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Show II DESCRIBES THE j BOMBARDMENT London, Oct 10, 3 40 a. m Henry W. Dlederlch, American consul general gen-eral at Antwerp, who escaped from that city with his family In an automobile, auto-mobile, gave the following account of the bombardment to the Ghent correspondent cor-respondent of the Chronicle: "For days we heard the sound of heavy gun fire and were told of the fall, one after another of outer forts. It soon became apparent that nothing could avail against the great German cannon, and in conjunction with other neutrals we endeavored to mediate with the Germans to spare, at any ate, some of the most valuable build-ngs build-ngs of world-wide interest, but the negotiations failed to lead to a sue eessful result. "I had intended to remain In Antwerp Ant-werp throughout the bombardment I was told, however, 'for God's sake, clear out of the city, as its destruction destruc-tion Is Inevitable,' but 1 did not realize re-alize until almost too late the horror hor-ror which was coming. "At 11 o'clock at night we were g.o-ing g.o-ing to bed when we wore aroused by frightful noises, reminding us of the previous visits of the Zeppelins Soon we realized that the bombardment bombard-ment had commenced and then 1 had the most horrible experience of my "I went with my family to the basement base-ment and we crouched there all night Shells falling every few minutes came with a dreadful whistling sound, fol lowed by a thunder clap and the collapse col-lapse of some building "Opposite the consulate is the home for old people, the front of which was torn out by a shell and the debris scattered over my house. More debris de-bris fell on the two-story building adjoining, crumpling It up entirely and setting it on fire. After this another an-other shell blew out the facade of a house lower down on our street. "As dawn came we were wearied out and my family was collapsed from fright and strain so we decided to endeavor to leave the city. I succeeded suc-ceeded In communicating with my chauffeur and got a car, but did not know where to go. being left with nothing hut what we had on and ex posed every moment to exploding Bhells "With my wife, daughter, two servants ser-vants and a refugee's child, I crossed the pontoon bridge over the Scheldt. It took us four hours to do this, the street being a seething mass of every kind of vehicle and dens.' crowds of fugitives The scene was indescribably dreadful, everybody being be-ing moved by the same desire to get away rum me iiiui uunui. "After crossing the Scheldt, we heard a reiort that the bridge was destroyed by a shell. thu6 bottling up the inhabitants. "From Antwerp to Ghent the roads are masses of fleeing humanity As we left we saw vast volumes of smoke arising in Antwerp from the burning buildings and blazing petroleum tanks. Instead of the usual two hours to Ghent, it took U6 thirteen owing to the impeded traffic" |