SHRAPNEL HUNTING AS A PASTIME.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 January 1918, Page 6

SHRAPNEL HUNTING AS A PASTIME.

If the German High Command flunk their almost continuous air raids on British towns are going to terrify the people and destroy t-reir morale it is only another addition to their already long list of blunders, as the following incident will show:—During the thick of a recent air raid thousands of people have been mystified by the spectacle of their fellow-beings wandering slowly about the streets, peering long and intently at the soil. Some had sticks, some had vanity hags. Men, women, and children, they wandered about the streets in dozens, blissfully indifferent to falling bombs and lumps of shelly One night, when shells were whizzing and screaming through the air, women walked about West End streets, peering intently at every suspicious lump in the road. When questioned as to tSeTf object they became quite indignant. “Can’t we pick up shrapnel if we want to?” said one lady with a bagful. It is fairly safe to say that of the thousands of shells fired during the past fortnight hardly a hundredweight now lies about London. Souvenir hunting obsessed the minds of thousands of people to the exclusion of all thoughts of danger, and occasionally the hunter caught a Tartar in the form of a piece burning hot. This only made it all the more valuable; it provided unquestionable evidence of bravery.