Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1917 — Page 3

FIGHTING POWER OF THE FRENCH GROWS STEADILY

Stronger in Artillery; in r.'n and in Morale Than Ever Before. PREPARED TO FIGHT IT OUT Were Able in Four Hours at Verdun to Regain Nearly AH That It Cost the Germans Five Months and Appalling Loss of Life to Win.

By ARNO DOSCH-FLEUROT.

Correspondent of Jhe New York World.) Paris.—ln four hours a portion of the French mobile army under General Nivgllev has regained nearly all the ground won by the crown prince before Verdun during five months of continuous attack. It Is a great French victory—such a victory as the Germans at this stage of the war would make the occasion of a celebration, but here in France it has been received almost without demonstration. More remarkable even than the victory is the way it has been accepted by the people of France. It has given a feeling of satisfaction and reassur- • ance, to be sure, and it is very timely, as France has been having an hour of nervousness over the fate of her new ally, Roumania; but, far from being any shouting about it, there has been simply the ordinary interest in how It was accomplished. - Nothing could express more plainly how the French feel about themselves and about the war. It reveals an unconscious attitude Of success that characterizes all -French thought at this stage of the war. It is a new phase in the absorbing question of French morale. There has certainly been no other time during the war when so signal a victory would hav.e been accepted so calmly. To me, living herein France and watching the stateof feeling more closely than anything else, it is entirely unexpected. Went Off Like Clock Work. The whole story of tills attack is, In fact, extraordinary. The time of it was known to a day two weeks in advanced The preparations were made with hardly any attempt at secrecy. Visiting correspondents were told by the commanding generals just what Was going .tcuhappen. Here in Paris it has been the talk of the boulevards. The Germans were so well Informed of details that they were able to bring up re-enforcements against the point whenever attacks took place, and it is to be presumed they did their best to check It. But ,the advance went off like Clockwork as scheduled. — — It will be recalled that the Germans a few months ago were able to do that kind of thing pretty much where they pleased. Now they are able to do it only against green troops such as Roumania brought into the war. To go

no further back in the history of the war, the Verdun advances were themselves heralded from time to time, and except for the half-dozen announcements made from Berlin that Verdun Itself was about to fall, they usually made good off their prophecies.’ They were able to do so because they knew wriat their preparations were and that the French had nothing to withstand them.

“T’other Way Round” Now. Now it is cutting the otrier way. The French had such preparations thaf they knew 1 the Germans could not stand against them. And no one wants to be deceived by the Berlin claim that the French have retaken the ground at frightful cost. It mity have cost orie-tenth what it cost the Germans to take it, not more. At this stage of the war human cost can be ? figured accurately on the basis of shellfire and the number of hours the at-

FAVORITE IN WASHINGTON

Mrs. G. A. Rebentisch has joined her parents. Senator and Mrs. Reed Smoot of Utah, In Washington, where •ehe will spend the winter. She Is a favorite to the capital’s official set.

tacking urmy ‘fought tn the open. Ground taken tn a fext hours is bound to cost much less than ground captured after months of ceaseless attack. The copt in lives has not entered into the discussion here at all. though the question of is the catchword of the day. and there is a reason for it. Everyone fn France knows now that French troops are not ordered out of the trenches until the opposing German trenches have bepn wiped out by shell tire. When the Germays cry “This is not war, it is slaughter,” trie French pgypie simply rub their palms in ' self-congratulation. They know they have trie job of driving the Germans out of France a jump at a time, and if the Germans will jump back ahead of their shell tire tliey are content. They have reached the’cheerful state of mind where they are willing to go on making shells in larger and larger numbers for an Indefinite period.

Verdun Front Secure. Things may go ahead for a while on other fronts, but there is hardly a Frenchman living who thinks anything disastrous can happen again on this front. lam with them in that belief, and so is everybody who knows anything about the present strength of the French army in men and shells.' My confidence in the situaflon, gathered from contact, with the French people, is such that J am willing to write this and confide it to the slowgoing mails when the French advance at Verdun is hardly more than under way, and I have no fear anything will happen meanwhile to contradict it

