Evening star., 1918-07-07

hall, with. bound upon his sleeve, the
blue band which means an honorable
and unhealed wound. He, fine fellow,
hoped that through no Hunntsh chance
bombs that night upon the allied hos
pitfalls in France, where wounded men
in worse case than himself lay bed
bound. And. by the by. no hand pro-
jected from the sleeve on which the
blue band showed. There were my
could help any one through being
elsewhere: and there were women,
women. women. children. children.
children!
Don't get an idea that this group Of
strieRs1 s1pe hnSdfe fss fsarns SeatS
shrinking. shrieking, praying. Far
from 1t. There may have been some
silent prayers; / doubt not that there
We're hut every person In that base
ment. from the aged nobleman with
his calm, cold face, to the youngest
OF maid servants. was calm.
The littiest boy. with animated eyes.
listening to the gunfire, calling out:
There goes Big John!' or That's
Little Frenchman!" or-"Was that SAL
ly or Maria" was not frightened.
The children of many a London
household have named the guns which
bark at Hun aircraft in their imme-
diate neighborhoods, and call their
names when they are fired. 1t has
become sort of children's game
The women of all ages. with as lit
tie nervousness as II they talked of
drainage. were discussing hint to
the house management concerning
sand bags before window which
might admit bomb fragments, or were
talking pf the work which every one
Of them. waitress or wife of fhe aged
nobleman. without exceptioh,Swas do
ing every day to help the wounded,
raise funds for the Red Cross, fur
nish comforts for some dear one "at
the front" Not one voiced timid
hopes that no Hun bomb might strike
that building. tt
Meanwhile the guns. which had been
muttering in the distance, had begun
deep bass growing in the out
skirts of the city. That British So-
ciety for the Discouragement of the
Guild to Guard Old Ladies from AS
sassination had their policemen upon
guard. and fighting for their trusts
presently those grim gun voices came
nearer. nearer. those close at hand
began to speak.
canoe: the enemy airplanes were COM
Ing closer, closer, each with its load
Of death which it might dIop upon
that very building.
There were no screams. there was
no hysteria; no fright ALTERED even
In any childish eyes. These women
and these children all were used to
It, They live in London during Ger
many's attack upon the civilization
of the world.
I have been through air-raids. 1
snail leave 1t to young subalterns to
say that such things do not worry
them 1t is a harmless lie. ana per-
haps through 1t a certain stiffening
OF courage comes. They need all they
can muster. But such things do
worry them; they worry me; they
worried all the members of that
group-my own wife, the wives Of
other men. other mems and wom-
ems children, the servants, the titled
Briton's titled wife, all who were
there; None of us said SO. What
would have been the use? 1t would
have made things worse-and all of
us were used to it.
Bang!
was that Big Tom or Old Bill?"
that lisping. bright-haired littIest
boy interestedly asked his brother
seight eight years ,ears oid) across their
She. the American wife of a British
officer. said nothing. and through the
exercise OF great self-control re-
Trained even from the Tightening Of
her clasp about her babes. But
her lips had whitened, for some ex-
traordinary reason.
"R-r-r-r--r-rumph!"
wasn't Big Tom or Old Rili. This
Ia Tom He aJwaya ypntknr. a..