Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 278, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1916 — Page 3

“THE HELL CAR’’

The latest marvel of war, a huge engine of destruction, is an armored “caterpillar” motor truck which the British have used in trench wrecking work incidental to the progress of the great Somme fyr battle which began on July j first ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

mANKS” the British soldier calls them. ■ga-LuM Steel forts they really are, tiuge steel forts that lumber along on caterpillar wheels, steel forts that cun climb shell waters and project themselves over trenches. They are war’s latest marvel. Not long ago they changed the world’s ideas about trench fighting. Incidentally, they won a big engagement for their makers and masters, the British. This, according to Lawrence Flick, writing in the Philadelphia Record. It came about in a way highly dramatic. England’s men had been getting ready for a drive against German trenches in the West. The preparations had lasted many days. Thousands of fresh troops were there, Britain’s best Hundreds of big guns were in position, cunningly screened from the view of German airmen. Tons of ammunition were piled high in readiness on the artillery “dumps.” Then came the “tanks.” They had not been named before that first day when Tommy Atkins saw them. There was much laughter in the ranks when the new engines of death came trundling up to the lines. They were big, about twice the size .of the biggest motor truck, and as ungainly as so many mammoth steam rollers. They were heavily armored. They had guns pointing from carefully protected loopholes. They moved along like lazy caterpillars. Tommy laughed and called them “tanks.” * The “tanks” were a mighty good jokefor a few days. All sorts of witticisms were hung on them. But though Tommy “guyed” the new war engine, he took mighty good care that tils laughter should not be heard over In the German trenches. The enemy had no inkling of what was being prepared for him. The German lines, over across No Man’s Land, were as secure as barbed wire, sandbag parapets and concrete trenches could make them. Your German soldier is a thoroughgoing fellow. He knows how to make good trenches. He has learned the art of defending them well by means of machine guns craftily disposed. You can smash him up with big-gun fire, ahd force him to take to the shelter of his bombproofs. You can blast him out of his trenches and his dugouts with hand grenades. You can knife him into submission with bayonets. All this if you have sufficient men and ammunition to spare. Trench fighting, you know, is bloody business. Trenches are taken at fearful cost. The steady, slow advance of the British and French in the West has been made possible only by the sacrifice of thousands. German rifle fire is deadly; German ma-chine-gun fire particularly is withering and blasting. And the Germans, all through this war, have made it evident that they have plenty of machine guns and machine-gun ammunition. even If they are short of other necessaries. So it wasn’t a pleasant task that faced the British that gray September morning. They were ready for the push. They had no Illusions about the reception that awaited them, and no misgivings. They were grimly ready and resolved. They were going out to to take the German trenches over yonder, out beyond the reek of shell-torn, corpse-strewn No Man’s Land. And the “tanks” wore going along. Now it is no holiday jaunt, taking a motor trip across No Man’s Land. That bit of ground—it may be a hundred or a thousahd yards across —has been shot over for weeks or months. Shells have fallen there, and exploded, digging huge craters In the earth. Everywhere there are debris, the wreckage of man and beast. Tree trunks lie about, and stumps jut out. There may be broken-down and abandoned gull carriages, too, or smashed motor lorries, relics of a fight months ago. Then there are unexploded shells, waiting for a chance contact to set them off. There are lines and lines, moreover, of barbed wire, and there may be concealed mines, harmless til the passage of a charging company, and the touch of an electric switch in the enemy’s trenches transforms them into swift volcanoes. No Man’s Land is difficult ground for men to travel on foot; by motor car it is almostimpassable.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

To protect baggage as it is unloaded at railroad stations, movable platforms have been designed, made of pieces of old airbrake hose fastened across resilient wooden strips. The report of the United States bureau of the census on the production of alums in the United States shows that the total output for 1914 was 313,’712,000 pounds, valued at $3,407,969, compared with 276,291,000 pounds, valued at $3,022,355 in 1909.

