Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1915 — Page 2

THROUGH THE LINES

By WALTER JACOBS MORSE.

“Whisper!" Jan Voorst, burgomaster, leaned •ver, seized my ear—for he was pudgy and short —palled himself up and myself down and murmured an ominous word. I thrilled. I started, too, and ten feet distant the beautiful lady who was perforce my prospective companion far a long and dangerous journey, regarded us both with close attention, almost suspiciously. What Jan Voorst had told me answered a Question I had asked. It related to a patient, plodding pack horse, standing beside the one where -Lady Disdain" sat, superb and statuesque, in the saddle of a more mettled steed. Why I called her so was, first, because I did not know her real name; next, because when she was not secretly weeping over the great anxiety and surprise that filled her mind she was cold as ice in her manner. She suggested the lofty disdain of a person forced into an unpleasant and disturbing situation and submissive only because circumstances compelled it This much only I knew concerning her —she was a lady of high breeding and the daughter of an affluent American family. Separated, they had been caught in the battle zone. It might be that her parents were dead, for she had not heard from them. Stranded in the city where I myself had been halted in my art labors by the progress of the war, an acquaintance, a native college professor, had become interested in getting her past the disputed frontier. I. too, was anxious to leave the war center of peril. I had a good friend in Beirne —the burgomaster, Voorst. In fact, he was a relative by marriage of my brother-in-law. Few and selected were those who were allowed to leave Beirne, and they practically smuggled out Honest, helpful Jan came to me one day. “My friend," he said, “I have secured a passport, or rather a safe conduct through the Belgian home lines for yourself and your wife.” "But I have no wife!” I exclaimed. “You must imagine that you have, then,” he returned.. “A friend is interested in getting a charming and deserving young lady through the lines. I have a limited Influence. I have suc-

"I Have Succeeded in Securing a Paas.”

ceeded in securing a pass for ‘Walworth Doty and wife.* It is your last chance. Within forty-eight hours access to the whole frontier will be impossible. The lady and yourself must go on horseback. You will lead a pack horse with a heavy* load. It's to be delivered at the end of your journey. The fact that you are to thus act for ns is the excuse for your safe conduct. You will follow to the letter the route marked out.** "But the young lady—has she a knowledge of this awkward arrangement?** “I will confess that she has reluctantly agreed to it,” replied Voorst “She is proud, angered at the treatment she has received in the war seme and half distracted with the fear that her parents have perished. I need not ask you to be courteous. Be more—indulgent She seems never to have before experienced the rigors of deprivation, nor the horrors of the scenes through which she has been forced to go." The restriction that I should deliver the pack horse and the heavy burden the animal carried had something mysterious about it. Now that the nature of that burden was made clear to me in one ominous, almost terrifying word, I shrank and thrilled. For a moment it dazed me. Then I said: "Very well. I will carry out your instructions to the letter.” It was dusk when we started. As Voorst bade the lady good-by. she took his hand and expressed her gratitude tearfully but with warmth. As he waved his hand towards me with the words: “This is your guide and my friend. He is brave and a genlleman,” she drew up haughtily and gave me simply a cold, formal bow. It rather nettled me, but I said simply: “I will lead the pack horse. You had better follow at, say, twenty feet** S She viewed me with a challenging atare as though wondering at the ar- >. .• < t,

