The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-01-26
REAL FACTS STRANGER THAN
WEIRDES 7 FICTION STORIES
Imagination Of the Most Gifted Novelist 0udone by Lies Real
Romances-No One Could Have Imagined or Written
Such Stupendous Tragedy as the War the
World Has lust Gone Through.


devoted to true stories, and sub
title calls attention to the good old
proverb that truth Is stranger than
fiction" Truth in this case makes
the concession Of trying TO appear as
much like fiction as possible. But II
is not In the realm of Imagination tina;
one would look first for the veriii'
cation OF our ancient adage that truth
is stranger than fiction. The news OF
the world as It is turned out day by
day Is to very large extent con
cerned with the strange and unusual
thing, often paralleling 6ction. often
going beyond It. The variety OF the
possible combinations OF circumstAD'
ces Is so great as TO surpass the I'M
aglnatlon Of the most fertile hctlonlst,
says the New York Times.
Ask any one what events chroni'
cled in the newspapers are or have
been stranger than fiction, and the
first answer will probably be the war
Itself, The war certainly. No one
did and no Que could hive imagined or
written down such a stupendous traS-
edy as the world has just gone
through 1t Is case where the plain
facts have far outdlstanced the tic-
tlonlsts as well as the historians
looking into the future. Old Bernard
knowing what the German ruling class
had In mind, knew that war with
France and Russia was coming and
the world as a whole had slowly been
prepared through years for a Euro
pean clash. But no one foresaw
comic, In which the whole world
would be involved. q war which would
cost millions OF lives and money run
ming into the hundreds OF billions o.
dollars.
What Stranger Than This?
Not only the war as a thing in IL
self. but unnumbered phases and Incl
dents Of the war passed beyond the
Imagination Of the men who wrote be-
fore 1914 Americas part In 1t alone
forms an almost unbelievable episode.
what writer would have dared, a dec
AIDE even ago. 10 have told of an
American army Of 100000 men fight.
Ing over the old battlefelds of North
ern France and Belglumi
VIVA, brilliant fictlonist could have
pictured the results Of the war; The
restoration of crushed nations OF Eu.
rope. the breakup OF old empires?
What revolutionary genius of fiction
would hnye fancled n Russia under the
Bolsheviki for nearly three years.
Who could have given an air Of real.
ity to romance In 1918 dealing with
the fate OF the Car OF Russia or
Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany1
The true stories of the heroic deeds
OF the war, the personal experiences
and tragic Incidents. are In many cases
too strange and unreal 10 have passed
unquestioned In the pages of fiction.
A gun with range OF seyenty'five
miles drops a shell Into Paris church
AZ the moment It Is crowded fo7 Good
Friday mass. No wonder that for
days the world would not believe That
such thing had happened ! The first
use Of gas by the Germans against
the British In the Ypres sector was
another fact the world could not bring
Itself tu believe without great effort.
The first air raids. the first subma-
rine attack on passenger ships and
even the announcement that the Ger
man troops were marching on France
through Belgium upset all the order
Of thinking In supposedly. sane
world. A world which has lived
through the days since August, 1914,
will have no reason to doubt that
truth Is stranger than fiction.
outdoes Jules Verne.
For years the imaginative story Of
Jules Verne on submarines, called
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
Sea-" was n bromide among writer's
and takers who wished TO mention the
ultra -fctlonal and the fantastIcaly
Imaginative. Yet the yiviiness of that
story contained nothing so picturesque
and certainly nothing so true as that
epic tale of underseas suffering aud
herolsm brought into this port and
Philadelphia from Off the Delaware
capes recently by the survivors Of the
American submarine SIS.
Disabled In a practice crash dive
the submarine was ;i,ted by her Com
mander so that her stern stood ont
OF water and while cataracts swept
through her compartments as the
doors were opened between them, Off
GERS and men climbed to the part OF
the ship that stood above the waves
not knowing that any part Of the
vessel was above the water line. Then
for nearly thirty hours the crew Int
tied for life, without drinking water
in heavy atmosphere poisoned with
chlorine gas, and with only scraps OF
food to eat.
They ripped a hole In the stceI
plates OF the vessel, put red shirt
on pipe and waved their signal until
help calce. Then, each discaimin2
credit for herolsm by giving praise &c
some one else In the crew, they were
rescued by steamship captains and
heroic engineer who labored for hour
10 cut large hole through the sub
marines plates.
Every ship that comes into the por
brings some story, perhaps sad, per
haps amusing, that matches Dana OF
Cooper or Conrad. Truth, but like
fiction Is the story Of Jacob Cohen