Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 152, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1915 — Page 3

CLARK VISITS SCENE OF ONE OF MOST DESPERATE BATTLES OF WAR

Correspondent Describes Plain of Vaux-Marie, the Last Spot Contested by the German Crown Prince in His Retreat After the Firpt Advance on Paris —Shell-Tom and Fire-Scathed Villages on Every Side —Spirit of French Is Undaunted.

By EDWARD B. CLARK.

Staff Correspondent of the Western Newspaper Union. _ Near St. Mlmel, Prance —It is at St. Mlhlel that the German fifth army.

Edward B. Clark.

grip on the spear handle against all the efforts of the French to wrest it from them. On the plain from which I am looking at the light smoke wreathing over the, batteries there was fought one of the most desperate battles of the present war. This field is called the plain of Vaux-Marie. It. marks the last spot contested by the crown prince in the retreat which he was forced to make to keep his lines in touch with the retreating armies on his right flank, armies which occupied a long front ex-tending-from this place almost to the gates of Paris. f

Dotted With Graves. This plain, with its dotting graves of German and Frenchmen, newly dug, and with its great gaping holes made by the falling shells, marks the present high tide in this section of the French advance from the Marne. The fighting, cigarette-smoking, almost debonair soldiers of the republic on this battle front are still on the offensive and are throwing themselves forward daily under the, cover of a screen of shell fire in desperate endeavor to drive their enemy from the

natural and man-made defenses, behind which he stands still resolute and still apparently possessed of the high-hearted purpose, when the opportunity offers, to go forward once more over the ground which he gained last summer only to lose when the leaves turned in the fall. The round of the battle today is in my ears. The distance to the line of the fighting is nothing, but as the military men sense it. the grappling place is a long way bff. According to the conceptions of men who fight under modern conditions, the man who is only within range of the heavy artillery is not in the battle at all. When the chance of being hit is only one in twenty a man, according to the modern idea, is in no danger. He must be under the hell fire of shrapnel, facing the driving rain of small arms’ bullets, or with bayoneted rifle in hand, must be guarding and thrusting against an enemy whose breath he can feel on his cheeks. When the chances of the lottery are all against fctm a man in these days is accounted as being in real peril. Gigantic French Captain. I am here under the chaperonage, so to speak, of the same army officer with whom I visited otbnr points of the field of operations, and with whom I looked'on the devastation and desolation which rule in the shell-torn and fire-scathed villages of the Marne and Meuse. This French officer is Capt Gerard de Ganajr. Before this, I have

commanded by the crown prince, is holding a salient, shaped like a spear point, and which cuts into the valley of the Meuse. Ever since last September when the Germans retreated to this place after their flrfft advance, and which they had already prepared for defense, the men of the crown prince’s forces , have succeeded i n keeping their

After the Battle.

written something of my military companion. His mother was an American. He stands six feet three in his campaign socks. He is dressed today as always, in his “horizon blue.” This color melts into the sky screen, and as my eyes seek the captain out when he is at a distance, I feel that no ambitious artillery man can make an adequate mark of him, loomingly big though he is.

There are so many shell-made cavities in this plain that I wonder it was necessary for either French or German to pause here to use the spade for grave-making for their dead. The fallen here are in great numbers. Many of the burials have been mgde within a few days. ‘ The survivors of the battle lay their comrades away tenderly. At the head of one long, mounded trench there is an inscription which says that within rest 67 soldiers of France. On a cross at the head of the trench, roughly written by some kindly hand which in the battle time must make haste with its task, are the word, “Honneur aux Heros.” Supplies Constantly Arriving.

