Denver labor bulletin., 1918-08-31
U. s. Food Administration.

tomobiles and motorcycles made their
appearance. They were the volun-
teer group who, Immediately after an
air raid has passed, traverse the
streets blowing horns to notify the
citizens that they can emerge from
their shelter.
The danger which we had passed
thru, the sights and sounds we had
experienced, and the knowledge that
there had been great damage to prop
erty and, without doubt, loss of life,
filled the mind with emotions most
difficult to describe as we made our
way thru the park and passed the pal
ace on our way to the hotel. Just
before reaching the hotel, the warn
ing whistles again sounded indicating
that another squadron of raiders had
made their appearance and, as we
were close to an entrance to a tube,
we passed into the underground sta
tion both for safety and to observe
how those who had taken shelter were
influenced by the raid. Most of them
had been there for over two hours.
In one angle of the descending stair
way a mother with her child in her
arms had gone to sleep; not far away
a young soldier was endeavoring, ap-
parently with considerable success, to
give comfort to the young lady by
his side. Some men could be heard
expressing their opinions of the raid
ers in vigorous English. Almost every
one seemed tired, nobody indicated
any particular fear, and in one cor
ner of the station a group of young
people were singing rollicking songs.
If the purpose of the air raids is to
bring a deadly fear to the British,
they fail absolutely in their purpose.
Some twelve hours after the raid
we visited a number of places where
bombs had fallen. The explosion of
a bomb produces some of the strange
freaks that mark the ruins in tor
nado's wake. In one place bomb had
hit four-story hotel situated on the
corner of a large solidly built block.
OF the buildings, the hotel alone had
been damaged, and here not even the
walls of the lower story had been left
standing, yet on the wall attached to
the block could be seen the fireplaces
on each of the four stories and the
pictures, which had hung on this wall,
still remained in their place and,
strange as it appeared, hanging even
ly as tho the disaster which had de-
stroyed the building had failed to dis
turb them. In another locality
block from a main thorofare, three
small homes had been obliterated, but
the other buildings, aside from a few
broken panes of glass, did not seem
to have been seriously injured, yet,
for three or four blocks on the main
thorofare windows had been blown
out and doors torn from their hinges;
apparently, the destroying effects of
the bomb had been felt more upon
the thorofare than at the place where
it had exploded.
The raid which we witnessed, like
manys which had preceded it, had
caused more damage and suffering in
the district where the workers lived
than in other portions of London. In
several instances we met old men and
women gazing with stunned, hope
less expression upon the heap OF ruins
which, few hours ago, had not only
been their home, but had contained
all of those little mementos of their
previous lives which mean so much
to the poor. One old woman of
wrinkled features and grey hair, rec
ognizing us as Americans, came up
and said: What do you think of these
murderers? All of my sons are in
France and this is what the kaiser
is trying to do to their poor old
mother"
Relief to the bombed is speedy and
effective. No sooner does bomb ex-
plode than hot coffee and sandwiches
are sent to the spot with almost the
same haste as the ambulance. The
police take charge of the locality and
the city authorities Immediately begin
the work of repairing roadways where
these have been damaged. OF course,
the houses cannot be restored, neither
can they be rebuilt during war time.