"Yea, it is best," spoke the burg* master, and the approving look in his eye told that he appreciated my desire to run all the risk —for risk it was. There was a clear half-moon, and the road was broad and even the first part of the journey. I noticed my companion shiver as we diverged into more obscure bridle paths. Twice she urged up her horse and kept close to mine. I saw that the weird loneliness of our environment affrighted. “You must fall back.” I spoke definitely, but pleasantly. “But—but I fear—l am afraid!” she demurred. “It must be as I say,” I insisted. "It is necebsary to your safety. You will appreciate what I say when the journey is completed.” She did not understand, and bridled. She fell back, but with an offended look upon her face. Twice up to midnight we came upon friendly encampments. My credentials passed us on. At the last place the commandant read the safe conduct: “One Walworth Doty and wife. Madam, I salute you." She directed a flashing glance at me, as if arraigning me for an affront I met her glance steadily. That beautiful face enchanted me, but I tried to act the guide under strict discipline. It must have been three o'clock in the morning when we reached the most difficult part of the route. Here the road ran along the edge of a cliff. I had been advised by Voorst that the enemy were likely to be prowling about. I thought of that —and of the load the pack horse carried. I increased the space between myself and my convoy. Her angry, yet anxious face resented this. I had to speak sharply to have her maintain the distance. She received it with a pout and a toss of her head. Suddenly, turning a cuiye in the rock-lined road, there came a quick word: "Halt!” I made out an armed officer. He was of the enemy. Beyond him, 50 feet in a ravine, was a temporary camp. He kept a revolver and leveled at me as he grabbed out to seize the bridle of the pack horse. The animal swerved, threw up its head, curvetted past him and broke into quite a trot. The officer turned and leveled his weapon, intent on halting the flight with a shot. "Stop! Stop!” I shouted. Too late! The well-aimed bullet struck one of the packages on the back of the horse, bored into it and there was a frightful detonation. I saw the officer, struck by a huge fragment of rock, fall prone and lifeless. I saw the pack horse, blown to atoms, go over the ledge into the midst of the camp below. I heard a shriek and ran back to my charge. "You are hurt?” I cried solicitously. "No! No! But you—” and I felt the warm blood trickling from my forehead, where a flying piece of rock nad struck me. Then I hurried on ner horse and my own past the motionless officer, away from the camp. "What was it?” she shuddered, as we deviated to a broader road. "Dynamite." She started and paled. Then she insisted on binding up my wound with a lace scarf. She kept close beside me. “And it was to shield me that you took all the risk!” she murmured. Within the hour we were safe in friendly hands. All Her disdain and coldness was gone now. She seemed to look to me for help. I placed her in kindly hands. Within two days I located her father and mother. She insisted on my taking her to them. Then that I become their guest. And thus it was that out of a great war I won a bride —no longer, however, my dear Lady Disdain! (Copyright. 1915, by W. G. Chapman.)

THOSE THAT ARE BORN TIRED

World Has Different Ways of Looking at Them, According to Their Station in Life. Out of the words of some modern thinkers those who are “born tired” may find consolation. They are the victims of a malady as incurable as birth itself. Like many other ailments, and like certain crimes, it bears different names in different circles of society. He of low degree is the “incorrigible idler” of the police courts, the “Weary Willy” of the comic papers. More fortunate lotus eaters escape with an epithet; they pass for “dreamy” or “thoughtful" among their fellows —the delicious phrase “temperamental languor,” was recently coined anent an eminent specimen—and they acquire actual kudos instead of a “week’s hard'labor” for their lounging. They are commonly great readers, long sitters in armchairs under the light of green-shaded lamps, when it is assumed that they are revolving mighty matters. Often, indeed, they experience the exquisite pleasure of being begged to “stop working now” for their eyes’ or health’s sake, and Melanchthon himself. after days and nights of intense study, never rose from his bench more crampedly than they, for they are really tired. The world holds no such hero as he who, thus afflicted, conquers his very nature and works.

Making Ends Meet.

“Here’s a man who keeps a shoemaker’s shop and his wife runs a hairdressing establishment" “That is what X call going to extremes.”

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

CHANGED HIS THEORY

MEEK MAN GOT TIRED OF BEING IMPOSED UPON. Finally Decided There Was Nothing In the Idea and Went Strongly on the Other Tack—Waxed Rich and Fat. Once upon a time therw was a man who had a wonderful disposition. Nothing ruffled him. Mild-mannered and gentle, he went about his business regularly on week-days and attended church regularly on Sundays. His favorite beatitude was, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” He was constantly hoping that someone would strike him on the cheek, so that he could turn the other one, and he always kept handy a cloak, which, in obedience to the Biblical injunction, he could give also to anybody who might take his coat It was his policy In political and economic matters invariably to be agreeable, generous, and self-effacing. When the politicians broke their promises, he always supposed they must have had a good reason for so doing. He believed that the trust magnates were more interested in the welfare of the country than in their own profits, and whenever the trusts raised prices he assumed that the poor owners wouldn’t have done It unless it was absolutely necessary. Thus, until he was past middle age, was his serenity undisturbed, and he kept getting poorer all the time. Finally he was down and out altogether, whereupon he went to the banker with whom he had deposited all his life and who happened to be also the chief owner of the local street railway company which was famous throughout the country for high rates and poor service. When the man asked the banker for a temporary loan the banker was very, very kind to the man, and, with tears in his eyes, explained that there was no one in all the world to whom he would rather lend money than to the man, but the fact was that business was business and finance was finance, and he did not consider the man a good risk, because he was too easy-going. The man went away and began to brood over his situation. For the first time in his life he found himself fearing lest his temper get the better of him. He kept on brooding, and then he discovered that he was actually getting mad, and the more he brooded the madder he , got. He muttered, ’“Blessed are the meek!’ Bah! Accursed are the meek, for they shall be imposed upon!” He began to judge everybody on the theory that they would judge him whether he judged them or not. He declared that any man who struck him on the cheek had better get out of the way if he did not want to get a fusillade of blows in return, and if a fellow took his coat, he would make him give back a whole suit. His fortunes immediately changed for the better, and in a short time he became so influential that nothing was ( done in the community without first securing his approval. Moral—Whom the gods would preserve they first make mad. —Ellis O. Jones, in Ldfe.

