Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 107, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1917 — Page 3

“Miss Columbia”

By Arnold Walters Hopeton

(Copyright. by W. G. Chapman.) “We’ll have her aloft as soon as I ean get the flagpole paiqted,” announced John Birdsall. “That’s right, dad, don’t stir up these treacherous greasers, but show your colors every time.” Thus, the patriotic mail-route rider and his no less loyal daughter. His chest expanded and his eye glowed with enthusiasm, while Inez waved him adieu as he started away on horseback, as was his wont each morning. She proceeded to the barn to hitch up old Roger, the family pet horse, to the light-covered wagon with which her father made his sheltered rounds during the wet season. Then she locked up the house and started on her way for the nearest neighbor, Nellie Whitney, five miles away. Nellie was a captivating little miss, hut Inez was radiantly beautiful. They wi*re close chums ami hailed one another with warm sisterly greetings. “It’s done,” announced Nellie, conducting her visitor in the house. “I got upbefore trayngirtrThere wnsracing at the staff end and I had to hem it all around. There it is, Inez, dear, und behold! Old Glory, home-made, but neat and new, and large enough to be. viewed from its destined staff well down the distance in the valley. “It’s time to show our colors,” observed Inez. “These border, greasers are getting more than insolent lately. They usually have a respect for our government, though, after the last visit of our troops.” “I don’t know,” returned Nellie seriously. “Father says they were massed up at the old settlement yesterday and quite owned the town. Said they were ; looking for a «>y and that there Would be a hanging if they succeeded.” neat task in finishing up the flag upon which they had been mutually working intermittently for over a week. She spread it open and viewed it admiringly, folded it up again, carried it out to the wagon and placed It under the seat. Then she took up the lines, kissed her hand in tender adieu to her friend and rode homewards. There was a roadhouse halfway and its proprietor stood in the middle of the road viewing a dissipating cloud of dust in the distance as Inez came up. He looked very much disturbed. “Don’t know about your going on, miss,” he remarked gravely. “Why, what’s the trouble?” questioned Inez. “A crowd of those pesky greasers just left here. I don’t like the breed and locked up when I saw them coming. They hammered at the door and finally burst it in. Then they proceeded to help themselves to what was in the bar. I couldn’t object very well, for they paid for what they got. They’re up to some mischief, I warrant; said they were after a spy proscribed across the border. Bound to go on alone?” asked the boniface quite anxiously. “Think I ain afraid of that brood!” challenged Inez scornfully. “They don’t dare come out openly in the face of this, do you think?” Quite confidently Inez took up the flag and waved its folds almost grandiloquently. Then she prodded up Dobbin. She kept her bright young eyes on the alert for prowlers as she struck the narrow bush-lined trail In the woods. Emerging thence she brought Dobbin to a sharp halt with a fervent: “Mercy!” Inez stared in excitement and dismay across the open stretch. Not five hundred yards away her home, or rather what was left of it,' greeted her view. The house, nearly burned down, was a mass of ruins. Outside, feasting on provisions they had secured in the house, were some twenty men, all Mexicans, their horses tethered near by. They were drinking from a bottle they had obtained at the roadhouse and were staggering about, palpably drunk and reckless. Inez was appalled at the destruction already wrought, and, not inclined to proceed further, she started to turn Dobbin about to.ipistily retrace her way to the home of Nellie and give a warning along the line, when there was a shout from the group about the house. It was repeated and half a dozen of the crowd mounted their horses and started across the intervening space between themselves and the timber. ■></ ' “You have come too opportunely,” spoke one of the crowd, dismounting and seizing old Dobbin’s bridle. “If you dare to hinder or hamper me you shall suffer for it. Don’t you dareshe vehemently added and then Inez arose in all her majesty. She seized the flag and speedily enveloped herself in its folds. The Mexicans drew back. There were some low mutterings in conclave. The man at Dobbin’s head released the animal. “We respect the government,” spoke the man, “but we will continue to .seek out the spy we are after. If your house is gone, it is because it is well known to us that Adrian Hooper was a friend of your father.” Inez was enlightened by the mention ftf y>at name. She had twice met the