But the ‘“tanks” went along. It was still early in the day when the order to advance was given. For a halfhour or so the guns in the British lines —big guns, back a distance from the first-line trenches —had been speaking with a roar such as the Germans had not heard in months of fighting; This preliminary bombardment always gives notice of an impending charge, and the Germans were ready, in spite of an artillery fire so terrific that trenches were pulverized and bomb-proofs torn asunder/ Then, when the German trenches had been hammered thoroughly and for the prearranged time by the heavy guns, thfe order to charge ran along the lines. Officers looked at their watches, found that the exact second set for the charge had arrived, saw to the last details, and waited for the final signal which sent them leaping out with a cheer. The moment came, and the charge was on. But leading the van were the “tanks.” Tommy laughed and cheered, the big, crazy craft, for all the world like ferry boats climbing about on land, wheezed and banged their way ahead, in front of the first ranks of Britons. It Is related that the Germans, seeing the strange mechanical Contrivances emerge with the leaping battalions, stood at their posts and laughed with their foes. • And then their mirth became horror. German machine guns began to play their stream of leaden death upon the monsters. German rifles spat at them. German big guns, half a mile to the rear, had news of their coming by telephone, and the sweating crews in the gun pits tolled to change the range. But the “tanks” lumbered on. They lumbered on in a straight line, careless of what lay In their road. The scarred trunk of a shell-blasted tree stood In the way—a “tank” leveled it, and lumbered on. Right in front of a “tank” was a huge depression, as big as the bed of a pond, gouged out by a “Busy Bertha.” The “tank” lazily slid down the near bank, and drunkenly staggered nip the far one. Then came barbed wire, woven in a rusty spider’s web of tangled steel strands. The “tanks” never hesitated —they lumbered straight on through. And all the *.vhlle these “tanks” spilled out of their steel bungholes streams of death. And then they were at the trenches. The Germans were standing their ground, pumping their magazine rifles until the barrels were too hot to hold; feeding cartridges into the hoppers of their machine guns as fast as the crank would turn, hurling hand grenades and whiz-bangs as swiftly as they could draw back their throwing arms and let fly. But the “tanks” came on, slow, lumbering, complaining brutes of machines that writhed over obstacles as a caterpillar wriggles over a knot on a twig. They came on, right to tne sandbag parapets of the German first-line trench. And then happened a fearsome thing. The Germans on their firing platforms saw a broad steel snout root through the sandbags on the trench parapet. The whole mighty bulk of the monster was thrust forward and upward. The broad caterpillar wheel f under the snout hung poised for a moment, like the groping foot feeling for firm ground. Then the great mechanismjolted ahead trembling and groaning, while the machine guns in the “tank” swept the trench to right and left; hand grenades hurled by its crew sought out the Germans in the bomb-

In mineral wealth Mexico stands in the first rank among nations, since Its riches are practically inexhaustible. William Bennett of Elkland, l‘a„ a native of Preston Bisset, Buckinghamshire, England, has 60 cousins fighting with the British army in Belgium and France. Horseflesh as food was Introduced Into Gaul when the country was invaded by the Franks after the conquest by Julius Caesar. Records relative to 1404 show that it was eaten in Paris at that time. .

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

proofs. The work begun by the “tank” was finished by the British infantrymen charging behind it. The “tank” scrambled over the rear wall of the first-line trench, and lumbered on toward the second. All along the line of the British charge, that misty September morning, the “tanks” led the way. All along the line they bridged the first line, and the second line trenches with their great steel bodies, and with their machine guns enfiladed and destroyed the defenders. They made military history that day. The “tanks” foretell a new method of warfare. England certainly will employ them in all future fighting. The stories of their amazing efficiency still pour In from the Somme battleground. The “tanks” have terrified the Germans, who will be put to it to invent an engine of destruction to equal them. The “tank” can go safely where men would never have a chance. Sandbags and earthworks are useless against the new British device. With “tanks” enough, it would be possible to blast the Germans out of France and Belgium in short order. Doubtless, Germany will counter this blow with a new device of her own. There is nothing secret about the “tank.”, Germany can improvise them, just as England did. The stroke of genius, of course, was the transformation of one of the most beneficent mechanisms of peace into the deadliest of the engines of war. For the “tank” of the Somme battlefield Is only the tractor of our own western wheat fields. Thus far only descriptions of the “tanks” have come to this side of the Atlantic. These descriptions are sufficiently detailed, however, to make it certain that the British simply have" taken huge tractors, which are said to have been supplied them by an American firm, sheathed them in complete armor, and mounted on them batteries of rapid-fire guns. The tractor’s virtue is in its ability to travel anywhere. It moves on steel rails, which are fastened to the under side of an endless belt. The outer side of the belt—the side that touches the ground—has a broad “caterpillar” tread. The steel rails are in short sections, of course, and are laid down and taken up automatjcally as the “tank” passes over them. The ■weight of the “tank” rests directly on wheeled trucks, which in turn run on the steel rails. The weight of the ponderous mechanism is very widely distributed, so widely that there is less pressure to the square inch of ground surface than a man of ordinary size exerts when he takes a step. The “tank,” therefore, can travel where a man would sink over his boot tops. The “tank” is so balanced, moreover, that the forward portion of It can be projected in space—as was done when the “tanks” crossed the German trenches —without danger or the machine toppling on its nose. Inequalities of ground mean nothing to the “tanks,” or to their forerunner, the tractor. They can scramble up the side of a hill. They can run over broken ground as easily as a barefooted boy. They have engines that develop 120 horse power. In our own West, the faripers use the tractor to draw batteries of plows.

