EXPERIENCING A ZEPPELIN RAID
On the night preceding that
of the big September raid of Zep
pelins on London there was a
sort of scouting visit during
which bombs were dropped in
the vicinity of the Woolwich ar
senal, five or six miles from the
center of the metropolis. Motor
ing out with a friend to see the
ra her inc. uoiuerable damage
wrought in this vicinity, the
writer was shown by the police
a sheet of iron, dropped from the
visiting machine, on which was
stenciled in white letters about
an inch in height, “We are com
ing back to give you English
swine a good blowing up tomor
row night.” This “bit of ‘straf
ing,’ ” as an officer called it, was
treated entirely as a joke and a
bluff, but it was destined to be
made good with a vengeance
ruoue messages caning out
voiumeer Hitmen, consiames,
nuiscs, ana omer emergency
worKeiS, uegan to ue sent out ue~
tore to o ciock on tne loUowing
rngni, uut tne nrst tne general
pumic Knew ot tne coining ot tne
tamers was tnrougu tne nearing
Uetouaiiohs Irum uie uirection 01
uie east end. instantly, from
tenements, Hotels, ana tneaters,
garueu in every tiling from uatn
roues to evening uress, London s
minions uegan pouring into tne
streets anu squares to “see tne
tun," ana to not over one or two
in a tnousand of ail tnat multi
tude aid the raid sink home as
anything more than a tremend
ously dramatic and highly di
vert spectacle.
From where 1 watched 1 saw
one searchlight after another
suing up and lasten on the /.ep
pelins, much aft^r the way tne
rcatas of a band of cowboys ac
cumulate on an especially refrac
tory steer. But here there was
no entangling, no stmbling, no
pause. Swiftly the raiders came
on, and presently the eastern
heavens were alight with the fires
that had sprung up in their wake,
.^t first there was no apparent
connection between the sudden
bursts of flame from the earth
and the explosions, but as the
machines came nearer I began to
observe that the latter followed
the former at gradually decreas
ing intervals. Every flash of
light heralded its corresponding
detonation, and presently I not
ed that the least lurid of the
flashes were always followed by
the loudest explosions, due, I
soon decided, to the fact that
these were the explosive bombs
proper—the ones loaded with
the powerful “T. N. T.” or trini
trotaluo!—and that the brighter
bursts, with the dull “knocking’’
booms, were the incendiaries,
filled principally with “thermit”
or powdered aluminum. This
conjecture was quickly verified,
as the bombs began to drop
within half a mile. I was able
to identify the incendiaries be
yond question by the trail from
their lighted fuses.
By this time I was able to see
that there were two machines,
one following the other, but nol
quite in lioe. I was especially
astonished at the comparatively
.ow altitude at which they seem
ed to be flying, and, offhand, af
that moment, 1 should probabl>
have estimated this to have been
about 2,500 feet. Later reflection
convinced me the great length
of the raiders made them seem
much lower than they really were
It is probable that on this occa
sion they were fllying at about
6,000 feet, considerably lowei
than in the October raid follow
ing. It is revealing no military
secret to say that at this thne—
September—London did nol
have a single high-powered anti
aircraft gun, such of these as had
been manufactured up to that
time having been rushed to the
fleet, the east coast, or to France
and Flanders. This state of
things was, undoubtedly, knowr
to the Germans, and they took
full advantage of it in venturing
nearer the earth than they are
ever likely, voluntarily, to come
again in the course of an English
raid.
******
Th/e way in which the fires
were mastered was one of the
most remarkable features of this
raid- For three or four miles.
across rhe very heart of London,
bombs had been dropped on an
average of something more than
one to the block. There were
intervals of three or four blocks
here and there that were un
touched, but, on the other hand,
several bombs often landed close
together in a single block. Prob
ably something over half of these
were incendiary bombs, and
among these—because they were
lighted beforehand—there must
have been few failures to ex
plode. From a short distance,
the explosion of the T. N. T.
oombs was marked by a sudden
urilliant flash, while a warm,
flickering, red glow always foP
lowed the duller detonation of
the -incendiary. If the latter
struck in a street or square, the
glow died down in 20 or 30 sec
onds; if a building, there were
usually flames bursting from the
roof inside of a minute or two.
At the moment the last bomb
was dropped, the glow of count
less fires stretched away to the
northeast as far as my eye could
4ee. Ten minutes later—when
i came up again after the firing
iiad ceased—there were only four
or five. One of these was from
a broken gas main in an alley,
and another from a celluloid fac
tory in the east end, which
ourned all night. This most
creditable work was due to care
ful provisionary measures. The
i-ondon fire department was al
ways an efficient one, and care
had been taken not to weaken
it by enlistments for the army.
A large number of volunteer fire"
men had also been taken on and
trained, and these were sum
moned by telephone as soon as
the Zeppelins were reported from
the coast.
******
Like all high explosives, those
used in the bombs dropped on
London displayed a characteris
tic “freakiness.” A bomb which
struck almost exactly in the cen
ter of Queen’s square, shattering
the fronts of several hospitals,
and breaking every window
within two blocks, only made a
hole about four feet across and
three feet deep in the soft earth
- —
of the lawn upon which it drop
i ped. Similarly, in Kingsway in
the October raid, a bomb which
killed or injured every passenger
in a motor bus passing at a dis*
tance of a hundred feet, hardly
cracked the pavement. Yet a
bomb strikingthesame pavement
200 yards away made a hole al
most big enough to drive an
| omnibus into, at the same time
I exerting enough force upward to
break every pane of glass in In
dian house, London’s largest and
most imposing office building.