daring young American. whose presence in the vicinity her father had told her was in behalf of the troops stationed twenty miles to the west “You may go on,” spoke the leader, “but not by the settlement road to arouse the people and have us heriuned in. That way,” and he pointed due west, and Inez was nothing loath, for it led to the soldier’s camp and there site might find her father and apprize him of the misfortune that had overtaken them jp the loss of their home. So-Inez started old Dobbin on the long 20-mile jaunt and voiced her opinion indignantly to the faithful plodding animal, once out of range of her enemies. A pretty Goddess of LilA erty she made, wrapped up in the flag ’ It had been protection to her in the first instance, and she determined to trust to its power until she gained the end of her journey. Five, ten, fifteen miles and the sun was going down, for Dobbin was a siow plodder. Tim last stretch, and, half a mile from the camp, Inez was met by her father on horseback headed for home. He listened to her excited story with a fierce, set face. With Inez he proceeded back to the camp. A hip, hig, hurarh! went up from a group of soldiers surrounding the wagon, and bestowing admiring glances on the pretty lass wrapped up in the Stars and Stripes. The commanding officer listened to the story of the raid and sharply ordered a company for immediate action. “Hold on,” spoke a tpanly voice, as, past the rear. curtain of the covered

The Mexicans Drew Back.

vehicle, a most presentable young man stepped into view. It was the spy, Adrian Hooper. “You’ll value these, captain,” he spoke briskly, as he handed to the officer a packet of papers. “I slipped into your w’agon back near the settlement, Miss Columbia,” he explained. “You have probably saved my life, and certainly you have done a service to the government which will recompense my friend, your father, for the loss of his home.”_ true, and a new home which was nearer to a safe community came into possession of th,e sturdy router, and before the falling leaves had come Adrian Hooper was a constant visitor as the accepted suitor of pretty, loyal Inez.

100 Parts; 1,400 Operations.

The Springfield rifle has more than a hundred parts, and it requires more than 1,400 distinct factory operations to produce the finished piece. The plants that are now turning out foreign rifles after two years of hard work have not yet attained their expected capacity. To turn these private plants from, the .manufacturing of European rifles to the manufacture of the Springfield rifle would, if undertaken today, require not less than 18 months to get first results and at least three years to get capacity output.— Quotation by Peter Clark Macfarlane in “Mobilizing America,” in CoMler’a Weekly.

Wonderful Progress.

“Money talks’” said the man who tries to be severely practical. “Better’nthat,” replied Mr. Dustin Stax, as he signed another Red Cross check. “My money has quit ordinary conversation and is learning to sing The Star-Spangled Banner.’ ”

It Can't Be Done.

“What sort of a fellow is he?” “Not practical.” “Why?” “Well, he’s the sort of a man that will try? to argue young people out of getting married.” «

Took a Chance Then.

“Have you taken any chance in a lottery since we were married, dear?” asked the sweet young thing. “No; that was the last one,” was the cold reply of the husband.

The Mix-Up.

“What is all the excitement down there in the medicine f closet ?’’ “The nurse caught the horehound chasing the catnip.”

Trying to Dodge.

“Our boy Josh wants an airplane.” “Well," replied Mr. Corntoasel. “If shoe leather keeps gettln’ expensive mebbe we’d all better get one,”

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER. IND.

