The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-30
AS BOMBS BOOM
Red Cross Inspector Gives
Thrilling Account of Air Raid.
American Ambulance BUSHES to
scene OF Explosion.
DOUGHBOYS MOVE HOT GAS
Save Supplies in Railroad
Yards From Destruction.
Homeless Frenchman Shrugs
Shoulders "C'est LIE Guerre."

Washington, July 30.-Writing of a
German air raid on Paris. one of the
American Red Cross inspectors gives
a thrilling account of how American
troops and Red Cross workers give aid
to the city in such desperate moments.
He describes an air raid in this
fashion:
Nowhere is there any sound but
the echoes of footsteps. Not a street
light is to be seen, not a single ray of
light--nothing but the inkiest and
most impenetrable darkness. Then all
of the noise of the world seems 70
break loose. -clang booms
the tocsin-like a gigantic pneumatic
riveter working on a colossal bell
Whooo-o sl-rieks the siren, running up
and dom the scale in an awful wall
THE streets come to life. Doors
open and slam shut. The sidewalks
are full of ghostly figures hurrying to-
wards the caves, where the inhabitants
h; We fitted up cots and hunks. They
get up no 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 shoul-
ders. and a girl in the uniform of a
street car conductor swaps war yarns
with a poilu in dingy blue. In the
were thrown from the rails by the
di jplacement of air caused by an ex-
ploding torpedo. The car and its in
mates were unhurt The poilu looks
a mite incredulous and murmurs,
can well believe you, Mademoiselle.'
"Outsida t noise continues for
about three or four minutes and then
subsidies as a new noise starts-the
Arches. or anti-craft guns. which
commence to bark furiously from hair
a dozen different points Searchlights
rake the sky. The Arches continue
their clamor, but they are not firing
at anything, merely keeping up a bar
rage fire to prevent the hoche from
flying over the city.
Then Come the Bombs.
Suddenly there is an earthrocking
WHOOM. No more doubt as to where
the boches are. WHOM, WHOM,
WHOOM! One involuntarily ducks
and tries turtlewise to cover his head
with his shoulders. A hideous noise
resounds up and down the deserted
street-falIing walls, and the tinkling
and crash of showers of broken glass
and roofing tiles.
Thru the glass and litter of the
street an American Red Cross camoin-
cite came blowing its way. One of
the city firemen stands on the rum
ming board. They stop and the fire
man flashes an electric lamp into the
ruins. makes a hasty inspection. and
then runs up the street and dives into
the red light cave
"Anybody here from number 40 to
SIP he calls. A half dozen voices yell
out that there is.
us everybody here from those
numbers? Was there anyone left in
either of those buildings?'
Counting Noses?
There is an anxious calling back
and forth and a 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 en-
cheering department. Go to the Sis
ters of the Poor if you want food or a
place to sleep
"A wall and several curses compete,
but the fireman is gone.
THE Arches have stopped and
there are no more whooms. but people
stay in their cellars. 1t is only 9
o'clock, and experience has shown
that the Industrious and methodical
boches will keep coming back again
and again until after midnight.
American Soldiers Help.
"A half 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
Roadway. Several cars of oil are burn
ing fiercely and spreading to cars OF
, merchandise. Half a dozen American
soldiers are working feverishly to get
fire
Two of them have got hold of q
switch engine and are shunting out
whole strings of cars.
"'Do you know anything about
these French engines. sir?' asks the