The Cordova daily times., 1918-08-01

the American Reu | ross lnSpettolo gives thrilling account of how American troops and Red Cross work CTS give aid to the city in such des- perate moments. He describes an air raid in this fashion:
 Nowhere is there any sound but the echoes of footsteps. Not street light is to be seen, not single ray of light-nothing but the inkiest and most impenetrable darkness. Then all of the noise of the world seems to break loose. Clang clang clang! booms the tocsin, like a gigantic pneumatic riveter working on colos- sal bell Whooo-o! shrieks the siren, running up and down the scale in an awful vail.
 The streets come to life. Doors open and slam shut. The sidewalks are full of ghostly figures hurrying toward the caves, where the inhabit ants have fitted up cots and banks. They get up now to make a sitting place for the newcomers. The place fills up. Everyone looks apathetic, sleepy and bored The children go to sleep with their heads On their mothers shoulders and girl in the uniform of a street car conductor swaps war yarns with p0ilu 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 an exploding torpedo. The car and it's inmates were unhurt. The poilu looks a mite incredulous and mur- murs. T can well believe you. madam oiselle."
 "Outside the noise continues for about three or four minutes and then subsidies as q new noise starts-the Archies. or anti-arcraft guns. which commence to bark furiously from half dozen different points. Searchlights rake the sky The Archies continue their clamor. but they are not firing at anything merely keeping up a bar rage fire to prevent the Boche from flying over the city.
 Suddenly there is an earrocking Whooo-m, No more doubts as to where the BoChes are Whoom. whoom! whoom! One involuntarily ducks and tries turtlewise to cover his head with his shoulders. A hid eous noise resounds up and down the deserted strerets-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 camoin- cite comes blowing its way One of the city nrcmcn stands on the run ming board. They stop and the fire man flashes an electric lamp into the ruins. makes a nasty inspection, and then runs up the street and dives into Jhc rcdlight cave.
 "'Anybody here from numbers AZ to 5l?' he calls A half dozen voices yell out that there is.
 "Is everybody here from those numbers? Was there anyone left in either of those buildings?'
 There is an anxious calling back and forth and rapid counting of noses All here" is the answer.
 "'Good! Not much left of those two buildings Don't enter the ruins until they have been inspected by the engineering department Go to the Sisters of the Poor if you want food or place to sleep.
 "A wall and several curses compete, but the fireman is gone.
 The Archies have stopped and there are no more whooms! but peo- pie stay in their cellars. It is only 9 o'clock, and the experience has shown that the industrious and methodical Boches will keep coming back again and again until after midnight.
 Half q mile away bright red glow gets larger and larger and lights the sky. A fire has broken out in the railroad yards and is making great headway. Several cars of oil are burning fiercely and spreading to cars of merchandise, Half dozen American soldiers are working fever ishly, trying to get the untouched cars away from the fire.
 TWO of them have got hold of a switch engine and are shunting out whole strings of cars.
 "Do you know anything about these French engines. sir?' asks the impromptu engineer. I cant find the damn brake.'
 The fire is eating its way toward a pier on which stands line of drums