Modeling New Faces on Wounded.

Some extraordinary operations to repair faces shattered by shells are being performed by the French surgeons. Dr. J. Dundas Grant describes in the Lancet a few of those that he witnessed at Vai de Grace and Bordeaux. In one case the bridge of a man’s nose had been driven in, completely closing the rear nasal passages. M. Morestin detached what was left of the nose, leaving it as a flap attached below. He cleared out the nasal passages and stuffed the cavity with gauze, which he replaced with rubber tubes after a few days. He planted part of the cartilage of a rib in the man’s forehead, and when this had taken root he cut it away, turned it down, attached It to the remains of the nose and remodeled this. In many cases in which a large part of the lower jaw had been shot away, casts were taken of both jaws, and on these the surgeons and the dentists studied the best methods of repair. They were often able to restore at least the ability to chew food and to talk.

Situation in France.

Pat, who was out of work, and who was thinking of emigrating, was passing by a news agent’s shop the other day, when a placard outside the door, containing the words “Situation in France,” attracted his attention. Pat (having gone into the shop)— Give come about that situation you’re advertising. . News Agent—What situation are you referring to, sir? Pat (pointing to placard)—lt’s the one in France I’m after. News Agent—But that’s on the state of affairs. Pat —Sorra a ha’porth I care whose estate it*s on. Bedad! HI take it

Gloomy Cabaret Entertainer.

Sandstorm Smith, the well-known Oklahoma cattle baron, was enjoying the entertainment in one of Kansas City’s most popular cabaret restaurants. He eyed with basillskic gaze the chief singer, a desbicated young man with a face as solemn and elongated as tho countenance of a venerable horse “If he’s as grief-strick-ened as all that at a merrymaking,” Sandstorm commented, “I’d shore like to see him at a funeral!’’—Kansas City Star.

MOTORS IN ARMY SERVICE

Wonderful System Has Been Evolved for Transportation of Supplies During the War. Twenty thousand men are now engaged in the mechanical transport section of the British army service corps on the continent. In addition to the transport of men, ammunition and food, motors also serve for ambulance work, dispatch services, searchlights and gun carriers for antiaircraft service. Among recent developments are the motor kitchens and motor bath houses. For reasons of- safety the railway base must be kept well in the rear of the battle line. But the motors practically continue the railway service up to a point from which horse transports or other motors can distribute the supplies. One of the striking features of this war is the motor transport column. With each vehicle keeping station, about fifty yards apart, and running to a set speed limit, trains nearly a mile long wind over the roads carrying the hundreds of tons of food and ammunition required by the army. A well-arranged traffic system, with motor-cycle dispatch riders, keeps these huge convoys under control, and their smooth working is a guarantee that the men in the trenches are well supplied. The vast fleet of motor omnibuses forms an important part of this transport army, and on occasion, says the Sphere, they are used to carry men from point to point when rapid movement Is required. Eye-Witness graphically describes the operations of the motor transport at the front "This war,” he says, "has at different times been characterized as a war of high explosives, a war of howitzers, a petrol war. In two senses can the struggle on land be called a petrol war. The employment of this substance in the internal combustion engine has rendered aviation possible, and has also immensely simplified the work necessary for the supply of the army. Indeed, to such an extent has mechanical propulsion, whether of steam or petrol-driven vehicles, especially the latter, taken the place of animal traction, that the change caused may not unfairly be compared to the revolution brought about by the introduction of railways.”