WHITLOCK DEPICTS BELGIANS’ MISERY

Calls Deportation of Natives “One of the Foulest Deeds That History Records.” VON HINDENBURG IS BLAMED Marshal Quarreled With Vton Bissing Because Latter's Policy Was Mild —Says German Capacity for Blundering Equals That for Cruelty. Washington.—The state department made public a report from Brand Whitlock, written at Brussels in January, when he was the American min- . ister to Belgium, in which he describes the terrible effects of the German policy of deporting Belgians to Germany to compel them to work there. Since the beginning of the war in Europe, this is the first report from Mr. Whitlock that the state department has permitted to reach the American people. Allowing for all exaggeration, Mr. Whitlock says there remains enough est that history records.” Statements made by Minister Whitlock suggest that Field Marshal von Hindenburg was responsible for the deportation policy. He was said to have criticized as too mild the rule of General von Bissing, the military governor of Belgium, and sent Von Blssing to Berlin with the intention of resigning. When Von Bissing returned the reign of terror in Belgium began. The report from Mr. Whitlock reads as follows: “In order to fully understand the situation, it is necessary to go back to the autumn of 1914. At the time we were organizing the relief work, the Comite National —the Belgian relief organization that collaborates with the commission for relief in Belgium — proposed an arrangement by which the Belgian government should pay its own employees left in Belgium, and other unemployed men besides, the wages they had been accustomed to receive. “The Belgians wished to do this for humanitarian and patriotic purposes ; they wished-to provide the unemployed with the means of livelihood, and, at the same time, to prevent their working for the Germans. Tempts German Cupidity. “The policy was adopted and has been continued in practice and on the rolls of the Comite National have been borne "the names of hundreds of thousands—some 700,000, I believe—of idle men receiving this dole, distributed through the communes. “The presence of these unemployed, however, was a constant temptation to German cupidity. Many times they sought to obtain the lists of the chomeurs (unemployed), but were always foiled by the claim that under the guaranties covering the relief work the records of the Comite National and its various sub-organiza-tions were immune. Rather than risk any interruptions of the ravitaillement, for which, while loath to own any obligation to America, the Germans have always been grateful, since it has had the effect of keeping the population calm, the authorities npver pressed the point other than with the burgomasters of the communes. Finally, howeverTthe military party, always brutal and with an astounding ignorance of public opinion and of moral sentiment, determined to put these Idle men to work. “In August Von Hindenburg was appointed to the supreme command. He is said to have criticized Von Bissing’s policy as too mild; there was a quarrel; Von Biasing went to Berlin to protest, threatened to resign, but did not. He returned, and a German official here said that Belgium would now be subjected to a more terrible regime, would learn what war was. The prophecy has been vindicated. “The deportations began in October In the etape, at Ghent and at-Bruges. The policy spread ; the rich indihrtrial districts of Hainaut, the mines and steel works about Charleroi were next attacked; now they are seizing men in Brabant, even in Brussels, despite some indications, and even predictions of the civil authorities, that the policy was about to be abandoned. Heavy Penalties Fixed. “During the last fortnight men have been Impressed here in Brussels, but their seizures here are made evidently

SOUTH TO DO ITS PART IN RAISING MORE FOOD

Dallas, Tex. Southwestern farmers are bending every energy to plant food and feed crops. Spurred on by better prices than ever known to prevail in the Southwest for foodstuffs and warned by the government that unless extraordinary efforts are made by the farmers this season the country will face a serious food shortage, the farmers are planting a great deal of land to those crops which will help feed the nation. In the northern part of the great Southwest. Where winter wheat was'killed by an unfavorable winter, some farmers have planted spring wheat.

FOUGHT TYPHUS IN SERBIA

Dr. Edward W. Ryan, holder of the cross of the Legion of Honor (shown pinned on his coat), and many Serbian decorations, has returned to Serbia to organize the sanitary and relief work in that country. He goes at the special request of the Serbian government. This doctor is the idol of all Serbia. When the typhus plague broke out in that country at the beginning of the war, he was left to take care of 2,000 patients all gione; the" other doctors and nurses being sick with the disease. Doctor Ryan himself fell a victim to the dread disease shortly after the recovery of some of the other physicians. For his great work during this terrible time he was decorated by the French government with the cross of the Region of Honor, and also honored by the Serbian government.

with much -greater care than in the provinces, with more regard for the appearances. There was no public announcement of the intention to deport, but suddenly about ten days age, certain men in towns whose names are on the list of chomev.rs receiving summons, notifying them to report at one of the railway stations on a given day, penalties were fixed for failure to respond to the summons and there was printed on the card an offer of employment by the German government, either in Germany or Belgium. “On the first day. out of about 1,500 men ordered to present themselves at the Gate du Midi, about 750 responded. These were examined by German physicians and 300 were taken. There was no disorder; a large force of mounted uhlans keeping back the crowds and barring access to the station to all but those who had been summoned to appear! Thecommisslon for relief in~ Belgium had secured permission to give to each deported man a loaf of bread and some of the communes provided warm clothing for those who had nope and in addition a small financial allowance. “As by one of the ironies' of life the winter has been more excessively cold than Belgium has ever known it, and while some of those who presented themselves were adequately protected against the cold, many of them were without overcoats. The men shivering from cold and fear, the parting from weeping wives and children, the barriers of brutal uhlans, all this made the scene a pitiable ansi distressing one.

