Evening star., 1939-09-05
34-Hour Alarm Routs
Parisians Out Of Bed;
No Planes Appear
Artificial Fog Released
After Thousands Take
To Cellars
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
PARIS, Sept. 5.-The war came
home to the million or so persons
still in Paris at 3:35 am. today (9:35
pm. Monday, E. S. t., when air
raid sirens routed them out of beds
and sent them scurrying into cellars.
For the half hours time it has
been figured it would take German
planes to travel from the French
frontier to the capital, the life of
the city went underground, and the
metropolis lay empty in bright
moonlight.
Soon clouds of artificial fog g'drifted
across the face of the moon, turning
fair weather into foul and obscuring
the city from any aerial raiders.
When dawn broke over the Chin
ney pots of Paris two hours after
the alarm sounded, the populace
started emerging from refugees like
rabbits coming out of holes. But
the passive defense wardens and
police whistled them back to cover.
Ends after 81 Hours.
After 81 hours a new siren call
ended the alert at 7:05 am. 1:O5
am, E. S. To, and traffic, elec-
tricity, water and gas sprang to life
again.
The state of siege which the gov
ernment proclaimed Friday, when
Germany invaded Poland, and the
state of war which began Sunday
finally had become reality to those
who, until now, only had read of
the wars developments in wonder
ment
When the sirens first started
moaning and then raised their walls
into shrieks for a full 10 minutes,
thousands of persons stumbled down.
stairs and under ground.
In a narrow stone vault beneath
the lie de ia Cite. an elderly man
and woman in bathrobes, with their
gas masks on awry, groped their
way into a corner and sat clinging
to one another.
A young man In pajamas, with
out mask. dashed back and forth.
filling buckets of water and soaking
towels to use instead.
Calmly Combs Hair.
A colored maid, with a Pickering
candle showing the contrast between
her white nightgown and her i'm
passive dark face, stood silently by
the wall.
Under the Hotel Continental on
the right bank of the Seine, where
200 guests and censors were gath
cred, a blond girl calmly combed
her hair and made up her face.
In the cellar of the Associated
Press office, just off the Place de la
Bourse. two spaniels hustled down.
stairs by the janitor whimpered in
the gloom. But the dogs gradually
grew quiet and reassured as other
occupants of the building entered
the bare room.
Subway stations were favorite
points Of refuge, with calm but
anxious crowds massing at en-
frances and on underground plat
forms.
The first to sally forth saw
strange clouds racing across the
sky and detected a vague odor of
lime.
One woman who had removed her
mask and walked onto the Pont
Neuf, cried gas" hastily donned
her mask again and ran for shell
ter. Others thought 1t was Just q
natural turn in the weather.
Artificial Fog Released.
Actually the anti-aircraft de-
fense batteries around the capital
had released artificial fog at a
height of about 400 feet. 1t covered
the upper part of the Eiffel Tower
and cut off the view of the obser-
walton balloon from crews manning
the ground wires.
Emotions ran from fear to con-
f1dence in the time the alarm lasted
Il wonder if they're coming" said
one warden anxiously as the alarm
started.
I'm not worried" he insisted as
the sirens stopped without a sign
Of any planes.
They couldn't get through" he
declared belligerently as the second
siren ended the alert. For every
plane they send up We send In ten u