There is a common-sense reason for this, too. For the first time there is an adequate supply of big new modern artillery before Verdun. The Germans nearly took Verdun because France did not have a sufficient number of heavy fieidpieces to protect it. It was saved by the small .75-millimeter guns, the same guns that turned, the Germans on the Marne, and the Germans were stopped only when the French succeeded in bringing up fortress guns from the forts on the Italian frontier; the French army was that badly off in artillery. There was new artillery enough for the Somme, but not for both the Somme and Verdun, so they advanced with the new on the Somme and held the Germans at Verdun with the old. Now the French have enough new heavy artillery for both- the Somme and Verdun, so they are advancing at both spots. Artillery the Big Factor. It takes time to make artillery, nut it takes longer yet to remove fixed ideas, and even the brilliant men who have turned France's military fortunes could not foresee what the war would be like at this stage and did not provide against the present necessity for heavy fieldpieces. It was Verdun that stirred things up. Verdun stands for many things, but in close-in- military and political circles in France it means the point where France began to go in for heavy artillery on a big scale. There are several different factions in France just now claiming the credit for France’s growing artillery superiority, and without casting any discredit on the high command of the army it is generally conceded that the French parliament had an important hand in it. It is balm, too, to the feelings of French parliamentarians, for they were certainly snubbed at the beginning of the war, and they can pjnt out now with perfect propriety, especially the senators, that they ordered and voted the funds for heavy artillery when many military men in high position were inclined to think the thing was being overdone. The credit for the hew Verdun at least that part not due to the soldiers and the brilliant French artillerymen —will have to go to a senatorial committee that got busy months ago, when it was not very much encouraged, and made the new supply of big guns possible. This whole matter is not talked about much here; it is simply accepted. One no longer hears scornful re,marks frpm military men about “meddling politicians.” And the members of parliament arid all the civil side of the government they represent are wearing their regained prestige, rather modestly. But anyone who ever feared a military dictatorship in France can now definitely put that fearjislde. .? “Rained Crape on France.”

At this time last year the more nervous Parisians were just beginning to believe that the Germans would never get to Paris. That had, in fact, been obvious since the battle of the Marne. Nevertheless, they had more and the army itself had more confidence than the facts justified. The Germans could not break through, perhaps, but they showed at, Verdun that they could make it very expensive for France to 'Verduh.asawvhole.tfielossandregalnlug of its outer circle of forts, has cost the French nowhere hear so much as it has cost the Germans; but there is .not a French village, hardly a French family, where mourning is not worn for someone lost at Verdun. Those families that escaped owe it to unusual luck. On the whole, Verdun has been a very bloody business —much worse than the Somme. The best proof of this is the comparatively few deaths on the Somme among one’s personal acquaintances and connections. Verdun rained crape on France. The Somme has - been no such slaughter house—for the French. But it was., there the Germans first began harping on the phrase. “This is slaughter.” Jt was slaughter, because the French for the first time opposed them with as much artillery as they had, and French artillerymen are superior to any others. At the battle of the Marne itself, before the artillerymen had had all the experience the last two years

jTHE EVENING REPUBLICAN, IND.

WEDS KING GEORGE'S COUSIN

In the first marriage of royalty since the outbreak of the European war, Countess Naflejda Torby, twenty years old, daughter of Grand Duke Michael Michaelovitch of Russia, became the wife of Prince George of Battenberg, a cqusin of King George of England. Two ceremonies were performed, the first according to the bride’s faith in the Russian embassy chapel and the other in the chapel royal, St James palace. ' - . - King George, Queen Mary and Dowager Queen Alexandra witnessed the wedding; also the duke and duchess of Connaught, Princess Patricia of Connaught and ex-King Manuel of Portugal. The bridegroem is a lieutenant in the British navy, serving on the battle cruiser New Zealand. He is twentyfour years old and a nephew of Princess’ Henry of Battenberg, King George’s youngest aunt. The bride is the daughter of Grand Duke Michaelovitch, a cousin of the czar of Russia.

