Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 241, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1915 — Page 3

NOW SEE WAR ONLY AS GREAT SHOW AFFAIR

Parisians Take Interest in Struggle Only as a Magnificent Spectacle. PEN PICTURE OF FRENCH LIFE People Wake Pilgrimages to Points of Vantage Behind the Lines Where Gay Week-End Parties Are Held Chatter Shows - Trend of Thought. By GEORGE DUFRESNE. (International News Service.) Paris. —Parisians have become so used to the war that they are now taking great interest in it asYt magnificent spectacle. Daily crowds of French people and tourists from England and America make pilgrimages to points of vantage behind the lines, and gay week-end parties are held. The following letter comes from a hotel near Boulogne-Sur-Mer: “If you would focus the war, or that large part of it which is collected at the base, come to the hotel. • “In all wars, of course —from Scutari to Capetown—there is Just one hotel which is, so to say, a universal tryst, a sort of Charing Cross, where everyone meets eventually and in the end. It 1b a vanity fair, perhaps also a slough of despond and delectable mountain, where pilgrims of all types and two sexes jostle and nudge, where in a flood of khaki and brassards and woman’s uniforms some few civilians go astray, where the incoming and outgoing hero relaxes for a moment his heroism, where comedy prods tragedy in the ribs, where sentiment turns up holy eyes at quiet courage, and where all the medley of actors, interrupted in their parts by the hoots of steamers, the burr of hydroplanes and the tramp of route marches are apt to miss their cues in the fog of general rumor and incorrigible chatter. “Could anyone tell what sort of piece, in what country, he was askod to watch? Was he ‘assisting’ at his majesty’s, the comedie francaise, the empire, or—merely Armageddon? "Listen for a moment at random to some chattering groups. “ ‘Who would have thought of meeting you here?' “All the meetings begin like that; the one-armed colonel who hadn’t met his friend since Dongola in ’B4, or the infant cavalry subaltern who ran into his Eton friend’s second sister now tracing missing men at a base office, or the old, old, ex-major of something ending in Chester who exchanged questions with a famous statesman on the convalescence of their respective sons. And Thus They Chatter. “The greeting was followed in t* ’s particular instance by a flood of questions and answers. Who have you (f|gue to see? Is it the brother or the husband who is wounded# What! Not both! Impossible! Hurt the sam • eek! The two of them on different floors of No. 7 hospital? Both shrapnel, and in the shoulder? Dear me. Dear me. But if you are going

USE FOLDING BICYCLE

The cycle corps of the German army are just now being equipped with a bicycle which can be fitted into such a compact mass, that each man la able, without retarding his movements, to carry the complete bicycle outfit on 'his bach. The cycle is of collapsible parts. The frame Is made of telescoping tubes which fit Into one another. The fork of the machine and part of the frame are in one piece, the rear wheel, chain and sprockets are in a second, and the handle bars make np the third section of this colsectional bicycle,.

DEAD AT THEIR POSTS IN A TRENCH

rieucti auxiliary orncers inspecting a captured German ueucn in wuicn is an unbroken line of dead soldiers who were killed as they fought

