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Show r Etorrxo Bs Air A Defenses r - - (2.1 ISC Hi 12 at. im , - l-c ja: c ac 2c.;ac;i :a fly in the air. I told him the report was quite true. "Flying in the face of Providence," he said sadly; "tempting "tempt-ing Providence!" Batteries All Around the City. On the hills above Tivoli, in view of the temple where the prophetic books were kept that held the story of Rome and where a wise sibyl uttered oracular oracu-lar truths tempered with probability, another battery" of straight muzzles takes heed only of the deep, silken night sky. This is a larger townlet than the village of Calvi, and the inhabitants, in-habitants, lulled to a semihypnotic somnolence by the never ceasing spell of their waterfalls, know little of the wary guns that guard their slumbers. Along Rome's immediate coronet of hills, above that Latium where ghostly lines of aqueducts and here and there a ruined group of gnarled old tower spell out the tale of Roman and baronial baro-nial days, more batteries guard the security se-curity of the eternal city, and the sama is the case farther down where a little well of acidulous water that is much drunk in the hot weather sends in its daily supply on summer mornings, together to-gether with the brightly colored fruit carts, to be sold in the streets heralded by a strange, sing songing cry. As far away as the Simbruni hills that lend in gradations of wildness to the harsh heart of central Italy, the Rome-Sulmona railroad has its grim guardian angels. And at Subiaco, the cradle of western monastic orders, all is ready against the incursion of ill-intentioned ill-intentioned creatures of the air. Tp-. OME Is situated in an admirable Fjvjj position from the viewpoint of nnll-aerial defense. Not only is it in the usual sense a forti-lied forti-lied city, but it lies In a wide plain surrounded sur-rounded by hills at successive levels 1 hat render minute and long distance observation singularly easy. The theory of a hidden and possible important airplane base somewhere by I tie Tyrrhenoan sea, that could send its aircraft to Rome along the flat shores or the Maremma marshes, has now proved to be highly improbable, writes Magda Sindici in the Chicago News. The latter would be the best side on which to attack, only it has the great disadvantage as a scheme, of not being be-ing so fur feasible. Seashore and Maremma marshes would have to be approached, failing this western base, by crossing the higher Apennines. It is, perhaps, difficult to place anti-aircraft batteries along these peaks sufficient suffi-cient In number to protect the whole mountain chain ; but spur after spur of the Apennines runs at right angles to the main range from this spinal column col-umn of Italy to the sea; and these spurs are protected at every strategic point, that is, wherever the mountainous mountain-ous district merges into a philn. Munition Works in Umbria. All over the dreamy province of Umbria, Um-bria, so called because of the "shade" once cast over the land by the thick woods that covered it, batteries are concealed. This province seems to have gathered to itself all the gentleness gentle-ness of Italy, as if the spirit of its ancient an-cient agricultural inhabitants, older than the Etruscans, had managed to survive the impact of fierce medieval Vatican Real Help to Rome. And yet, it is perhaps the Vatican that constitutes the best and surest anti-aerial weapon. The pope lives within its walls, and Austria, the most Catholic monarchy, will send no bombs to Rome. As the capital of Italy, Rome would perhaps not be spared, but a stray bomb on the Vatican would trouble the consciences of the dual monarchy more than the slaughter of any number of innocent noncombat-ants noncombat-ants and create complications for the imperial government greater than they care to face. It is doubtful whether even Protestant Germany would care to affront the conscience of a not inconsiderable in-considerable part of its population. There have been no formal assurances given to that effect if they exist they have not been made public yet there seems to be a tacit understanding that because of the pope's presence Rome is to be respected. Thus, this city of many vicissitudes, though prayer and fasting are as much out of date as a means of defense as the "terror by night" that haunted the old monks of Subiaco, carries withia herself a purely spiritual defense more powerful than any girdle of steel. war. Umbria holds the town of Terni, with its unresting steel and munition works a great goal for bomb throwers throw-ers and many times attacked. The little river Nera comes tumblins along close by it, between high, cool banks, so hasty and vivid that its waters lash themselves into perpetual foam ; and just above the Nera, the gray gleam of guns adds a contrasting touch to the peasants in blue overalls and the red tasseled white cattle for which the district is famous. Close under an old rambling convent con-vent watched by ageless cypresses, which strike a warm brown note in a surrounding scale of hard grays, another an-other battery lurks ; Calvi, perched at the top of the last hill before the Apennines dwindle away into the valley val-ley of the Tiber, must not be left undefended. un-defended. I know an old peasant there, who perhaps still trudges along the same road every dawn and aightfall with his ax and his spade, who asked me, not so long ago, if it were true that there now existed some mad folk, among other iniquitous children of this wicked century, who were trying to f-v. ."Ha .SiSt .vyi W 'J.(Uk iilrlU PN View of the Vatican. |