Evening star., 1934-02-14
SUBURB OF VIENNA
IS TORN BY SHELLS
FIoridSdcrf Streets StreWn
With Dead-Buildings
Are Wrecked.
nv WADE WERNER.

Austria, February l4.-ThS factory
suburb on the outskirts of Vienna
one of the centers Of the Socialist
nopulation-is a Shell-torn Shambies
today.
Tomas street is strewn with dead.
Many buildings are wrecked by the
government artillery fire and several
are burning.
I have Just completed tour Of the
district. Desultory shooting still con-
tinues here, but the artillery bonn
bardment has ceased.
Barricades Shattered.
came across the Danube over the
Foridsdorf Bridge and at once en-
countered the shattered barrlcades
from which the Socialists had re-
treated. These barricades had blocked
what once had been an active busi-
ness thoroughfare.
Nv taxicab wound through a maze
of hanging trolley and telephone
wires. These evidenced the severity
Of the recent firing. No imagination
was necessary.
Tragic proof of how terrific the
fighting had been could be seen in
the dead which still lay in the street.
Many bodies have been taken away,
but ambulances and even comman-
deered taxicabs were not sufficient to
transport the wounded.
Few Vehicles Available.
Few vehicles were available for
quick transportation of the bodies.
AS I telephone this to the Asso-
ciated Press Office in Iennav, the
Socialist headquarters here and a
nearby motion picture theater are
ablaze.
fire at the Schlinger Municipal
Apartment House has been exiting
uished
A government artillery officer to
whom I spoke near the Schlesingerhof
estimated that 100 persons had been
killed in his sector alone.
He said women fought beside their
brothers and husbands at the windows
in this building through the night
and early this morning.
A similar story of fighting women
vas told of another huge conflict OF
the workers who lived in the Garden
City district of FloridSdorf.
There, part of the big apartment
block wall was punched through like
sieve. The clock tower still bravely
fiaunts its golden hands but the
clocks faces are punctured by two
shell holes.
Firing From Mountain.
The shells had been fired by noun
tain artillery stationed on the river
bank some distance away.
Under today's brilliant sunlight, the
around the entrance of the building
Ehone under the even bluer sky, but
the big door it framed was she'll
smashed.
Fragments Of tile. glass and plaster
were strewn about the entrance where
steel-helmeted soldiers stood guard.
I asked lieutenant there if the
Socialists had managed to send away
their families before the fighting
started.
"On the contrary" he replied, 1.-The
women apparently insisted on remain
ing to help carry munitions and re-
load rifles"
He added thoughtfully, land have
no doubt there were plenty Of inno-
cent -combatants who had no
choice but to go through this shelling
with them"
Machine GUNS Deadly.
"But We, too, have no choice. The
machine gun nests in these buildings
were doing murder to our men.
we had to shoot back. We had
b smash those machine gunners.
Under the circumstances only the ar
tillery could do it."
TIY1of1o nro 10 cI,
echoed between the buildings. Then
there were two rife shots.
TITS nothing" said the officer "The
sentry over there is just firing warn
ing shots"
saluted and reported:
I'm that window over there, sir.
They wouldn't get back. I shouted
three times. Then let them have it."
The apartment block itself had
already been occupied by the troops
Fallen Carried OFF.
A soldier said they had found only
Q few dead and wounded inside, de-
claring: THE Socialists took their
fallen with them when they fed"
Although the shell holes in the
side walls Of the building are COM
paratively few, the burst OF shells
inside did tremendous damage, wreck
ing whole apartments at a time.
A fantastic and pathetic feature of
Flor1dsdorf street life today, after the
bombardment, Is the troops of chill
dren.
No one, apparently has time to
keep them off the streets and found
them dodging in and out of wrecked
barr1cades and gazing curiously at the
scraWled dead until helmeted Sentries
shouted: Move on!"
l saw little old woman on the
sidewalk in front of a two-story build
ing patiently sweeping the fragments
OF bricks and plaster into the gutter.
A shell had stripped the cornice OF
her building and dirtied her sidewalk.
Firemen Apathetic.
At the Socialist headquarters, fire.
men were alphabetically laying hose to
eXtinguish the blaze.
The smoke of the blazing structure
poured out through shattered windows
and walls cracked by shell holes. The
fire spread to the nearby movie thea
ter without any one showing much of
o desire to stop its spread
On sidewalk lay a waist-high pile
Of cartridge belts captured from the
Socialists.
I examined one cartridge; 1t was
dated 1916.
This particular pile, oddly enough,
was unguarded, and any one could
have walked away with it all.
The soldiers, apparently, were more
interested in new skirmiSh develop
ing a mile or so farther out. The
retreating Socialists, some one said
were rallying at the sporting arena not
far away.
The mountain artillery is still in
position on the far bank of the river.
SALVADOR IS WINNER
IN DEBATE. ON DEBTS