to be wounded, give me the shoulder. All shoulders do well. And what heroes they will be! Why am I here? Ch, I’m running a feed-the-brute stall. You know. Coffee and cigarettes and bread and butter at peace-and-plenty prices. Started with $25 capital in a waiting room. Now built bath houses and stalls regardless and feed ’em by the hundred. Oh, soldiers, all soldiers —of sorts. The difference is that all the fighters say, ‘Thank you, miss,’ and the base fellows are apt to grouse. The army had thoughts of killing us off. We started a year ago in September. They thqught about it till April and are now going the pace. However, they won’t kill me in a hurry. Might as well try to kill the Y. M. C. A., who do a roaring trade in the same business. We save a tragedy a day from bad temper and starvation and a score from drunkenness. But if any of your friends went to send us something, plump for boxing gloves and punch balls. Now wait half a moment while I watch my chauffeur —she cuts the bread and butter, you know —and we’ll have lunch. Idiom of Initials. “The room was full of people with amazing brassqrds on their arms, red, white, tricolor, and even green, and someone was' retelling the standard story of the newcomer who asked an habitue at the base how to go somewhere or other. The answer began glibly in the prevalent idiom of initials : “ ‘Oh, I should go to a T. C. 0., who will introduce you to the D. A. D. R. T., who will refer the matter to Q. H. Q., and then —’ But this was too much for the questioner. “ ‘Excuse me,’ he said, Tm off to have a B. and S.’ I "If he had gone on this mission at the moment he would have found two airmen, with their feet on the brass rail of the American bar, drinking an orange squash and discussing earnestly whether it was worse to be shelled in the air or the trenches. They decided in favor of the air. “ ‘l’m fairly terrified at shells on the ground,’ said one. ‘But in the air they don’t seem to matter.’ "From this they diverged to the obtuseness of certain aerial observers who had to see a battery from all angles and make figures of eight above it before they could decide whether it was not a mowing machine or a manure heap. However, in spite of the observers they were doomed to carry and the shrapnel that was always puncturing their wings but missing their tank and the ground fog and the new German air colossus, they were quite decided that the air was the place of places and their Job the picked job. And it Is a fact that of all the men of all types who pass through this vanity fair the airmen are the most distinct in type. The air has lent them its peculiar qualities of light, and breadth, as the sailor has borrowed the salt of his character from the expanses of the unharvested sea. > Wanted His Appetite, “With their noses on the same brass rail lay two great dogs, a lurcher with every air of aristocracy in his form and manner, despite his mixed ancestry, and a red Irish retriever. One of the masters had come out from bis county town to hunt down missing kits. The other had left the stock exchange to blossom into a train-con-ducting officer and wear a red brassard. “ ‘Just got an invitation to shoot grouse on the ?.Bth,’ said one; and a neighbor countered with a quotation from his wife’s letter, which he took from his pocket and redd. ‘lf you don't come home soon the patch of lithospermum will be over, and as our only gardener went off today to make fuses it’s likely to be the last you will see. Besides, your appetite is wanted Even the village can’t eat all the vegetables we plant.’ “He began to read the next sentence, but stopped with a Jerk, almost with a blush, and put the letter carefully in his pocketbook. "Then came stories of the dogs’ rival intelligences, and these were lost in a sea of chatter, of tittle-tattle mixed with the grimmest anecdotes of war in this way.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER. IND.

“ ‘Oh, she’s out for the limelight—and other things. Thinks she looks nice in a nurse’s kit.’ " ‘How anyone ever took the idea of giving that man the job, heaven knows. You know what he does in town?’ —and the voices sink. ; . . ‘Awful fun it was! Bits of Deutsches flying up the air—and they squeaked like rabbits when we cheered.’ Like Boy on Holiday. "The old soldier who spoke had the soft complexion of a boy and the hilarity of a schoolboy off —as indeed he was—for a holiday. “ ‘Things are bad. Take it from me. What! You don’t believe it? Well, will you bet me a pony to a fiver that the Deutsch are not in Calais before the end of October? Done with you. That’s a bet.’ “Then it was dissipating time, and the great ladies motored off to their new hospitals, and some went to work, and some went to bathe, and some to the boat, and some to the front; and all promised to do all sorts of things at that vague wonderful and evanescent date known as apres la guerre."

STRAY CAT RIDES IN TAXI

Rescued While Trying to Save a Few of Its Nine Lives From Swirling Autos. New York. —He is neither a kitten nor yet a full-glown coloraturo, lyrico, robusto, backyard fencico performer, but as a gray cat which arrived in a taxi cab, he is now in a position of prominence at the West Sixty-eighth street police station. Miss Ruth Blossom saw this gray cat in Columbus circle trying to save a few of its nine lives ducking swirling automobiles which, as is well known, swirl in all directions in that neighborhood. The gray cat was having such arduous experiences that Miss Blossom took it into her arms and called up the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, from where it was suggested that the nearest refuge would be a police station. Miss Blossom then gave the lucky gray cat a taxi ride to the Btation.