From bases which I must not name and lying well to our rear, supplies constantly are being brought up in gray motors and in heavy army wagons for the French armies battling along this line from St. Mihiel to the Argonne forest. I know that the last French official report has reported gains in the region of the Argonne forest, which lies only a few miles to my left and from which every few minutes I can hear the bellowing of heavy guns. It spems from what I hear that the high hope of every trooper in the forces of Generals Langle de Carry and Sarrail is that the effort and the success along this line will be in keeping with the marked advances, which, rumor at least has it, the French and the British armies are making in the far northwest, where flank on flank as we hear it here, they are well into the first stage of the long-heralded spring drive. *

There are no motor buses left in Paris. Today I know why. They have been pressed into the service for supply transport purposes all along this part of the rear of the French

lines. One of these buses, whose ordinary work is the carrying of a few native Parisians and of a great number of American sight-eeers along the boulevards of the big city, has just passed me on the way to the front In big letters on its side appear the words “Place de la Bourse.” Today it is not going to the fighting line of the financiers, but to the camp kitchens of the embattled troops of France. It is loaded with fresh beef. An army must still fight on its stomach. and so this rackety Paris bus Is carrying a cargo more serviceable than shells for the “seventy-fives,” and more useful, in a way, than the explosives for the sapper and the miner. Industry of French Peasants. Ever since I came into this field of operation I have been struck by the fine-souled way in which the old French peasants, aged men who cannot go to the fighting line, and the women and the children, have followed the army and have* fitted the blade of the plow into the track of the advancing machine gun. The old men, the women and the children of this land are cultivating the fields almost up to the points of contact of the battling armies. So earnest was the peasantry in its endeavor to make every acre of the soil yield its toll against the day of possible need, that it actually carried its tilling and planting work into the fields where the sheila still werefaSing. 1 The military authorities finally were

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

compelled to call a bast 01 the cultivating ambitions of the French peasants. They admired the spirit which prompted the aged ones and the women and the children to dare death in order to make a full crop possible, but they did not think that a few extra bushels of wheat or of potatoes would compensate France for further losses among its peasantry. It was necessary, therefore, to call a halt on this fine but dangerous farming endeavor. The toilers did not mind the hell of shell fire any more than the soldiers did, but there are some sacrifices which are needless. So It is that the peasant toll of today must manifest itself only up to the inside limit of danger from dropping projectiles. Thus it is that the plain on which I am standing has not yet been turned by the plow. Nature has been at work here ever since it felt the first warming touch of spring’s Bun. This battlefield today is covered witH dowers, dandelions, daisies, forget-me-nots and violetu. The deep pits dug by the earlier fallen shells are now sunken gardens. White and gold, yellow and blue and crimson, enter into the color scheme of the battlefield. I never knew before the knifelike sharpness of contrast. War and death are in the valley, and peace and life are on the commanding hill. The guns are pounding while over my head two skylarks are soaring and singing. The fast growing grass affords the birds shelter for their nests, and above them always is the sky againßt whose foundations artillery is vainly used. Reminders of the Battle.

All along the edges of this plateau the trenches are deeply out They are used for shelter by the men of both armies during the sweeping fire on this open plain. Today they are somewhat back of the rearmost trenches of the present fighting line. It is easily learned how savage was the fight in this place where today one picks •flowers and listens to the larks singing in defiance of the noise of the cannon. Reminders of the battle that has moved qn apace are everywhere. German shells and French shells expended either vainly or to awful purpose are an incumbrance to one’s footsteps. When one .follows the track of modern war he wonders that any man engaged in It can live to write its history. It is hard to turn away from this field near St. Mihiel. There have been horrors enough along the line of the way to make one hate war for all time, but yet there is something about it which grips the Interest and the imagination. This battlefield of Vaux-Marie is one point of two meeting lines of a triangle, within whose compass the fighting has been at its fiercest and whose edge is still fanned by the hot breath of battle. I have said that this triangle is out of the present fighting, but one cannot so sense it while the ground shakes •With the roar of artillery. France is high-heartedly hopeful today that the line of this fighting will continue to recede northward and north-eastward, and that the recession will become quicker paced day by day as the spring and the summer advance. As it is the fragments of villages within this triangle, and which are still shaken by the gunfire, feel seemingly that their future safety is as assured as if they were removed a thousand leagues from the clashing armies in the valleys of the Aire and the Meuse. The few villagers who have come back have full confidence in the prowess of the French soldiers who are bulwarking the land. More Desolate Villages.

Near this field of the fighting there are several desolated places which I have seen, but of which I have not written, so like Is their condition to that of scores of other villages which I have visited and whose pathos appealed. Pretz and Vassincourt are gone. Louppy le Chateau Is a pile of ruins. At Revlgny nothing Is left but the walls of the church and one saint’s statue, from which destruction In some way or another was warded off.

