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XI


THE CAPITULATION OF NEW YORK


In response to the call of the Mayor, the Committee representing the financial institutions of the City met in his office promptly at 9 A.M. on April 2d. A member was proposing that a wireless message be dispatched to the German Admiral, requesting an early answer to the Committee's proposal of the day before, when the boom of a heavy explosion shook the building, and the Mayor, looking up through the southwest window, quietly remarked, "Gentlemen, the answer has come!" The Committee turned and saw in the fair white northern face of the beautiful Woolworth Tower a yawning cavity—and, filling the air below, a mass of falling débris!

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