More Use of Coal Briquets.

A substantial increase in the quantity of coal briquets manufactured and sold in 1914 is announced by the United States geological survey. A tendency to operate in large units is illustrated in the statistics of this collateral branch of coal mining, the smaller and experimental plants going out of existence and the new enterprises being of greater capacity. The production of briquetted fuel in 1914 amounted to 144,635 short tons, valued at $1,123,178, an increase compared with 1913 of 62,776 short tons in quantity and $115,851 in value. This shows the greatest activity in coal briquetting in the history of the industry. The production in 1914 in the eastern states increased from 62,244 short tons, valued at $240,643, to 101,782 tons, valued at $273,046; in the central states from 73,287 tons, valued at $360,408, to 88,325. tons, valued at $424,569, and in the Pacific coast states from 46,328 short tons, valued at $406,276, to 54,528 tons, valued at $425,563. Eight plants used coal-tar pitch for a binder, four used secret binders and one used petrolastic cement. No binder is required in the briquetting of carbon residues from oil-gas works.

Sky Periscopes.

In the cities of Europe that are liable to be visited by Zeppelin airships the watchers on the lookout for raiding aircraft have suffered from stiff necks, and also eye strain from long continued gazing at the heavens to detect hostile aircraft, and to meet this difficulty opticians have devised a special form of sky periscope. This instrument is constructed on the same general principles as those used by submarines, and the type that has been so widely adopted for use in the trenches on land. The device is a simple arrangement of mirrors that the watcher can hold in his hand, and which enables him to scan the entire vault of the sky while looking down in a convenient,’ and natural position. It has been found so convenient that a much better and more constant lookout is maintained.

Fine Old-Time, Medicine.

That excellent combination of senna leaves and figs which grandma used to prepare is still just as good as any all around liver regulator and laxative we know for habitual use, if anyone must use a laxative habitually. Some people say it is hard to mix. But think how good it is and how cheap! A five-cent package of senna leaves, a ten-cent box of figs; chop fine and mix* thoroughly on a plate with spatula or knife blade; preserve in a fruit jar and dole it out whenever anyone in the family needs it—a little lump, sort of a "chaw." It isn’t bad to take. Best time is in the early part of the day, for senna ordinarily acts in five or sic hours.—William Brady, M. D., in the Chicago News. 1

Need Fair Notice.

It is said Marconi has invented a device which will enable one to see through a brick wall apd detect what is going on within them. We hope the inventor will give fair notice of putting this invention on the market. The poker games will need time to hide in the basements and caves.— Houston Post

Island of Pygmies and Cannibals

WHEN the Australian troops took the German part of New Guinea early in the war, Great Britain became the possessor of fully half of the largest island in the world, for Australia and Greenland are properly small continents. The other half belongs to Holland. New Guinea surpasses Madagascar in size, its length being 200 miles greater than the distance from New York to Chicago, says Rene Bache in the Boston Herald. Its area is equal to that of France and the British Isles combined. But what renders it most interesting is that it is today the least known portion of the habitable world, fully nine-tenths of the Island being as yet unexplored. This may well seem surprising when it is considered that New Guinea is separated from the north coast of Australia only by a broad strait. A glance at a map of the world will show that it is in reality the largest member of the great archipelago in the eastern seas, which includes the Philippine islands on the north and Borneo and Sumatra on the west The line of the equator runs almost directly through it Ferbcious Black Cannibals. New Guinea is inhabited by tribes of ferocious black people, with great mops of woolly hair, who evince utmost hostility toward all intruders. When vessels have been wrecked upon their inhospitable shores they have in a number of known instances captured the unfortunate mariners and eaten them. But if the island is to so great an extent a terra incognita today it Is not mainly on this account, but because of its unhealthful climate.

