by Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent

The headlines continue to report the growing magnitude of war rapidly becoming worldwide:

FIGHT MAY CONTINUE FOR DAYS
Advantage Seems to Be With Germans But Not at All Points
TRY TO HOLD GERMANS UNTIL RUSSIA STRIKES

SAYS JAPAN WILL BE SUPREME ON PACIFIC

MILLION OF CZAR’S TROOPS SWEEPING EASTERN PRUSSIA
Brush Austrians Aside and Overwhelm Germans by Force of Numbers

BURNED VILLAGES STARVED REFUGEES DESOLATE, RUINS

AUSTRIA WHIPPED TO STANDSTILL BY LITTLE SERVIA
Austrian Soldiers Have All Been Withdrawn From the Servian Territory

GREATEST SCRAP IN HISTORY

“The French and British were holding back the entire German army today. The fighting was desperate; the Losses appalling. . . . The fighting line was like a “Z” from Audenarde to Brussels to Mons and Namur. The heaviest fighting was half way between Brussels and Mons.” These were place names that would come to define the geography of destruction.

The United Press reported the story of three American girls escape from the war zone:

“We were in the Bavarian Alps when we learned war was imminent,” said Miss Park. “We started for London via Cologne at once. When we reached Cologne it was apparent that war was only a matter of hours. Everywhere the greatest activity was apparent and the population was feverish with excitement. At Cologne we reached the little village of Dolhaine, on the Belgian frontier between Verviers and Aix-La-Chapelle. The mobilization orders had been received at that hour, and all trains were turned over to the military department. We had to disembark. There was no hotel and so we got a peasant who had a little home in the town to take us in.

“The next morning we walked down the road to the railroad junction and met with what to us seemed to be the entire German army advancing on Belgium. Throughout the entire day thousands of men swung through the little village. That night we began to hear the roar of cannons as the Germans opened their attack on Liege. The roar continued all through the night and almost without interruption during the next three days. When there was a cessation, the very stillness after such a din was decidedly impressive.”