By throwing over all the available ballast, the airship's crew was
enabled to rise rapidly. As a departing salute it attempted to drop
a fourth charge of dynamite.
Just then something went wrong which threatened the airship with
instant destruction. The dynamite charge got stuck in the tube.
The automatic detonator already had been set in motion. The captain
seized a hatchet and climbed over the rigging. He struck a few
desperate blows at the tube, at the risk of his life, and released
the charge, saving the airship. The dynamite exploded with a
terrific detonation long before it reached the ground, with a burst
of flames.
CAPT. VON MULLER'S GALLANTRY.
Another tribute to the gallantry of Capt. Von Muller of the German
cruiser _Emden_ is contained in a letter received by a Glasgow woman
from her son, a member of the crew of the steamship _Kabinga_. The
letter says:
"The _Emden_ captured the _Kabinga_ in the Bay of Bengal, but when
Capt. Von Muller learned that our skipper's wife and children were
aboard he presented the ship to the lady, remarking to the skipper,
'You can inform your owners that as far as they are concerned the
_Kabinga_ has been seized and sunk.'"
"BOMBARDMENT TERRIBLE!"
An officer in the pay department of the French army, writing from
Ypres, says:
"The town is being sprinkled with shells. In the earlier days of
the attack only bombs from aeroplanes fell, but during the last
forty-eight hours the town suffered from the attentions of big
howitzers.
"Night before last a regular bombardment destroyed a score of houses
and killed eight persons, of whom two were women. Up to now the
shells have spared the wonderful city hall, but will this delightful
Flemish city suffer after the manner of Arras?
"My letter has been interrupted by the bombardment, which is
terrible. For two hours yesterday evening nearly all the houses in
our neighborhood were struck. Many are smashed. We sought refuge
in the cellars of the Hotel de Ville, the only place capable of
resisting the great shells.
"Profiting by a lull we went out in search of another shelter and
found a vault under the ramparts of the town. There we spent the
night, huddled up with a hundred men, women and children."
A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.
A mile and a half crawl with five bullets in his body under
artillery and rifle fire was the experience of Private Dan Hurst of
the Coldstream Guards. Writing to his wife, Hurst says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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