From the foothills of the huge mountain range, running through its entire length from east to west, extend to north and south vast swampy plains covered with dense forests, intersected by innumerable streams, and haunted by the deadliest of fevers. Thus it comes about that german New Guinea is practically an unknown land, except for a narrow strip along the coast, while the portion hitherto held by Great Britain has been explored only in part, and what is known of the Dutch half of the island was ascertained mainly by an English expedition undertaken in 1910. This expedition, headed by Capt. Cecil G. Rawling, which penetrated some distance into the interior and made considerable surveys, came across tribes of hitherto unknown pygmies, the men barely reaching 4 feet 7 inches in height It is presumed that the women are proportionately smaller, but no bribes or other persuasions could induce these little folk to produce any of their females for inspection —lest, as seemed to be feared, they might be captured and carried off. Apparently the pygmies are of the same dwarf race, evidently very ancient, that is found in the Philippines, in the Andaman Islands and in equatorial Africa. The savages along the coast, on the other hand, are good-sized people, remarkably muscular and with a great development of chest. The men are sooty black, the women being slightly fairer. Among them are occasional albinos, with dirty reddish hair, their pink skins blotched unpleasantly with darker color. Both sexes go nearly naked, the women wearing either a short grass petticoat or a strip of bark cloth passed between the legs and held in place by a string tied around the waist. For the man a gourd similarly attached in front often serves the purpose of raiment. Native Village One Long Room. A native village is one long room, which may extend to any length, the newest member of such a community building his hut on the end of the row, without any partition. Thus there is no attempt at privacy, though each family has its own doorway and its own fireplace. The floor is of sand fresh from the seashore and covered with grass mats, and the only furniture consists of elaborately carved wooden pillows, most uncomfortable, as one would think, for sleeping purposes. Dangling from the root and. much blackened by smoke, are human skulls and bones, formerly belonging

to defunct relatives, the bones being sometimes contained in woven grass bags. / The price of a wife among these primitive people may be anything from a yard of calico to an ax head, according to the physical attractions and domestic accomplishments of the woman. The savage warriors of New Guinea, adorn themselves with crowns of paradise feathers, which are held in place by a band of plaited grass encircling the head. Sometimes they wear a sort of halo, the rays of which are many pieces of cane plaited into the hair and standing out at right angles to the scalp. Such a headdress, which is not disturbed or remade for mdhths, must be rather uncomfortable to sleep in. To lend a fierce expression to the face the beak of the. hornbill split in two is worn through a hole in the septum of the nose, in such a way that the two thin white blades, eadh five or six inches long, curve up at the ends like Kaiser Wilhelm’s mustache. In Perpetual Strife. Captain Rawling, in his book, “The Land of the New Guinea Pygmies," says that the natives are engaged in perpetual strife and drunken brawls — their favorite intoxicant being a fermented liquor obtained from the sugar palm. Just outside each family doorway stand the owner’s spears and stone clubs, which are used in domestic quarrels or to fight with enemies. Violent temper seems to be a characteristic of these savages, and with hardly a moment’s warning the peaceful village is converted into a scene of turmoil and strife. Spears whizz; clubs are wielded indiscriminately and

PUSHING WITH BOW AND ARROW

with murderous intent, and the place resounds with ferocious yells. At intervals raids are undertaken to procure heads as trophies and human flesh for food. There are no fiercer cannibals, judging from all accounts, than those of New Guinea. In 1858 a vessel was wrecked off the coast of British New Guinea, and 300 men on board of all of them Chinese, were marooned on a small island. There they were fed and systematically fattened by the natives, no escape being possible, and at intervals, as required, two or three of them at a time were taken to the mainland, boiled in a spring of hot water and eaten. Women have no rights among the natives of New Guinea. They are treated as slaves, worked almost to death and savagely beaten when their owners happen to be in a bad humor, which is often. It is their business to cultivate the fields of banana and rice, while their lords and masters attend to the fighting and hunting. If a man chooses to murder his wife, nobody interferes, and nothing much seems to be thought of it New Guinea is for naturalists -an unexplored wonderland. It has many species of birds that are as yet unknown to science. The forests are full of parrots and other feathered creatures of brilliant plumage, and among the marine curiosities along the coast are fishes that climb trees. The swamps swarm with the deadliest snakea- As for the mammals of the island,- nearly all of them are, like those of nearby Australia, marsupials.

A serious effort is being made to reproduce motion pictures in color, but as yet little success has been obtained, and the pictures in color which have been show in recent years have been painted. Attempts to adapt threecolor photography, by using simultaneously three films, each with a sort of light of appropriate color, and combin ing the three Images on the screen, have to overcome great difficulties in regard to maintenance of register, because very minute errors of adjustment between the pictures on the films are magnified to an intolerable extent by projection. In a process devised by G. A. Smith, the results of which were exhibited at the Society of Arts of London, in December, 1908, the number of colors recorded was reduced to two.

Motion Pictures in Color.