“It was understood that the seizures would continue here in Brussels, but on Thursday last, a bitter cold day, those that had been convoked were sent home without examination. It is supposed that the severe weather has moved the Germans to postpone the deportations. Rage and Despair. “The rage, the terror, and the despair excited by this measure all over Belgium were beyond anything we had witnessed (hinee the day the Germans poured intp Brussels. The delegates of the commission for relief in Belgium, returning to Brussels, told-the most distressing. stories of the scenes of cruelty and sorrow attending the seizures. And daily, hourly, almost, since that time, appalling stories have been related by Belgians coming to the legation. It is impossible for us to verify them, first because it is necessary for us to exercise all possible tact in dealing with the subject at all. and. secondly. becwijse there Is u<> means of communication between the Occupations Gebiet and the Etappen Geblet. “Transportation everywhere in Belgium is difficult, the vicinal railways scarcely operating any more because of the lack of oil. while all the horses have been taken. The people who are forced to go from one village to another must do so on foot or In vans drawn by the few miserable horses that are left. The wagons of the breweries, the ope institution that the Germans have scrupulously respected, are hauled by oxen. .’ “The well-known tendency of sensa

tional reports to exaggerate themselves, especially in time of wy. i o a situation like that existing herewith no newspapers to seme as a dally clearing house for all the rumors that are as avidly believed as they are eagerly repeated, should, of course, be considered. but even if a modicum of all that is told is true, there still remains enough to stamp this deed as one of the foulest that history records. “I am constantly in receipt of rejsirts from all over Belgium that tend to bear out the stories one constantly hears of brutality and cruelty. A number of men sent back to Mons are said to be in a dying condition, many of them tubercular. At Malines and at Antwerp returned men have died, their friends asserting that they have been victims of neglect and cruelty, of cold, of exposure, of hunger. Promise* Ar* Not Kept. 5 “I have had requests from the burgomasters of ten communes from La Louviere. asking that permission be obtained to send to the deported men in Germany packages of food similar to those that are being sent to prisoners of war. Thus far the German authorities have refused to permit this except inspecial instances, and returning Belgians claim that even when such packages are received they are used by the camp authorities only as another means of coercing them to sign the agreements to work. f “It is said that in spite of the liberal salary promised those who would sign voluntarily no money has as yet been "received in Belgium fronTworkmen~nr Germany. “One interesting result of the deportations r pinalns-tu.be m.ote<L a result that once more places in relief the German capacity for blundering almost as great as the German capacity for cruelty. “They have dealt a mortal blow to any prospect they may ever have had of being tolerated by the population of Flanders; in tearing away from nearly every humble home in the land a husband and a father or a son and brother they have lighted a fire of hatred that will never go out; they have brought home to every heart in the land, in a way that will impress Its horror indelibly on the memory of three generations, a realization of what German methods mean, not, as with the early atrocities in the heat of passion and the first lust of war. but by one of those deeds that make one despair of the future of the human race, a deal coldly planned, studiously matured, and deliberately and systematically executed, a deed so cruel that German soldiers are said to have kept in its execution, and so monstrous that even German officers are now said to be ashamed.”

IS CURED OF BROKEN BACK

Remarkable Surgical Operation Save* the Life of Victim of Automobile Accident. Wilmington. Del.—Robert Baldwin, twenty-one, of Bellevue, whose back was broken on February 2 when an automobile he was driving turned over on him. has been released from the Delaware hospital as cured, after one of the most delicate and remarkable operations ever performed at that institution. As soon as he had been admitted to the hospital he was placed on the operating table and the tenth vertebra removed from his spine. This bone was broken, and in addition three other vertebrae were dislocated. Dr. Harold Springer of this city performed the operation, which Is said to be one of the most difficult and rarely successful. A recent morning Baldwin walked a distance of a city block with the aid of crutches. His legs were weak, but he found no trouble in getting around with the crutches. He is arranging to be exhibited before surgical clinics in several cities.

FISH STORY SEASON OPENS

How Will Thio Little Yarn From Wyomtng Do for a Starter? Sundance, Wyoming.—The opening of the fishing season brings the story pf a man who caught an aqarium with his first cast. Fishing in Sand creek, a small stream near this place, from which no fish weighing more than two pounds before had ever been taken, John Guldlnger captured a trout weighing 13 pounds' ten ounces and measuring 32 inches long. He was amazed, but was more amazed when he opened the catch to discover a 12-Inch trout in Its stomach. In the smaller trout he found a 7-lnch horned dace and inside the dace a three-inch sucker. In the sucker were a grasshopper, three flies and a rusty fishhook.

