A VENETIAN NIGHT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 10

A VENETIAN NIGHT

WHEN THE AIR RAIDERS CAME

FAMOUS CITY UNDER FIRE

"I heard a strange, unforgettable cry Heating over tlie waters. It wai, a cry never heard before m all me world. It haunted me as it was taken up front housetop to housetop, uiuii it travelled tar ulf and became faint and then died out in ghostly siltnce. That cry has come to veii.ee with the war,''' so writes a correspondent of the "New York Times," in a, graphic, description of an Austrian air raid on the famous city of canals. "Per I'aria! Iluo'iu guard'ia!" It is a common cry of the night. Whenever there is a moon, the watching sentinels thus tell the people of Venice that the enemy's aircraft are rot \et in sight. Venice is now the most difficult city of Kuropd to enter. Even Italians are not permitted to go and come «f. will.

The correspondent chanced to arrive in time for the longest raid that hail occurred, and it was, lie says, "a hashish dream ... a cataclysm of exotic loveliness and nightmares. like a frenzy of absinthe." His host had advised him to "turn in early if he wanted to sleep."

"I asked it it was compulsory ,that I arise from bod and come below. Ho replied that it was not; that the only comimlsion m i Ji; mutter '-vns that at the moment of the alarm i c should knock at my door and advise me to come down. If I wanted to 'stay up and perhaps sot killed, why, of course, I -jiijrht exercise my privilege. Just at midnidvt I danced at my watch. About a ifth of a second after midnight the- electricity went off, and, as the window shutters were closed tightly, according to order, I was in pitch darkness.

They Come, " 'Air-raid,' 1 =aid to myself, and then lay back on the piliows io wait lor tne sound of the signal-gun, J t came in a very few secouus. iiaore turning m l had had tne lorethougut to place my ciothes where 1 could get at them in tne dark, and even as I fumbled about a knock camo at the door, with the. announcement that the thirty-fourth nr Unrty-liftli Austrian air attack on Ven\co had begun. 1 pushed i.pen the shutters to permit a ray of moonlight to aid my dressing. 1 glanced down at the sidewalk below my vindow. Tho tew denizens of tho V'uielian night were scurrying along to tno municipal shelters provided m such emergencies. Several gondolas coming lrom tne direction of the J'iuzza of lit. Mark were sliding under- ike. arched bridges for shelter, their fares jumping to luud oud hugging the protection of walls and doorways. "As 1 watched, hell's iverture begau. There were sharp Hashes all along the shore-lino ironi tho direction of the Lido and a .series of rapid txplosions that made jagged patches of instantaneous right square in the path of the moon. It sEemed as if the guns veto aiming at the moon. So I watched that aerial body intently. Added to the roar of the breaking shrapnel came the ihwp bark of machine-guns across the .anal almost opposite ray window, i could see long, horizontal sheets of flames with unshaken Kiflectioii6 in the still waters. The flames came and went exactly liko telegraphic signals and then disappeared, to be taken up again a l.ttle distance farther a lung the. shore by nuother collection of machine-guns. 1 turned back to tho moon. A black .ine suddenly darted straight across it. I looked higher into the heavens, and then, directly overhead, I could make out Ihe invadiug airplanes. But despite the brilliancy oi' night they were piobabiy too high up. 1 remembered that black line darling across tho path of the moon, so I fumbled in a suitcaso for my glasses. Then I looked again. Another black line darted across, but this time I could see plainly that it was an airplane.

" 'Ware Shrapnol!" ''I started back quickly, for something liad crashed down oa tlie sidewalk before Hie. in. my interest or excitement, or both, 1 iiaU forgotten t.lio tact that shrapnel (eviii friendly chrapnelj when, it goes up is buund to come down, and in Unit ease becomes dangerous. 1 partially closed the (mutters nut peered oat ut the walk. Something else crashed and struck fire- from the stoues. I decided to go below. It was quite likely 'hat some of that (shrapnel mignt inter my window. Up to this point I Lad not yet heard the familiar sound of an exploding aero bomb, but while c'esceiiding the stairway 1 got it even above the roar of the three-inch cannon and machineguns, which had now become an unending roll of thunder, with i.uver a break ill their awful monotony. Will no hesitation, and, in fact, in some haste I edgid my way to the smoke-room, which was directly hounded on two sides by canals, and, therefore, to my mind, very muck more secure. 1 tried to buy n cigar, but the bar-boy had gone to bed, which fact made me somewhat ashamed of my calculations on safety. The room was lighted' with candles. There were plenty of comfortable leather chairs, so T sat down and listened to the infernal din outside.

Cool as a Cucumber. "An Italian naval captain strolled leisurely in and seated i liuseif before a small table. I shall never lorgei that 'uun, how lie looked and the things he said. Me was a magnificent b-peciinun, quite tail, as Italian naval men frequently arc. in lact, he was out of the tiuest-louktng men 1 had ever seen. He was dre&sed in immaculate v/uiie drill, with the jjokl stars of his rank braided oil the shoulders, giving iiiiu added dis-. tiuction. Ift- nodded to me as he entered, then later turned' iuul spoke in laultless English, saying that ha look ine to be an American. After that we had a conversation. lie had been to tho theatre, he- told ine, and, even though in a hurry to get Ixtck to- his ship out near the Lido, lie had waited after tho first alarm for every one. to go home or to shelters, 'in order not to give a bad example by nndut- haste,' as he expressed it. Then he nad taken a gondola for his ship. Af'tei n short ride he had seen it was impossible to get chere through the storm of pelting shnipmd. In fact, he had warned asho:e by a soldier on the quay. •' ';>u l came in here,' he added.

