to Petrograd join revolutionists.]

As late as Wednesday there was a possibility of troops being sent
against Petrograd, but all the regiments for miles around joined the
revolution before they entered the city. There was obviously no one who
wanted to uphold the old monarchy, and it fell without even dramatic
incident to mark its end. To us in Petrograd the abdication of the
Emperor had just one significance. It brought the army over at a stroke.
The country, long saturated with democratic principles, accepted the new
Government as naturally as if it had been chosen by a national vote.

* * * * *

The credit of the first shot fired on the American side in the Great War
fell to the crew of the American ship, _Mongolia_. A narrative of this
dramatic event is given in the chapter following.

AMERICA'S FIRST SHOT

J. R. KEEN

Copyright, New York Times, April 27, 1919.

[Sidenote: Gunners of the _Mongolia_ hit a submarine.]

April 19 has long been celebrated in Massachusetts because of the battle
of Lexington, but henceforth the Bay State can keep with added pride a
day which has acquired national interest in this war, for on that date
the S. S. _Mongolia_, bound from New York to London, under command of
Captain Emery Rice, while proceeding up the English Channel, fired on an
attacking submarine at 5.24 in the morning, smashing its periscope and
causing the U-boat to disappear.

[Sidenote: Officers from Massachusetts.]

The gun crew who made this clean hit at 1,000 yards were under command
of Lieutenant Bruce R. Ware, United States Navy, and the fact of special
interest in Massachusetts is that both Rice and Ware were born in that
State, the Captain receiving his training for the sea in the
Massachusetts Nautical School and the Lieutenant being a graduate of
Annapolis.

[Sidenote: Dangerous voyages and cargoes.]

The _Mongolia_, a merchantman of 13,638 tons, had been carrying
munitions to Great Britain since January, 1916, when she reached New
York Harbor from San Francisco, coming by way of Cape Horn, and she had
already made nine voyages to England. In those voyages her officers and
men had faced many of the greatest perils of the war. Her cargoes had
consisted of TNT, of ammunition, of powder, of fuses, and of shells. At
one time while carrying this dangerous freight Captain Rice saw, as he
stood on the bridge during a storm, a lightning bolt strike the ship
forward j