WHOLE TOWN BEING MOVED

Thriving Mississippi City Is Carted Off Twelve Miles From Old Location. Laurel, Miss. —The town of Wisner, headquarters of the lumber camps of the Eastman-Gardner Lumber company, located in Smith county, is being moved to a point 12 miles west of the present location. It has a mayor and board of alder* men and a qpmplete set of ordinances. It will probably be several weeks before the name of the post office will be changed, although the moving is practically complete. The present town of Wisner contains 800 citizens and boasts one of the finest Y. M. C. A. organizations in the country, a post office, general store, drug store, meat market, barber shop, electric light plant and many other conveniences of an ordinary city.

$225 PEARL IN A MUSSEL

Indiana Digger Open* Big One for Good Luck, and Makes Rich Discovery. Rockport, Ind. —“I am going to crack that big, rusty-looking shell open for good luck,’’ said John Stutevile. a mussel digger, as he was preparing to turn over his boatload of mussels to the buyer. Stutevile opened the large mussel shell and found a 41grain pear-shaped pearl that he di» posed of to a pearl dealer here for $225.

Live Portland Gossip.

Portland. Ore.—A big wildcat was shot dead from a fir tree directly in front of the mayor’s house. All the neighbors gathered when the cat was treed, and there was such a fusillade Sat strangers from the East thought e town was being shot up. The animal weighed 60 pounds and measured five feet three inches from to tip. m

SHOW GREAT ADVANCE

DEVELOPMENT IN ROADWAYS AND TRACK STRUCTURES. Engineers Have Kept Pace With the Changes That Have Taken Place in the Rolling Btock of the Railroads. Although the contrast is not so striking to the casual observer, the changes in roadways and track structures which have accompanied the rapid development of larger and heavier locomotives and rolling stock have been almost as great in the former as in the latter. If the original railroad roadbed and trackage were to be compared with those of today, the differ-

Two Bridge* of Different Period* Which Illustrate the Advance Which Has Been Made In Railway Bridge Construction. '

ence would be almost as noticeable as that between Stephenson’s famous "Rocket” and the new articulated compound engine of the Erie railroad which weighs 422% tons. The accompanying photograph shows two railroad bridges which illustrate two separate periods in bridge construction. The smaller one was built in 1889, and the larger about twenty years later. If it were not that the former structure was built with nearly twice the amount of steel actually needed at the time of its erection, it would be incapable of supporting many of the trains which now run across it

AUTOMATIC STOP FOR TRAIN

Device Consists of Charged Third Rail About 100 Feet Long, Placed at Every Block. The Gollos automatic train stop device consists of a charged third rail, about 100 feet long, placed at every block. The energized track comes into contact with a shoe fastened on the tender of the engine which is susceptible to the slightest influence. If there is another train within a radius of one mile and a half, if there is a break in the track, or anything wrong at all, warning is given to the engineer by a shrill wistle placed near his seat. If he does not slow down his train at this warning, the air brakes automatically set. This air is applied quickly, but in a way that stops the train gradually. Aside from the fact that the demonstrations already given have proved the practicability of the device, the inventor claims that it is more economical than automatic installations made according to present practice. In addition, it has the advantage of, first, train control; second, visible and audible signals; third, automatic record to check the engineer, thereby holding him to a close observation of signals.