We see these places as we pass from the battlefield to a village still standing, at least in part, and where we may rest, and where* we might forget war were It not for the distant rolling of the gunß along the line where men are killing men. We are going back to Paris and from there later I hope to go under the same guidance to another part of France, where, as along this line, the armies are at death grips.

Find Miser’s Hidden Pile.

Raleign, N. C. —When the little iron safe In the home of T. R. Lamm was opened at Wilson, near here, more than $60,000 in cash was found. Lamm died recently and It was supposed that he was worth SIOO,OOO, but now It appears he was worth three times that amount. An old homemade sack in the safe contained $34,832 in gold certificates and thirteeen envelopes held $16,000 In cash.

Pigeons as News Carriers.

Chicago.—Frank Waltenberg, who eloped with Miss Bertha Shack from Kankakee, 111., and was married in Chicago, released three carrier pigeons in front of the Grant hotel recently The birds headed for Pa Shack’s pigeon loft at Kankakee. Each bore the message, “Bertha and I were married today.” “I hope pa won’t take it out on, the pigeons,” said Mrs. Waltenberg.

Hears Infant Across Continent.

Albany, N. Y.— Governor Whitman, while visiting the fair in San Francisco recently, heard his Infant son cry over the telephone. Young Whit* man was held close to the transmitter and Induced to waiL

CURIOUS WESTERN FREIGHT TRAIN

The "Western Limited," a Prairie Freight Train Which Makes Regular Trips Between Two Small North Dakota Towns.

One of the most curious-looking freight trains to be found any place in the world makes a regular semiweekly trip between Williston and Bonetraill, N. D, a distance of 36 miles. It consists of a 40-horse power gasoline tractor and a string of a halfdozen grain wagons, and bears the name of the “Western Limited.” Twice each week during the summer months the slow-moving caravan strikes out

BEARS MADE TROUBLE

HAMPERED WORK OF RAILROAD BUILDERB IN ALASKA. Intense Cold Also Made Construction of White Pass A Yukon Line a Difficult Matter, but It Was Accomplished. The White Pass St Yukon railroad was built at the time of the famous gold rush and is one of the most remarkable enterprises of its kind in the world. Leaving Skagway it ascends the dreary and dreaded White pass to the headwaters of the Yukon, from which in summer boat may be taken to Dawson City. While making the surveys over the pass and subsequently during the work of construction, the railway builders were brought into close relations with the bears, who were the original inhabitants of the mountain sides along which the line runs.

Prompted by curiosity and hunger, the bears used to investigate the camps of the railway, and soon became so cunning and expert that nothing edible was safe from them unless it was watched day and night. The continuous heavy blasting at first frightened the animals, but they sbon learned how to shelter themselves from the falling rocks and stones. They also learned to recognize the warning Bhouts of the foreman and to post themselves so as to take advantage of the temporary absence of the men in order to steal the contents of their dinner pails. Actual construction commenced in June, 1898, and trains were running by August 25 over the first 14 miles of the line. The working force had increased to nearly 2,000 men August 8, when the news of the gold discoveries at Atlin reached the construction camps and reduced the number to. under 700 in two days. It was October before the working strength could be restored, by which time the work was almost entirely above the timbgr line and exposed to the full force of the Arctic winter storms. In many places the men had to be roped while working in order to prevent them being blown off +ae steep mountain sides, where the granite was so smooth and Blippery that the only foothold was often obtained from logs chained to thin bars drilled into the rock.

The cold and action of the wind were so intense that the men had to be relieved every hour, as longer exposure numbed not merely their bodies, but their minds, so that they had not sense enough left to tie a knot securely or do other simple things of similar nature. Throughout the winter the thermometer ranged from 20 to 40 degrees below zero, and sometimes even lower, at the construction camps. Nevertheless, the work was pushed rapidly forward, and February 18, 1899, the first train reached the summit of the White Pass, 2,866 feet above sea level and 20 miles from Skaguay.

No Boozers on the Lackawanna.

