Photograph f 1 

 ARTILLERY OBSERVERS ON MONTE CRISTALLO 



Prof. Giorgio Abetti 



These men are at a height of about 10,000 feet and are observing activities in a similar 

 Austrian position only 600 yards away in a straight line, br.t on the other side of a deep 

 declivity, which forms the bed of a glacier, making a difficult path even for the Alpini. 



great moral courage, which I am able to 

 give, little by little, with prayer and faith 

 in all that is good. 



"THE ENEMY IS BEING DRIVEN BACK'" 



It is quite impossible for me to write 

 to you coherently tonight. A long letter 

 I may not send, and if I began to de- 

 scribe I should write for hours. We have 

 been here now for 48 hours. The Isonzo 

 is three-quarters of an hour's walk across 

 the meadows, and on the hills, just about 

 10 miles away, the battle has been raging 

 since our arrival. The big guns roar and 

 thunder day and night ; but we are al- 

 ready so accustomed to the noise that we 

 often forget the sound and talk quite 

 lightly of different things. They are 

 pounding as I write, as though they 

 would break off bits of the mountain and 

 crumble parts of it to pieces. 



Under my window hundreds of cam- 

 ions pass day and night — one long pro- 

 cession — carrying up fresh troops and 

 ammunition, carrying down the wound- 

 ed or those who have stood the strain of 

 the fighting so long that they are being 



brought away to rest a little. At night 

 the sky is fully illuminated by the flashes 

 of explosives. 



I was in the cemetery this afternoon. 

 They have knocked down part of the wall 

 to enlarge it, and the soldiers were busy 

 digging new graves, so as to have them 

 read)". There was military music in one 

 of the camps near by and it was realty 

 comforting to hear it. 



Strange, we have a feeling of perfect 

 security and the sensation of believing 

 that the enemy is being beaten back and 

 back and will never cross the Isonzo 

 again. 



This little town was Austrian a short 

 time ago. Except for a very few simple 

 peasant folk and a few others in little 

 shops, I am the only woman in the town, 

 with its thousands of soldiers, and every 

 half hour of the day I gain some new, 

 unexpected impression impossible to de- 

 scribe by letter — very difficult even by 

 speech. 



I write by the light of one dim candle 

 and leave you now to go to dinner with 

 M. and R. and three officers. 



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