SMITH MAKES HIS OWN WAY

President of New York Centrsl Lines Started Career as Messenger Boy at Fourteen Years. Alfred H. Smith, a year ago elected president of the New York Central railroad lines, began his railroad career as a messenger boy at the age of fourteen. Seeing little hope for advancement as a clerk he, a few years later, applied for work on the outside, and started all over again, this time as a section hand. He gradually worked his way. upward, learning railroading in a practical manner, until at twentyfive he was made superintendent of the Kalamazoo division. Thirteen years ago he was transferred to the New York Central & Hudson River railway, the main Vanderbilt property, acting successively as general superintendent, general manager, vice-pres-ident and senior vice-president, in charge of operation, maintenance and construction.

The Experienced Driver.

Experienced auto drivers make it a practice to always look at the gear shift lever before cfanking a car; also to note the position of the spark control lever. Of course the experienced driver always leaves these in the right position, but he takes no chances on anyone having changed them. Now that moßt cars are equipped with selfstarters, there is not so much trouble from cranking with the gears in mesh or with the spark advanced, but it also Injures the starting device to violate these rules, and even with a self-start-er on the car, you should observe them.

Keep Clutch Leathers Soft.

Clutch leathers should be kept soft and pliable with castor oil or neatsfoot oil. Do not put on so much oil that the clutch will slip, and thus burn and char the leather. If after applying the oil the clutch slips, sprinkle a little fuller’s earth on the leather, thus absorbing t,he surplus oil. This Is cheap and can he bought at any dfug store.

SHOCKLESS TRACK CROSSING

Engineer's Invention Takes the Noise and Jar From Railroad Intersections. The familiar nerve-racking rattle and Jar that a train makes at track intersections may be eliminated forever, If the claims made for the new shockless railroad crossing are substantiated. The new crossing, it appears, has been tried out at Slauson Junction, near Los Angeles, Cal., where the lines of an electric railroad intersect with those of a steam railroad, and has stood the test of heavy traffic most successfully. The device Is the Invention of a Los Angeles engineer. Its construction and operation cannot well be described without the employment oi diagrams and the technical Jargon of

the engineering world. However, according to the Electrical Railway Journal, “the general principle is that the rails which are not in use are depressed by a suitable mechanism, leaving the through rails at grade so as to give a continuous bearing surface. The ends of the movable rails are framed at an angle with each other so as to form an interlocking joint. . . . The cost of manufacturing the section is only slightly greater than that of the ordinary one, the additional expense for most installations being that represented by the cost of installing the operating melanism.” The following description of the device and summary of the arguments in its favor is taken from the Railway Age Gazette: . “The claims made for this crossing Include the following: It prevents shock, which with ordinary crossings results in noise and in wear on equipment and track work entailing additional maintenahce cost. The main frame or body, when once placed on a good earth or concrete foundation, will last indefinitely, and all parts subject to wear can be replaced without disturbing the foundation. The rails used may be of any crpss-section used In the adjacent track, and they are subjected only to rolling wear without shock. The crossing can be operated from a tower, from a moving train by electrical contact or by hand, air pressure or otherwise. It can be applied to any angle of intersection or to combined intersections of'broad and narrow gauge track, or to a three-rail intersection when both broad and narrow gauge tracks use one of he three rails in common. The rails cannot be moved sideways by a force less than that which would cause the flange to climb the rail; the rails cannot be clogged by snow or ice or by any material dropped or placed on any part of the. crossing; there are no parts of the operating mechanism exposed to view or to the weather, preventing their being tampered with.”

RAPID GROWTH OF RAILROAD

First Locomotive Pulled Load of Freight Hundred Years Ago— Fastest Trip Ever Madet One hundred years ago the first steam locomotive hauled a load of freight over rails in England. On the same day the New York newspapers told of a test, after that century, conducted at Binghamton, N. Y., when an engine pulled 250 loaded cars, weighing 21,000 tons. It was only last November, the 25th, to be exact, when a special train, consisting of a locomotive and two cars, ran from Washington to Jersey City, 226 miles, in four hours, the fastest trip ever made between the two cities. From a little more than nine thousand miles of railroad tracks in America in 1850, thirty years later the mileage had grown to more than ninety-three thousand. Twenty years after that it had more than doubled the 1880 figures. In the United States today there are more than two hundred and fifty thousand miles of track, the total mileage being greater than that of all Europe and Asia combined, with Australia thrown in. One of New York’s terminals alone covers in acres almost double the area of London’s Waterloo, Paris’ 8L Laaare, Frankfort’s and Dresden’s Main and the Cologne stations.