The tons and tons of plate glass
fragments falling to the sidewalk
at this point literally cut to
pieces several men who were
•passing at the moment of the
explosion, their remains having !
been found half buried in the1
sharp fragments. I was at the1
door of a theater on the Strand
when this particular explosion
occurred, and the sound—half
roar, half tinkle—of the plate
glass falling from the great office
buildings along Kingsway was
one of the strongest, weirdest
noises I ever heard.
The driver of the motor bus
I have just spoken of was blown
from his seat, and up against a
billboard, leaving a bloody
smudge across the smiling fea
tures of a popular stage beauty
whose poster was affixed there.
I was at this point within three
minute3 of the explosion, and the
dead and injured were being laid
in rows along the sidewalk. Sev
eral of the trunks w'ere dismem
bered, and two or three of the
bodies were so limp as to sug
gest that most of the principal
bones w'ere shattered. In all, I
must have seen close to a score
of dead in this district, and I am
inclined to believe that the pop
ular report that 50 were killed
within three blocks is not far
wrong; this in spite of the fact
that the official bulletins admit
ted a total of only 56 killed by
1 his raid in all of London.
ALASKA NOTES
Ketchikan is the latest Alas
kan town to make a demand for
a federal building.
The Seattle Post-lntelligcncer
calls Sheriff George Brimstone,
of Dawson, an Alaskan
1
The three new locomotives for
the Copper River road which re
cently arrived from the East.are
the largest in Alaska.
YV. E. Rich of Seward, wilisend
a gavel which he fashioned from
a walrus tusk to the Moose
lodge of Corvallis, Ore.
The Seward Post says that
the cold weather has already kill
ed the jelly fish in Resurrection
'bay. Seward’s winters would
kill almost anything.
A large body of rich gold bear
ing quartz is reported to have
been discovered near Golden, in
the Fairbanks district. The
owners are reported to have
picked up the lead after running
| a tunnel two hundred feet into
! the hillside.
The government mail carrier
from Tanana to Ruby lost five
dogs by drowning on a recent
trip, the team falling into a pot
hole in the river and being swept
away by the strong current.
A campaign has been started
to have more cottages built for
workmen at Juneau. A scarcity
of homes has existed there ever
since the revival of that town
through its mining developments
Mrs. Helen McEvoy, who is
a democrat of the Jefferson type
is now the news editor and busi
ness manager of the Juneau
Sunday Morning Post, and has
enlarged and improved the pub
lication. j
\ v •
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0 A tine line of BREADS, COOKIES, PASTRIES and COLD p
i§ LUNCHES at the 9
| ARCTIC BAKERY & COFFEE HOUSE f
ROSE CANDY STORE f
IQ Home made candies, chocolates salted peanuts peanut can 5
19 dies and Ice Cream O
8 DROP IN AFTER THE DANCE OK SHOW X
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3he &aq(e I
Best lines of Liquors and Cigars
in Nome '
HENRY BURGH, j
fii.mmnnwH.nwn.r
i |
j EVERYTHING !
; STRICTLY
I FIRST-CLASS j
NOME
i: COFFEE HOUSE:!
AND BAKERY j:
|, Recommend it* clean and whole- < |
I | )Offl| bread and pa*try ef all < [
! | klttda. ' >
i J W« cater to family trade ! 1
1 , Orders f*r *nt(rtalnm*nt* < [
i | premptty filled. 1 ‘
Chas. W. Reed jj
| Machinist, ft Blacksmith \
Uatoline Eatinrs. Holsts i
! Hollers. l*tt»e nnd Hit*- 1
lining* j
1* '
No. 5 Front St. |
i!i' J."LJUi "■ ...m»',■■■»■».'■ TTS
| The j
j LOBBY
t Wetterjreii & Berjjjren ]|
! Proprietors J;
iVMAAAAWiVWVWVWW/WW
The ;|
Angeles
: A. 0. OLIVER |
PROP. ;i
! Phone Main 33 ;J
Horseshoe ;
Geo. Hall A Albert Hartman,
Proprietor* <
PHONE MAIN 112 \
LEWIS HUNTER RVE AND [
ATHERTON BOURBON
Direct from Bonded Warehouse t
RAINIER DRAUGHT BEER \
Finrst Brand* of Win**. Liquors '
and Cigar*. '
SPRING MEDICNE
A good spring tonic taken at this time of the vrar is of
great benefit to everybody
Among the simple and efficient spring medicines the fol- I
lowing are recommended:
CASCARA BARK.
SASSAFRAS BARK
SULPHUR AND CREAM OF TARTAR
Alto
APARIENT POWDER \
! Which contains Sulphur, cream of Tartar and other valua
ble ingredients.
SOLD ONLY BY US.
HILL’S PHARMACY
SOMETHING NEW I
Last fall we had a few cases of Ranch Eggs put up in I
sealed cans according to th e government formula, liquid I
glass. They have kept so perfectly that you cannot detect I
the difference from Nome laid eggs. ■
They are $5.00 per can o f nine dozen or 75c per single I
dozen. 8
Telephone White 17 for a dozen. p
PMflf (OLD STQRAOf (OMPAHT |
ADVERTISE IN THE NUGGET
AND SET RESULTS