THE BATTLE EYE.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 14727, 4 August 1921, Page 6

THE BATTLE EYE.

A NOVELIST'S PICTURE.

; "MAN'IS COMING!"

Here is Richard Dehan's powerful picture of what happened in the animal world oppressed by the , coming war!

"The world trembled on the brink of Armageddon.' Men even then were doubtful as to the issue. It might yet. some said, be peace. But if Man, who arrives at conclusions by intellectual processes, was unsure, not so things that are guided by Instinct, like the wise creatures of Natal and the Transvaal and Bechuanaland in 1900; these knew quite well that War was in the air. ' *

"It is on record that in these days preceding the Great Calamity huge droves of wild pig, great herds of deer, and small bands of the rarer elk," wild bears, hares, martens, and foxes,, evacuated the forests,?of Bavaria and South Germany for the mountain fastnesses of Switzerland. Immense flights of birds, not usually migratory, partridges, pheasants, grouse, plover, wild doves, and water fowl went South with the animals.

"Under coyer of night the colossal game-preserves of East Prussia emptied into Poland —their/ furred and feathered peoples passing thence into the labyrinthine swamps of Dnieper and Dniester—spreading the news, sending the alarm before them: " 'Man is coming, and with him War!' •

THAT STRANGE TREMBLING.

"Man is coming. That strange trembling of the earth had warned its creatures, even before the tramp, tramp, tramp of millions of marching feet, the rumbling that betokened the slow but sure approach of titanic death engines, told Fine Ears to seek safety in flight, before the cataclysm of human flesh and iron and steel and chemicals, a thousand times more deadly, rolled down to overwhelm and destrojr.

"Hence, through those July nights the sound of rushing wings above, and stealthy pads and trotting hooves, and heavy bodies crushing through sedge and brake and underbush, hardly for a moment ceased. Puffs of sweet, wild breath and musky from hidden lairs; tufts of hair upon the thorns, and crowded spoor upon the dust of the forest paths or the mud of the river-banks, told of their going, to those who were skilled to read such signs.

"But the same mysterious instinct that urged them to flight bade the eagle and vulture that prey upon. carrion, the raven and owl and crow,, the Avolf and lynx, be on the alert, for the table of Earth would shortly be spread for them as never before in the whole History of War. "And their hoarse croaking, and. hooting and baying and barking answered: 'War, War War!'" A "WORD TO WOMEN. SURGICAL OPERATION UNNECESSARY. . "I suffered thirteen years with bleeding Piles. I could not sleep for the itching, throbbing irritation. My doctor said an operation was imperative. Fortunately my daughter noticed your advertisement. After using the Zann Double Absorption Treatment for two days I felt better, and am now quite restored."—Mrs. W., of Hamilton.

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