Needless to say that amid the turmoils, of war mental effort in any direction is extremely difficult; concentration on textbook banalities is impossible when the air is rent with the thundering noises of bursting bombs and shells; if anything, in such circumstances a quick ear for "tones" is rather a disadvantage, however whole-heartedly a conscientious student may desire to persevere. But quite apart from the obvious disabilities which forbid study, every student on the roll had urgent public duties to perform beyond the walls of the classrooms when trouble broke out.
As soon as shelling and bombing signalled the commencement of hostilities, the men were called out for emergency duties in the open: there was then nothing to do but to pack up the textbooks and other paraphernalia in the proverbial kit bag and close the deserted classroom.
The nervous tension that prevailed for several days before this happen-had already made it very evident that classes would soon have to be suspended; they remained suspended for a period of some four months.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.