has given them, they showed themselves thoroughly capable. At every point where the Germans tried to make stands on the Ourcq and the Marne the French artillery cleaned them out by the most systematic fire. They dropped their shells us regularly as the squares on the checkerboard, and blew the German batteries all to pieces, so that immediately after the battle, when I passed that way, the fields were littered with wrecked fieldpieces and limbers and dead artillery horses. ” . v French Superiority. In those days France had one piece of artillery to Germany’s ten. Germany still has three or foqr to France’s one, but, opposed to the French themselves, Germany can afford to spare only cannon for cannon. The fact that the French have consistently gained on a fair field wlth-an even distribution of equipment shows the French to be not only superior artillerymen but better In the infantry attacks. In an article last May I called attention to the construction of the French mobile army under General Petain, made up of divisions and corps which had particularly distinguished them sei vps In attack.. This was the .army which paid so heavy a price in saving Verdun, but was still in shape to make the Somme offensive. Some Of the best of these corps happen to be having just now a well-earned rest. They have not been in either the later successes on the Somme or at Verdun. It has not been necessary to use the very crack troops. The football team, of one of the most distinguished, the Twentieth army corps, recently played a hot match in Paris. It was an'excellent team, hardly a member of which did not wear every possible decortwon, but the rooters of the Twentieth who came along were a sight in themselves. They had been through Verdun and the Somme —eight inonths of continuous attack—but they were the flttest-looking jmen you could ask for. There was not one who to use our own phrase, did not Took as if he could “lick his weight in wildcats.” And men, of this kind, in the midst of two big offensives, are right now taking their ease. It shows that many other divisions have proved their' mettle. . The mobile army of crack troops that numbered, perhaps, 450,000 last May comes nearer being million today. It is not that the —the new men who have gone into action since last May number under a quarter of a million. The growth of the mobile army has come from men who have seen action since the beginning of the war. The whole army is showing a tendency to grow in fighting power, It is something in the French race. Napoleon made himself by developing the same characteristic.

Dog Saves Woman's Life.

Waycross, Ga.—According to a report received here from Folkston, Mrs. Grady H. Gibson owes her life to her pet dog, which found and attacked a rattlesnake only a few feet from the path to which Mrs. Gibson was walking to her garden. The rattler bit the dog, causing his death shortly thereafter. But the dog’s attack- warned Mrs. Gibson, and she firmly believes' the rattler would have bitten her had not her pet discovered the snake and given battle to it

RID HOME OF PEST

PRACTICAL ON ERADICATION OF BEDBUGS. -[ — Simple Preparations, Applied With Diligence, will Do the Work, According to Bulletin- of the Bureau of Entomology. ■ Those who are troubled by bedbugs will find practical Information as to how to deal effectively with these pests In Farmers' Bulletin 754,' “Bedbugs,” recently published by the department. ,In_lhis_bulletin C. L. Marlatt of bureau of entomology makes clear the habits of these? insects which have a bearing on their eradication, and suggests a number of simple, household measures, as well as more radical methods, of getting rid of them. The author calls attention especially to the fact that these insects will migrate from an unoccupied to an inhabited house and points out that the fact that they ordinarily hide in the daytime minkes it necessary to apply the insecticides in cracks in walls and floor and crevices under wall paper, where the Insects ordinarily are concealed and lay their eggs. Information as to' the ability'of bedbugs to withstand cold and to go without food for long periods should be especially useful to those intending to-move into houses long untenanted.

Of the simpler remedies the entomologist says that benzine, kerosene, or other lighter petroleum oils introduced into crevices by means of a brush or syringe ar<e perhaps the most efficient. The bulletin also gives directions for fumigation with sulphur or other chemicals, which Will be found economical and effective in cases of general infestation. Those who have been bitten will find applications of peroxide of hydrogen useful in allaying irritation.- Tincture of iodine, in its ordinary or double strength, Js also a good counter-irritant for use in cases of fleas, mosquitoes, bedbugs, or other insect bites. lodine, however, should be used with caution on the tender skin of small childen and on those who are affected with or disposed to eczemic disorders. The bulletin will be supplied free by the department as long as the supply lasts.

Custard Recipes.

Steamed or baked custard: One pint milk, one-eighth teaspoonful nutmeg, two eggs, one-fourth cupful sugar, oneeighth teaspoonfft! salt. Mix eggs as for soft'custard. Strain into custard cups and steam until firm over hot water which Is boiling gently. - Another way to cook this custard is as follows : Strain into custard cups and place In it pan of warm water. Bake in a moderate oven until the custard is firm. To test a steamed or baked custard, slip a knife blade to the bottom of the cup In the center of the custard and draw without turning. If the knife Is not coated with a milky substance the custard isi firnralT the way through and has cooked enough. Grate the nutmeg over the surface of the custard and cool before serving. t

Italian Dish.

