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Show LETTER FROM OLD ENGLAND (Continued from last week) fixed, ready to send any that disregard his challenge into eternity. If there is a mistake made and innocence suffers there is no matter, the court replies, "He simply did his duty." Again we emerge from a cut and speed out over a low meadow, and again we skirt a low hill; upon its crest are the same forts seen before but now they are surrounded by fresh trenches and barb-wire entanglements. No longer do the herds of Jerseys and Gernseys graze peacefully upon the meadow; but now is seen tent after tent stretching out into the distance, here and there is a sentinal keeping guard while his companions are learning learn-ing the ant of making bomb proof trenches and other trades of war-The war-The meadow now looks like . one large mole-village. After having crossed the draw bridge and run the gauntlet of many large guns and search lights turned to cover our approach, ap-proach, we pass the inner forts and are at Portsmouth again. This is known as prohibitive territory. That is a German, naturalized nat-uralized or not, is not allowed to be here and before we could obtain ob-tain rooms for the night we were obliged to go to police-headquarters and declare our nationality and register as aliens. Instead of those brightly illuminated il-luminated shop windows and well lighted streets we are compelled com-pelled to take our chances on life past dark windows and through dimly lighted streets. Picking our way through these narrow, crooked, crazy streets under such conditions makes one feel like a lost cowboy on a stormy night. All lights that might disclose or betray the location of the city or locality to an air craft are carefully shaded or extinguished. At intervals all during the night there are powerful searchlights search-lights in many different parts of the city searching the heavens. This is one time the nation is looking to the heavens for protection pro-tection if they never did before. That opportunity knocks but once, is brought home to us by our disappointment. We are not allowed to visit the gunnery-school, gunnery-school, the forts have little notices tacked to the barbwire fence posts to the effect that any one trespassing inside that fence does so at the risk of being fired upon by the sentinal. These notices were realy very small but for all that they were quite effective ef-fective as far as we were concerned. con-cerned. Our planned trip to the Isle of Wight must be postponed indefinitely as this island is now England's Heligoland and only Brits may go there now. No more pleasant walks along the beach as it is fairly bristling with guns and some parts are torn up and are now trenches, but all this must be viewed from a distance as there is a barb-wire fence running around it that keeps us from coming near. The main occupation of Portsmouth Ports-mouth is training and recruiting, at the present time, though there are thousands of men working night and day at the dockyards repairing ships and building new ones, there is little excuse for an able bodied man being out of employment here as there is the same amount of work to be done by a force only two thirds or less strong. The docks and rail road stations are being swamped with goods and not enough help to move them to their destination. Food prices are continually climbing because of the difficulty in getting anything unloaded from the ship and carried over the railroad line. This with the other difficulties has brought the price of food to a point where it is serious and meetings are being held all over England protesting to the Government. Amid all this turmoil and sadness sad-ness there is one place open to us and we make use of this privilege privi-lege and that is the birth place of Charles Dickens. It is now a public museum where may be seen all of the works of this popular Author and many-things connected with his life. Fred S. Lyman, |