The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-02-22

don streets at night; weirdIy dark.
with the shaded street lamps. in
tangled, diminishing perspectives, cast
ing downward their cones of luminous
mist and vague. shadowy figures fit
ting silently into and out of the lighted
circles; gaunt. dim cabs. with their
drivers swathed into shapeless Jumps,
formless. piodaing carts and wagons.
silent and motionless Boobies" hud-
died early risers shutting almost in
visibly to and fro on a thousand mis-
sons of their own, and now, silent
little groups here and there faces up
/ turned.
Nothing to see.
The airships were SO high up as
| to be invisible they were no, even
| specks In the clear sky. Presently.
| too the booming of the big guns be-
came more intermittent. and finally
/ ceased. The air raid was over. over,
and no great damage done,
Again in Paris.
The siren sounded again in the
streets of Paris, only a few seconds
after that first warning. and the cur
/ tain slid slowly down on our London
memory. as the lights We're dimmed in
our decorous French restaurant
| The walters came away from the
door. smiling and Struggling their
shoulders. and the head waiter lowered
his hand.
| He considered it his duty to laugh
extravagantly for the reinsurance of
his guests, and did SO, though It was
entirely Unnecessary.
The French officer who was enter
| tanning his family, exchanged a smile
with them. and resumed pouring the
wine.
The young English officer lit fresh
match. and the pretty girl took UP her
silvery laugh where she had left it off.
with a curious effect Of beginning
again the inaudible echo.
The American contractor observed.
Probably false ALARM" and set down
his river and put bridge across 1t.
The French banker, his eye twinklng
with amusement at the excessive hi
larity of the headwaiter, tasted his
dessert and found It good. and we put
lemon on our flat, round oysters.
There seemed nothing else in partic-
nlar to do.
All Finished Dinner.
Nowhere in particular to go. for
one place was as safe as@ afiothcr: and
if anything were to happen it would
and if not. not
| No single diner left until he had
finished, no one went to n window or
n door.
Of course it had been false alarm.
One of the alert French gendarmes
of the air, far towards the border. had
heard a strange engine way overhead
and too far inside the line. so he gave
| the alarm for the chase, and n mis-
take in signals had treated the city to
a long obsolete thrill. In spite Of the
fact that the raiders are scarcely
likely ever again to reach Paris
The bugle sounded all clear in
short time after the warning. and the
! vigilant airmen, who never cease to
circle above their precious Paris.
flashed their comforting lights as they
whirred and dipped and tobogganed in
the limpid Roonlit air.
But the thrill had no depth.
Thee world, with such tremendous
things at stake. has long since ceased
to care about such trifles.
The incident only served TO bring
up the everlasting puzzle of. Why
does the Boche do it,
The Why Of It.
His tremendously expensive raids
have no military or strategic value, and
II can only be that his clumsy mind
| conceives the absurd theory that such
people as the British and the French,
who have proved their staunchness by
4 heroism which viii be epic in future
history. could be frightened by COB
lin-a scarecrow in a field.
We have not been among the British
SO much, but We were with them in the
one visitation, and know that there Is
nothing but bravery in them; and as
for the French, whom we know much
better, ut Is to laugh
Fear, as a basis of action, seems to
have gone out OF the universe.
At least /. is not to be found in
France. for fear is individual, and tho
Frenchman, dear as life may be to him.
no longer lives for himself.
lie Is but a part OF great, dauntless
nation which Is proceeding sternly to-
ward the accomplishment of one clear
and fixed idea; Cor that idea, France
Is willing to endure again all the de-
; priyation and the agony which she has
endured in the past, to fight bravely
and to brayely suffer. to pour out her
treasure and her blood In an unending
stream. without complaint and with
| out one faitering in her sublime cour-
age, until the foul and hideous mon
ster of Prussian militarism shall have
been driven forever from the world!
Il more Tomorrow