MUCH IN LITTLE

Names have been given to 727. minor planets, and new ones are being discovered all the time. A recently patented porch or lawn seat can be converted into a swing or crib for a small child. . In 1892 Canada’s exports of paper were s9l. Ten years later they were $24,780. In 1912. $3,881,063,1913 $6,327,774, 1914 $12,686,896 and 1915 $15,509,582, The United States takes 80 per cent of the .output. v

JELLY OF FINEST QUALITY

How Delicacy Should Be Made If One Would Have It at Ito Best. The canning-club specialists of the States’ Relations service for the northern and western states recommend that the following points be observed to make certain that jelly will be of good quality. After the fruit has been boiled and the texture broken down it should be poured into a jelly bug and permitted to drain for a considerable time. Forcing the juice from the pulp will cause cloudy jelly. When the juice has been collected, place two teaspoonfuls of cold unsweetened fruit juice in two teaspoonfuls of grain alcohol and mix by shaking gently. Allow it to settle for one-half hour, preferably in a glass tumbler. If a jellylike substance collects In the bottom of the mixture it is evidence that pectin Is present and the juice is suitable for jelly making. When the test shows absence of pectin, the white portion of orange peel, apples or green citron melon may be added to the juice to supply the necessary pectin. Twelve ounces of sugar added to a pint of juice will make a jelly of the proper firmness and texture. Jelly Is ready to be poured into the glasses when two rows of drops form on the end of a paddle or on the edge of a spoon held sidewise.

HINTS FOR THE HOUSEWIFE

Information Likely to Be of Value at Any Time, and Well Worth Keeping in Memory. To clean a white felt hat mix magnesia to a paste with cold water. Allow to stand for a few minutes, then apply evenly to the hat ■with a brush. When the paste is dry brush off the magnesia with a clean stiff brush. To separate egg yolks from the whites, break the eggs into a funnel over a cup. The whites pass through, the yolks remain. Toothache is surely cured by Inserting in cavity absorbent cotton saturated with vaseline and dipped into burnt alum. To prevent children’s clothing from taking fire, put an ounce of alum in the last rinsing water. This will render them incombustible. Choking infants are instantly relieved by pressing between eyes with your finger. Pie Hint. —When making one-crust pies try this method, instead of the indigestible water-soaked undercrust: Grease plate thoroughly, then sprinkle liberally with Indian meal. Shake off what will not adhere to the grease. This makes a nice crust which will hold the filling just as well as the regulation pie crust.

German Potato Salad.

Six medium-sized potatoes, one-quar-ter pound fat bacon, one small onion, two teaspoonfuls salt, one-fourth teaspoonful black pepper, one-half cupful hot vinegar, one-half cupful hot water, two tablespoonfuls salad oil. Cut bacon into small dice and put into frying pan over a slow fire. Shred the onion into a large bowl, add salt, hot vinegar and hot water. When the fat is a light brown color and the dice well crisped, add salad oil and pour into vinegar and onion—turning slowly at first. Serve on crisp lettuce and garnish with pickled beets.

Lamb Cutlets With Young Carrots.

