ice-ledges nearly two miles above sea-level, in
positions to which a skilled mountaineer would find it perilous to
climb; that in places the infantry has advanced by driving iron pegs
and rings into the perpendicular walls of rock and swarming up the
dizzy ladders thus constructed; that many of the positions can be
reached only in baskets slung from sagging wires stretched across
mile-deep chasms; that many of her soldiers are living like arctic
explorers, in caverns of ice and snow; that on the sun-scorched floor
of the Carso the bodies of the dead have frequently been found
baked hard and mummified, while in the mountains they have been found
stiff, too, but stiff from cold; that in the lowlands of the Isonzo
the soldiers have fought in water to their waists, while the water for
the armies fighting in the Trentino has had to be brought up from
thousands of feet below; and, most important of all, that she has kept
engaged some forty Austrian divisions (about 750,000 men)--a force
sufficient to have turned the scale in favor of the Central Powers on
any of the other fronts. And I have usually added: "After what I have
seen over there, I feel like lifting my hat, in respect and
admiration, to the next Italian that I see."

[Illustration: The _Teleferica_.
"Many of the Italian positions can be reached only in baskets slung
from sagging wires stretched across mile-deep chasms."]

[Illustration: An Italian Position in the Carnia.
"Many of the Italian soldiers are living like arctic explorers, in
caverns of ice and snow."]

It is no exaggeration to say that not one American in a thousand has
any adequate conception of what Italy is fighting for, nor any
appreciation of the splendid part she is playing in the war. This lack
of knowledge, and the consequent lack of interest, is, however,
primarily due to the Italians themselves. They are suspicious of
foreigners. They are by nature shy. More insular than the French or
English, they are only just commencing to realize the political value
of our national maxim: "It pays to advertise." Though they want
publicity they do not know how to get it. Instead of welcoming neutral
correspondents and publicists, they have, until very recently, met
them with suspicion and hinderances. What little news is permitted to
filter through is coldly official, and is altogether unsuited for
American consumption. The Italians are staging one of the most
remarkable and inspiri