Another department of the Lackawanna railroad has dropped the “booze fighter.” Now it is the storehouse section of the road’s employees which must taboo strong drink. Orders have been Issued to all employees in the storehouses that hereafter men who drink intoxicating liquors will not he continued in the service of the company. The order further states that no men who use liquor will be employed In the future. This action was brought about as the result of a former storehouse employee confessing to wholesale thefts of brass from the company might raise funds to continue to enjoy the so-called "high life” which his salary of S6O per month would not permit.—Exchange.

Wants Education.

Antonio Alconco, aged twenty-four, of Sacramento, Cal., who cannot read or write, was given permission to attend the sixth grade of the grammar school as an observer for a month. He said he worked as a mill hand, and had seen the children march and sing, and since then he wars not satisfied to attend night school or the cosmopolitan school, but wanted to he with real live American boys and girls.

across the prairie loaded with supplies and various kinds of feright billed for Bonetraill, which is a trading point for a large number of fanners. Williston is the nearest railroad point, so during the harvest season, when freight is heavy, the schedule of the “Limited” is increased to five or six trips a week in order to transport wheat and flax to the railroad.—Popular Mechanics.

UNABLE TO MOVE ENGINES

General Superintendent of Line in Mexico Found Himself in Considerable of a Dilemma. For weeks the only rail outlet from Mexico City has been a narrow gauge line running by way of the city* of Toluca, about fifty miles distant. Recently the military authorities at Mexico City appointed a new general superintendent for this division. When this official made his first inspection trip over the road he found three locomotives on a siding between Toluca and the capital. Rolling stock of all kinds being greatly needed for bringing in supplies to a starving population, the new division superintendent gave orders to have these locomotives put into commission. Trainmen who attempted to carry out the orders were met by several stern individuals who told them at the point of rifles that the engines must not be moved. “These engines,” said the leader of the armed band, "belong to Senorita of the district. “They were presented to her last week by the general of our brigade. He has detailed us here to watch them. Without her permission the locomotives cannot be moved from here.” The young woman not appearing on the scene, the puzzled superintendent finally gave up the attempt.

New Equipment Ordered.

Faith in the stability of returning prosperity is evidenced by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad company in the solicitation by it of bids for 2,100 new cars, all to be delivered by midsummer, aggregating in value about .$3,000,000. In the order for new equipment which the company is preparing t 6 place will be 2,000 steel box cars, 50 steel underframe caboose cars and 50 steel passenger coaches.

“As an illustration of what it costs to keep pace with the necessities for transportation facilities it i 3 interesting to review the equipment purchases of the Northwestern company for the last five years,” said an official of that company.

“Since 1910 the Chicago ft Northwestern Railroad company has expended more than $38,000,000 simply to maintain its rolling stock at a high point of efficiency. Exclusive of the cars for which bids are now being solicited, it bought during that period 14,286 freight cars, 659 passenger coaches, 538 locomotives and 379 work cars. The company is optimistic for the business future of the country and has faith in the stability and integrity in the wave of prosperity which is already beginning to be felt throughout the land.”

The Way to Fame.

George Whiting, of Whiting ft Burt, was standing in front of the Palace Music Hall a few nightp ago. Above his head was the name of the team in blazing electric lights. A nearactor with vaudeville aspirations camp along and to Whiting, said: “I don't see how you get your name up there in the electric lights. I never could do it” “It’s a cinch,” answered Whiting. “You see I carry the bulbs with me and all the theater has to pay for is the electricity. That’s how I get away with it.” -A - “Well, I’m going to save up enough to buy a let of bulbs before I go after another stage Job,” was the reply.— New York Mail.

Claim Prevention.

"Don’t talk war; talk claim prevention,” was the appeal of the St. Louis and San Francisco railroad to its employees in a campaign to lessen damage claims for careless handling of freight The rough handling of cars caused the largest number of these claims,, 70 per cent of which were for amounts less than $lO. The freight handlers and trainmen responded so loyally to the road’s appeal that in five months they saved $146,000.

Furnished to Injured Employees.

For many years the Pennsylvania railroad has made a practice of providing free to injured employees hospital and doctors’ services. When Injuries require it mechanical appliances are furnished. These include artificial arms, legs, eyes and the like. They are renewed when necessary at the expense of the company.