Trim a bunch of carrots and cook them until tender; drain well. Get a piece of neck of mutton, cut into cutlets and trim them neatly; brush them over with butter and broil quickly, turning them frequently. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a pan and melt, then add the carrots and fry until hot. When ready, arrange then in the center of a hot dish and strew with finely-minced parsley. Arrange the broiled cutlets round and serve with brown gravy.

Marking Linen.

A quick and attractive way to mark sheets, pillow cases, towels and other flat work for the laundry, so that ugly indelible ink markings will not be made, is to place a small initial in cross-stitch, embroidered with dull blue, on the inside of the hem or in the corner of unmarked towels. This catches the eye of the laundry-marker and prevents the unsightly inked letter.

Sardine Canapes.

Cut some slices of bread a quarter of an Inch, trim and fry them as directed for the cheese canapes. Remove the skin and bones from the sardines and lay one or two, according to their size, on each canape. Then about five minutes before serving time put in the oven on the shelf to get hot.

Peanut Cream Dressing.

Two tablespoonfuls of peanut butter, one teaspoonful of mustard, one teaspoonful of sugar, salt and pepper. Mix well into this two tablespoonfuls of thick cream and one tablespoonful of chopped olives. Thin with vinegar and pour over either lettuce or chopped celery. - L &

To Remove iodine Stains.

Immerse the stained articles immediately in a gaildh of water to which has been added about two teaspoonfuls of plain household ammonia.

Cinnamon Cake.

Stir into one cupful of flour two teaspoonfuls of yeast powder. Add this to one-half cupful of milk and onehalf cupful of sugar. v

LAMPS SAVED THE BRIDGE

The Guarding of Thia Railroad Bridge Across the Pecos River on the Mexican Frontier Was Accomplished by Means of Acetylene Searchlights » located on the Banks Below the Bridge.

During the trouble In Mexico It was feared along the frontier that the Mexican desperadoes might destroy American bridges, thereby preventing, or more or less seriously hindering, the effort of the American troops ordered across the border in capturing bloodthirsty Villa. On several occasions bunds of marauders threatened t<> dynamite the bridge of the Southern Pacific railroad, which stretches, a delicate steel thread, across the Pecos river. The Southern Pacific railroad bridge, which is 320 feet in length, spans the lower course-of the Pecos river where it flows into the Rio Grande. The

HUNT FOR TRAFFIC

Modern Methods of Getting Railroad Patronage. Old-Timer Used to Go Out and Grab Passengers—Today the Solicitor Must Be Gentleman and Diplomat. Modern nursing of passenger traffic on the big trunk Ijnes is a fine art. In former days, as veterans both of the railroad service and many of the public will remember, it used to be a case of grabbing patronage bodily. The difference between the then and /he now in this departmept of railroad service will readily be grasped by contrasting the titles given those engaged tn it. In the ’6os and ’7os they called them runners. Today they are solicitors, though between themselves they still call it boosting. The old-time runner was a backslapper, a table-pounder, a bit of Kansas breeze that other states refer to as a cyclone. The modern solicitor’s manners have the smack which marks the caste of Vere de Vere. He does it so politely that you feel honored in riding on his road. The passenger department of the big lines in training young men to become efficient boosters like to catch them young. The railroad game is a swift one, and has to be learned from the bottom up. Moreover, there is no line of effort which presents better chances of climbing to the right man. The way of the traffic accelerator today is more difficult in some respects than was the job of the oldtime runner. The latter could offer concessions that helped him materially in getting passenger business for his road. Many passes were given in. securing the influence of leaders of touring parties, convention groups and the like. The interstate commerce commission has stopped this practice. Also, the rates of transportation over systems to big terininaTpdlhts are made uniform by law. These changes render the job of the booster in 1916 one emphatically of the personal equation. Supposing the members of a certain secret society New York are going on a certain date to visit a national convention in Chicago. All the big systems are hungry for that business. The brightest of the lines’ passenger boosters are on the job. They must all be goldentongued orators; silver isn’t enough here any more than in politics. The bright young man’s sole asset is his nimble tongue, trained in the fine art of spreading the glad tidings that his road is the best in the country, bar none. This he must believe, to have any chance of making others believe it. He must discourse to the committee of scenery, of palatial cars and arrangements en route, of the fact that his road gives the passenger the most for his money. Some men can be cajoled; others would resent it and want Instead brisk, businesslike treatment. The trained traffic booster must make no mistake. A glance at the face of the man approached will usually give him his cueif not. he feels him out like a boxer in the first verbal round. Your all-round traffic booster may in a day committees of a religious convention, one of saloonkeepers and another of a secret society. Thereare to be these three conventions in distant cities. It will be seen that our boosting friend must be versatile.