To make risotto, put a handful of salt Into a saucepan full of water. Put the saucepan on the fire and when the water is hot, but not boiling, throw in the rice. By throwing the rice into hot butter in a pan before adding wa-ter-to cook it, each -grain- -of -rice -remains intact. Let it boil about twenty minutes. Strain the rice, pouring the contents of the saucepan into a strainer. Put a sufficient quantity of butter into a frying pan, when the butter is melted add the rice and mix well together for two or three minutes. Pour the rice into a dish and cover with grated Parmesan cheese.

Cheese Potatoes in Jackets.

Six large potatoes, two egg whites well beaten, one teaspoonful butter, one and one-half teaspoonfuls salt, one-eighth teaspoonful pepper, cheese, one-third cupful rich milk or cream; rub potatoes over with melted butter, then bake till thoroughly done. Cut in halves lengthwise, scoop out. potato and mash tin all the lumps are out. Beat in the butter, milk and seasoning, and, when fluffy, add the egg whites. Then refill the potato shells, smooth, and place on top of each a thin slice of American cheese. Return to oven to brown for about ten minutes, and serve at once. —Good Housekeeping.

Butter Honey Cake.

Rub together one and a half cupfuls of honey and one-half cupful butter; and beat thoroughly. Add five cupfuls flour sifted with two teaspoonfuls. pf ground cinnamon and one-half teaspoonful salt; one and a half teaspoonfuls soda dissolved in one tablespoonful Orange-flower water. Beat the mixture thoroughly and add the well-beat-en whites of three eggs*. Bake in shallow tins and cover with frosting.

Gypsy Plum Brown Bread.

One cupful granulated cornmeal, one cupfur graham, one cupful flour, one cupful ryemeal, half cupful molasses, one cupftttor little more of sour milk, one and a half teaspoonfuls saleratus, heaping teaspoonful salt one cupful of 40-50 . prunes, pitted and cut in halves;-boll three hours.

On Toast

- If you wish to piece out a dish of . serve' it bn vegetable except potatoes' will be toa-pro'-ed if served on buttered toasj-

CLEVER ENGINEERING WORK

Dual-Gauge Track and Skillfully Devised Switch for Rolling Stock of Two Widths.

Running an Engine at Good Speed Over a Dual-Gauge Switch and Onto X. the Sidetrack.

FORUNIFORMGAUGE

CHANGE THAT IS BEING FORCED ON AUSTRALIAN LINES. Problem That Has Been Successfully Overcome in This Country Must Be Grappled With In Britain's Great Colony. problem which is fast becoming obsolete in this country the problem presented -by different lines having different gauges—is still a very serious one in Australia where, for example, gauge tn Victoria is 4 feet 3 .inches and in New South Wales 4 feet 8% inches, says Popular Mechanics Magazine. Now that the systems there have been joined together, it is believed that a uniform gauge must ultimately be adopted, but such a change will necessarly take years to complete. As a means of making Interchangeable the rolling stock of roads of different widths, a dual-gauge system on which trains of either gauge can operate has been devised. With this system three rails are employed Instead of two. The chief problem in devising such a railroad has been the construction of switches. What has been called a third-rail switch seems to solve this -diffieirityj- In thls switch the raiis_are so merged and curved that cars of either width move over it without interference. In a test made a few months ago an engine running 40 miles per hour passed over one of these switches in a manner that was pronounced satisfactory. The track is laid so that the single rail comes next to the station platforms. - ' : :

Scrap Heap for Locomotives.

The Great Northern is the latest railroad to embark upon electriflcacomotive is to give way to the electric current on 300 miles of that excellent Hill railroad. Our country is witnessing a silent revolution in motive power which will appear more interesting to future generations than It does to our own- Substitution of electricity for steam’ on railways isgoing forward rapidly In all parts of the land. Not only are passenger trains in city suburban areas electrified, but such roads as the Norfolk and Western haul their heaviest freight trains over the mountains with electric power. Some years ago it was estimated that it would cost the railroads half a billion dollars to put their locomotives bn the scrap heap and electrify their lines. The expenditure is Indeed very heavy, but when the money outlay is measured against the many advantages, including cleanliness, speed and resiliency, it is, after all, but a small price to pay.

To Prevent Trains Being Blown Away.