HOT WEATHER MEALS

COMBINATIONS THAT GO WILL IN THE SUMMER. Hot Savory and a Cold Salad Are Always to Ba Recommended—~6omo Suggestions That Are Worth Remembering. A hot savory and a cold salad make a good combination for the summer luncheon, and the savory is a useful dish for the disposition of left-over scraps of meat, fish, etc.” The foundation of a savory is usually a triangle on a finger of buttered brown thread toast, or fried bread, pastry or bisculL The filling may be varied indefinitely, and its arrangement depends upon available materials. Here are ft few suggestions for the use of materials common to all booseholds: Tomato Toast. —Half an ounce of butter, two ounces of grated cheese, one tablespoonful of tomato; paprika. Melt the butter and add the tomato (either canned or fresh stewed), then the grated cheese; sprinkle with paprika and heat on the stove. Cut bread into rounds or small squares, fry and pour over each slice the hot tomato mixture. Ham Toast. —Mince a little left-over boiled ham very finely. Warm it In * pan with a piece of butter. Add a litthe pepper and paprika. When very hot pile on hot buttered toast. Any left-over scraps of fish or meat may bo used up In a similar way, and make an excellent savory to serve with a green salad. Sardine Savories. —Sardines, one hard-boiled egg, brown bread, parsley. Cut the brown bread into strips and butter them. Remove the skin and the bones from the sardines and lay one fish on each finger of the bread. Chop the white of the egg into fine pieces and rub the yolk through a strainer. Chop the parsley very fine and decorate each sardine with layers of the awhite, the yolk and the chopped parsley. Season with pepper and salt. Oyster B*voriet. —These make ft more substantial dish, and arfe delicious when served with a celery salad: Six oysters, six slices of bacon, fried bread, seasoning. Cut very thin strips of bacon; the bacon that can be purchased already shaved is best for tho purpose. Season the oysters with pepper and salt, and wrap each in a slice of the bacon, pinning it together with a wooden splint (a toothpick). Place each oyster on a round of toast or of fried bread, and cook in the oven for about five minutes. Serve very hot, and sprinkle with pepper. Cheese Bavories.—Butter slices of bread and sprinkle Over them a mixture of grated cheese and paprika. Set them in a pan and place the pan in the oven, leaving it there until thq bread is colored and the cheese set. Serve very hot.

Uses of Pineapple Juice.

The Juice left from canned pineapple Is fine for use during the canning season to impart flavor to tasteless fruits, as the pear. A pint of Juice added to the water in which pears are cooking gives it an excellent flavor. For canning the pineapple is often put up in grated form, or after being run through a chopper. Although it may be served in various forms, the fruit is so excellent that the simplest form is as good as any. Sprinkle a little sugar over the slices about an hour before wanted and set In the refrigerator. If the fruit is quite ripe when served very little extra sugar is needed, but, like all other tropical fruits when sent North, it has to be gathered in a green state and is seldom found quite ripened from the field. No fruit lends Itself with greater readiness than the pineapple to coaxing art of the canneries and the preserving factories.

Banana Cake.

Make any one-egg cake, or better still make a sponge cake and bake in round tins, two layers; slice banana on cake and cover with whipped cream; simply lay another layer of cake on first and cover again with bananas and cream. Whipped Cream—Take one cupful sweet cream, add the white of an egg to give it body, small pinch of salt and whip ell together until thick; sweeten to taste and flavor with vanilla. —Boston Globe.

Rhubarb Custard.

Stew about one and a half pounds rhubarb and one cupful sugar. Make a soft custard of one pint milk, two eggs, half cnp sugar and one tablespoonful cornstarch in a double boiler. Let both cool, then pour custard over the rhubarb. Rhubarb is much better stewed in double boiler, too. using no water.

Sour Cream Dressing.

One-half pint sour cream, two tablespoonfuls lemon JuUje, one tablespoonful sugar, one teaspoonful salt, onequarter teaspoonful pepper, one teaspoonful mustard. Beat the cream until it is light and thick; add the othert ingredients. Sweet cream may be subv stitnted if desired. ]

To Clean Brushes.

Clean all brushes carefully by dipi ping the bristles in warm water toi which has been added a few drops of in clmt cold water, and ensues m ”■"•*** “ W