Sincere Appreciation.

“I was told that you people wouldn’t approve of my coming out here with all these brand-new wild West clothes,” said the tenderfoot concillatingly. “Well, son,” said Centipede Bill, “you’re all wrong. Them clothes is the admiration of this entire metropolis. Tm heart broke this ruinate because I had to let go in a game of freezeout we was playin’ to decide which of us was to possess the ) outfit.”

’ bridge is one of the most important connecting links in the southern branch of the Texas division of the railroad, and Its demolition, a comparatively easy matter, would cause a tremendous loss because of the delay In freight shipments. To forestall the _ plans of a possible Villa dynamite squad, troops were stationed nt regular jxdnts along the roadbed of th*™ river. At several places underneath the bridge, powerful acetylene searchlights were turned on at night. Because of the vigilance of the Nineteenth United States infantry, which was stationed on the bridge, the Mexicans made no attacks. —PopuThr Science Monthly.

WOULD MEAN VAST OUTLAY

Change From Wooden Cars to Steel Ones a Matter That Requires Serious Consideration. «• “There are a number of big economic problems connected with the change of the nation's railroad rolling stock from wood to steel, as urged by the interstate commerce commission. It would require something like $400,000,000 to replace with -steel,passenger cars neither worn out nor otherwise unserviceable. This is. a huge sum for riiHrMd expenditure, even If stretchedover a ten-year period under the most favorable financial conditions. A year ago, it would have been deemed impossible of accomplishment. The prosperous conditions of today, with the railroads working to the capacity of their equipment, however, may bring about the change quicker .than was expected. According to the latest available statistics, there are in service upon the railroads of the United States last year, 58,660 passenger cars, of which 9,492 were steel and 4,608 were supplied with steel underbodies. As the average cost of building a steel passenger car Is about $14,000, it will be seen how quickly the money needed for replacement runs into the millions of dollars. In addition to this, there are now In operation something like two million wooden and part-wooden freight cars, the replacement of which with all-steel cars at an average of $1,300 a car makes a staggering sum. Consequently, while the Pennsylvania may soon realize its ambition of becoming an all-steel railroad, it wHI be some time yet before the country becomes an all-steel-railroad nation, although we are now well on the way towards this most desirable end. The recent improvement in business conditions supplies an impetus. —Exchange.

Details in Railroading.

"No one who is not in the railroad business can possibly understand the enormous amount of money necessary to operate a railroad,” said Robert Anderson, district passenger ' agent of the Illinois Central lines. “There is no business that requires more capital and energy plus brain power to manipulate. The maintenance end of the railroad business Is an Immense item. The excellent salaries paid railroad employees is another item of largeness. “The railroads are looked upon by some people as being just one train after another running along smooth iron rails with little or no trouble. The detail necessary to conduct a railroad properly is almost beyond comprehension. It takes the highest type of ability to overlook the management of a railroad and each Individual working for the road has many annoyances and troubles to bob up each day that the public would never think of.”—Washington Post,

Appreciated Title.

Of one of the visits of'the Empress Eugenie made.to the Paris hospitals during the cholera plague that afflicted France in 1865 the following pretty Incident is told: At the Hospital Beaujon the empress took the hand of a dying victim, who, mistaking her identity, kissed her hand and murmured, “I thank you, sister.” The nun who accompanied the empress whispered: “You are mistaken, friend; it is not I but our good empress who speaks.” “Nay, sister," retorted the empress quickly, “he has given me the sweetest of all names.”

Reckless Charley.

“Charley’s a terribly reckless man,” * said young Mrs. Torkins, admiringly. “When did he prove it?” “Last night. I told him there was a burglar in the house and he said without hesitation he’d bet me .fifty dollars there wasn’t. If I had taken him up. he might have lost all that money!”

Quite So.

----- - - ... “The graphophone is a great inven-®. tion.” •tjt is that. Even a confirmed old I mild-may have somebody sing her a. | love song.”—Louisville InaL