Fishnets Protect Roofs.

The thrifty fishermen who inhabit the coasts of England have discovered a new use for their old fishnets. During the heavy gales which blow in from the Atlantic during the winter season the fishermen are in constant fear of their straw-thatched roofs being torn away. To counteract the dlw astrous effects of the wind old fishnets are thrown over the roofs and their ends made fast to the stout poles which project from the eaves of the houses. As the net dries it shrinks, and the roof is held down securely.— World’s Advance.

Home Town Helps

RUIN WILL BENEFIT TOWNS Destruction by Armies Will Make Necessary the Construction of Whole Communities Anew. Every town of importance in East Prussia that has suffered at the devastating hand of the Russians has decided to incorporate a municipal garden section in its plans for rebuilding. Many of the destroyed towns are so completely ruined that it is going to be necessary to raze what little is left and construct the whole community anew. This makes it eminently feasible to apportion off a section that can be devoted to the desirable city garden feathre. Many of the communities also areplanning for a series of municipally obstructed and owned houses for workmen, single home structures with) two, three and four rooms, which ultimately can be purchased by their oc* cupants on the familiar easy-payment plan. Plans of this character are already well advanced in Gerdauen, Tapiau,. Ortelsburg, Lyck and other communities, and additional municipalities aret preparing to follow suit.

HOUSING AN OUTDOOR METER

Unique Device for Use in District*' Where Electricity Is Used for Pumping. For use in the irrigating districts oft Oregon, where many of the agriculturists employ electric energy for pumping purposes, a light and powef com-

Outdoor Meter.

pany has designed an inexpensive outdoor housing for its meters. This consists of a wooden box divided into two parts, the upper of which incloses the switchboard and fuses, and the lower, the meter. A door gives immediate access to the switches and fuses, while a cover plate securely screwed in place over the second compartment protects the meter, which, however, is visible for reading. The box is supported on, a substantial framework several feet from the ground.—Popular Mechanics.

Beautifying the Streets.

Palms lining the downtown sidewalks comprise a unique feature of city beautification in Los Angeles, Cal. The work of installing has Just been completed, says the National Real Estate JournaL Along 50 blocks of the heart of the city have been placed 1,100 splendid specimens of the Chamerops Excelsas palms. The work was done by the county at an expense of some $20,000, as part of a general beautification scheme for California expositions this year. The Improvement is designed to be permanent. Delicate trailing vines and nasturtiums have been planted about the roots of the trees and give a green, and flower effect against the browntrunks. The palms are set in wooden tubs, which in turn are placed in cement boxes. The lowest branches are about eight feet above the sidewalk. The watering is done at night by the city street sprinkling department.

Cut the Weeds and Grass.

Whether you are a renter or an owner, you should not permit grass and weeds to “take” the sidewalk. Flies and mosquitoes bred in the tangled grass of a home owner are just as annoying and poisonous as those that are brought to life on the rented premises. And the blow to civic beauty is as severe in the one instance as in the other. Don’t be a drawback to comfort, health and civic beauty, which is to say, don’t weed and grassencumber the sidewalk of the place that you call home. —Corsican (Tex.)'. Sim. ,

Value of Street Trees.

“New York would be a far different city,” says the Evening Mail, “if a million trees were growing along its 3,500 miles of streets and roads Manhattan highways also would afford room for 200,000 trees, which would greatly Improve property values and the public health.”