The danger of trains being blown off the rails, not uncommon on light, nar-row-gauge railroads, has been virtually eliminated on a stretch of 36 miles along the Atlantic coast of Ireland, forming part of the West Clare Railway. An inventor devised for the f railway a pressure-tube anemometer, with electrical apparatus for giving two warnings by ringing a bell in the stationmaster’s house, the first when the velocity of the wind reached 65 jntles n n hour andthesecond. when It reached So mlleS an hour. When the first warning Is given, over a ton of movable ballast, kept for the purpose at every station, is placed on each vehicle of any train on the line at the first station it reaches. When the second signal Is given, trains are stopped until the storm abates.

American Engine Breaks Records.

An American locomotive of the decapod type has broken European records for hauling a heavily-loaded freight train. The feat was accomplished on the Nikolaief division of the Russian Southern railroad, where the locomotive hauled a train 2,800 feet long, with a load of 4,424 tons. The experiment was conducted by Professor Loinbnosof, a m ember of the engineering board of the Russian Ministry of Ways Of Communication. A Russian engine was tried the American, but the latter clearly proved its superiority. .

UNITED STATES FAR IN LEAD

More Than 250,000 Mile* of Railroad Are Now in Daily Operation In Thia Country. Vast Is the only term that can bo applied to describe the railroads of the United States. With Its more than 250.000 miles of railroads (257,569) the United States not only leads every other nation in the world, but exceeds by 50,000 miles the total railroad mileage of Europe. In fact, it has two-thirds as much mileage as all the rest of the world combined. The length of tracks. Including switches and sidings, reaches the enormous total'of 391,000 miles —enough to reach around the earth and moon and with a surplus sufficient to girdle the globe six times. Over these tracks 65,000 locomotives are operated, drawing 2,327,000 cars. The average number of employees of all the railroads in the United States whose annual operating revenues amounted to SIOO,OOO or more last year was 1,409,342, the number of miles of road coming under this classification being about 225.000. The total compensation paid these employees was $1,165,000,000, ari tpnount exceeding the total revenues of the United States government for 1913-14 by more than $120,000,000. The average yearly wage of railroad employees Is therefore $826. Among the railroad employees In 1914 trie largest average dally compensation went to general officers, $16.05, with other officers ranking second, $6.48. Third in line of average daily compensation were the enginemen. $5.24, followed by conductors, $4.47. For the 12 months ending June 30, 1915, our railroads carried 976,000,000 passengers, 76,000,000 fewer than during the previbus 12 months. These ■travelers paid the roads $646,000,000, about 66 cents each, and the average receipts a passenger mile were a fraction under two cents. The number of tons of revenue-producing freight handled was 1,806,000,000, for which shippers paid the roads $1.'977,000,000. The average freight rate a too per mile for these shipments was a little less thato three-quarters of a cent.

Railroads in Equipment Mart.

Buying of equipment on a large scale by the railroads is becoming increasingly apparent. The carriers are becoming a big factor in the steel market, as a result of orders for more than 25,000 cars having been placed in the last five weeks, with 10,000 more pending. The carriers also are bnying structural steel and have ordered 100,000 tons of rails for 1918 delivery, the rail orders going in at the advance of $5 a ton over the price that prevailed for so many years. Railroads are not buying because they prefer to buy at this time of year or for any other reason that might be classed as choice. They are buying because they must, regardless of price, deliveries or anything else. Prices are mounting steadily and the roads have abandoned the notion that by Waiting until winter or spring they can obtain better prices or earlier deliveries.

Keeping Tracks Clear of Snow.

An apparatus to keep snow from drifting on the railroad track has been invented by a Minnesota physician, who lost a patient last year because form of snow fence, consisting of a number of transverse planks so ~ ar- , ranged as to deflect air currents close to the ground, thus causing the wind to sweep low through the railroad cut, cleaning the track of snow instead of piling It in a drift across the track. A few sections of this, fence erected at : points where drifts occur cost far le«p» than the delay of a single snowbound train, and a number of demonstrations have proved the practicability of the invention. |

Increased Use of Petroleum.

The United States geological survey reports that there was a marked increase in the use of petroleum as a locomotive fuel by the railroads of the United States in 1915. The quantity of oil fuel sb consumed last year was 36,648,466 barrels, an increase of 5.555,200 barrels, or 18 per cent oyer thb similar consumption, of 1'914.