motorboat takes
you through a maze of channels into
the canal Silone, where you thread
your way between reed-covered
banks toward the mainland. You
can see nothing but the channel and
the reeds. There is not a roof nor
a spire in sight We are getting up
to what may be called the artillery
defense line of Venice. On the way
we passed a British monitor with
her big guns pointed inland. The
coast batteries and big gun mon-
itors constitute another defense line.
Here in the salt channel between the
islands we come suddenly upon a
floating battery or pontoon. as the
Italians call them. 1t is a big steel
barge mounting a gun which has
been steadily pounding the Austrians
on the Piave Vecchia all night. She
is manned by sailors, for the artil-
lery defense of Venice is entirely
IN the hands of the navy.
From Porte Grandi. as far as the
eye can see the land is covered
rows of half-submerged willows
marking out the fields which it COW
ers, and here and there an isolated
clump of farm buildings emerging
from the floods. We are here on
the edge of the Piave inundations
and in another naval artillery de-
fense belt High banked roads, dil1es
and farm houses are all that re-
main above water. Some of these
20 seIo al ~,
trians and some by Italians, and it
is the aim of both sides to destroy
the farms held by the enemy. A
few nights ago some italian sailors
undertook a cutting out expedition
against one of the Austrian islands,
captured and burned the buildings
and came back with Austrian pris-
oners.
Nothing more dismal can be imag-
ined than this battlefield among the
reeds, except the awful desolation
of the Flanders front. Unending
water, half-drowned willows and
farm houses under a bitter winter
sky compose about as melancholy
picture as even war presents. On
many of the islands formed by the
release of the floods to protect Ven
ice are brave families clinging to
their homes in the hope that 1918
will see the invader thrown back.
On this sector the Italians have a
superiority of artillery. It is at
night that the italian guns do their
hardest work. At night the Aus
trians always attempt to construct
field works or to lay bridges of boats
across the Piave Vecchia to the ca
nails. They take a number of boats,
tie them together and swing them
out from one hank, trusting to the
current to float them into place on
the other side. 1t Is the business of
the italian floating batteries to drive
away these bridge builders and to
destroy the fruits of their labors,
and this they do with surprising sue
cess.
In Venice, herself, I have seen no
sign of actual damage, except a hole
torn in the roof of San Giovanni and
San Paolo by an Austrian airplane
bomb. The front of San Marco and
the pillars of the Doge's Palace have
been bricked up so that nothing of
them remains visible. The same
precautions have been taken with
the famous statue of Colleoni and,
in fact. with all the monuments of
the town that can be so protected
In the Piazza di San Marco almost
all the shops are closed, but a num-
ber are still open IN the Merooria,
and, although almost all the Eon.
dolas have vanished, It Is possible to
find one to take you up the Grand