" 'You did not chouse this by any chance because it was safe?'.l said. 'You could sot have picked out a. more unsafe place/ He laughed. 'iNo,' he said, 'that's a met; but 1 tame here because it's comfortable, and J want to write sunie letleis.'

"I watched him as he drew up a candle and began to tvr.U. Twice uuring the ouerntiou 1 couid hear shrapnel beat liko hail against the steel shutter of the open window auout eighteen inches from his head. But ho uewr moved nor gave any sign that he noticed, lie glanced at his watch. It was one o'clock.

" 'They generally keep it going about an hour an'd a hail,' no icmarked, uud went back to his writing.

"Another half-hour passi'il—an eternity oi' internal din, su liiut whwiever uny words were spoka 1 . wo hud lo shout. Again the shrapnel beat agains„ our windows, and qu.te often, now we could hear lulling bombs, several time »u close time they shook our building. Then came a lull in the storm, the of lull that comes in an ocean tempest while the elements are girding themselvts up to attack with renewed vigour. During the lull tho captain sealed lis letters, pushed back his chair, and ;a.me and stood before me. He yawned, then ejaculated: 'What a beastlj nuisance!' "That was all he said, but it whs such a strango commonplace for that scene that 1 began to laugh. He seemed to understand why, lor then he laughed, too.

A Risky Tour. "'Coiuo on,' lie siiid, 'let's go out and have a look.' Wo got as far lis. the door and a step or so outside Alien a soldier suddenly loomed before' us and ordered us into shelter. This soldier was greatly annoyed. " 'llavc you no sense?' he asked 'And don't yon know thai when you come out litre i have (o ri-sk my life and come out, 100. \'ou you . (His voice became shrill); you ought to think of my family.' "The Captain laughed, and agreed with him, but ho went back to tho doorway. "'He is'quito righl,' the Captain said. 'There is no necessity of running risks with shrapnel and machine-guns, especially when that sort of thine can usually be avoided, but as for bombs'—tho Captain shrugged his shoulders, and then stated a basio truth that can be applied

to every raid from air or even to an ordinary artillery bombardment. 'But as iar bombs,' he" repeated, 'ono must be a fatalist on that .subject. Hither the bomb hits you or it does not, and it does not matter where you go.' "That is quite so. A bomb can go through five floors to the cellar and kill every person in refuge there, or it can strike full on a,brick pavement and fail to explode.

An Awe-Inspiring Scene. "As we stood in the doorway tho antiaircraft guns seemed to redouble their activities. We peered out Irom time to time and could see nothing in the sky, but there was never n second of silence. The hotel now shook to its foundations as the aero-bombs exploded in the vicinity, and the heavens seemed about to break apart, so thick were the great patches of flame from exploding shrapnel. I lorgot the' moon. These shrapnel explosions looked like half a dozen moons all smashed into a dozen ragged bits and flung helter-skelter through the sky. ihe shores of the lagoon across from us were now a constant lino of streaked flame. Tho flashes from the shore-line of the Lido were so bright that tho rigging of ships in the harbour was constantly visible, while from way out on the Adriatic and from the land batteries down the coast came the dull, sullen roars of giant guns. "Above all tho conflagration and nmso there entered a new and sinister note, worse even than the sound of the dropping bombs, that was so easily distinguishable from shells. Tho Captain seized my arm and, whispered in my ear, 'Listen,' he said. "I listened, and heard the whirring sounds of airplane motors, which meant that the enemy had become braver despite the demonstrations against them, and were circling down closer to the city. A bomb exploded, seemingly a few hundred yards to our right, and I thought of the Ducal palace, of tho Tintorottos. of the ceiling that is one of the glories of the world. Another bomb fell slightly further off, and I thought of the frescoes of St. Mark's. We could hear the whir of motors, and the batteries and machine-guns all began concentrating over our heads. The result was a veritable storm of shrapnol and bullets. Wo crouched far back in the door. Leaden pellets fell like hail, striking a hundred sparkd of fire on tho sidewalk not more than a few feet in front of where we stood, while next came the vicious splash of machine-gun bullets flattening themselves against the walln of our hotel on both the right and left of the door. That settled our sightseeing, although, later, when the orchestra of fire diminished a trifle, we reached careful bauds out: along the ground through (ho door and scooped up lead and steel souvenirs.

Then—"once more the moon held sway, and seemed to settle just over St. Mark's, grotesque with its sand-bags all the way to its pearly faeado and golden exotic minarcls. I looked out to the entrance at tho grinning lion, still serene upon his pedestal. Tho hashish dream was ended, and I could go to rest. As I entered tho hotel I heard again that mournful cry: 'Per l'aria! Buona guardra!' I turned bedwanl with a ' as t look toivardß the Piazza— the groat Pima of Venice. Dawn's on Ihe horizon. There's a fresh smell of morning and fne sea in t.hs air. A little- lad with a basket swaggers obliquely across the great pallid rectangle He's whistling tho gayrat tune,"