PORTLAND MAN INVENTS MARVELOUS TORPEDO

'Portland. Ore.—Frank E. Kenney. of this city has invented a new type of torpedo, designed to travel in the air or through the water. He is declared to have received an offer for the device from the Knglish government, but refused it to give it to the United States government. Tests of the torpedo have been made at Pacific coast naval stations. It is declared that when tested, the torpedo, after traveling more than five miles through the air, dropped into the water, righted Itself, pluhgect through steel nets and struck a target at which ft had been aimed.

MURDER ALA MODE

rious Ways of Gaining Ends. Artistic Method* of the Camorra and Mafia in Sharp Contrast With Crude Custom* of the Dock*. Here’s how the different "bad men" of Manhattan engage in the pleasanf pastime of “bumping ’em off.” Along the water front*, where many a man is sent to the happy hunting ground each year, the thugs are not artistic. In this section of town live the rough-and-tumble fighters, of the docks. A blow from an iron fist, a knife in the back or a belaying pin over the “coco” serves Its purpose, generally followed by the hasty descent of the victim into the river. in the Mulberry Bend district, however, where the Camorra and the Mafia strike terror Into the hearts of the Italian-born citizens, there is an artistic element that" enters into the execution of a crime. The busy streets thronged with people will be jammed to capacity when the news of a shooting or the swift keen message of the Camorra is discovered. Upon the arrival of the police, no matter how many people may have witnessed the actual performance of the crime, there can never be found anyone who know* the least about it. The vengeance of. the secret society is swift and cruel.—lts-very -mysteryls more mysterious because you can never get an Italian to admit any such organization exists, and if one man is secured who was seen to commit the crime the Camorra can find a dozen to swear that the culprit was mile* away at the time of the shooting. In Chinatown death also come* swiftly and silently, but the native population sneaks for home the minute a crime is committed. Street* that a minute before were jammed with Celestials will empty in an instant, and except for slant eyes peeping through closed blinds no Chinese can be seen 60 seconds after the new* of a murder is flashed by some mystical method, through the quartey. Murder In Chinatown is generally the vengeance of a tong against a member of some rival tong. Chinese, as a rule, take little personal vengeance without the backing of their own particular fraternal order. Their we«j»a» are the ax, a "45” or native knife. In some of the other Oriental sections of the city poison is the mean* of removing an obstacle from the path. Little information is ever gained of the activities of the Balkan blacklegs which frequent certain portions of the city. Since the start of the European war there are. more crime*of Balkan origin than ever before, for J| ta from this class of cutthroat that the "third section" of underground secret spy system of several European countries is recruited. Uptown, between One Hundred and Sixteenth and One Hundred and Fortieth streets, where the negroes congregate, the favorite weapon Is the razor. Throughout Harlem the “gun-fighter", lurks, while over in the gas tank re-’ gion a fnan comes to his end by the medium of the blackjack or a short piece of lead pipe.

The Flood Legends.

Some have sought an explanation of the flood legends in the story of the drowning of the mythical continent of Atlantis. Thia is a fascinating exercise for the imagination, rendered jnftrp attractive by the faint Indications from geology that there may once have been a continent In the midst of the Atlantic. ocean. But If so, we are carried back to an age so remote that it is virtually impossible to correlate It with the existence of man, and particularly with man in such a state of development as that which the legends depict The deluge story is so persistent la human annals that it must have had an origin in some actual event, or series of events, but science, at present, can throw no definite light upon it and a study of the myth-making faculty, so strong In primitive humanity, must be relied on to clear up the mystery of its universal diffusion. —Garrett P. Serviss.

Back Yard Agriculture.

A movement for “back-yard agriculture,” inaugurated in Ontario, should be extended to this country, says ths Providence Bulletin. It Is not necessary to have a large tract of land for gardening. Much can be done at small expense on a city yard of ordinary size. An area of 40 by 50 feet 18 worth cultivating. Tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, beans and onions, an valuable food products, can be grown within the limits of a house lot. "Back-yard agriculture” will not support the people, but it will add materially to the food supplies of the country, and thus will have effect upon prices. The Canadian government Is wise in its advocacy of “a vegetable garden for every home.” '

Utter Cruelty.

“The prima donna's going to quit!” exclaimed the music director. "I know it,” replied the manager, coldly. “She demanded more salary and I told her I’d give it if she’d use the difference to take singing lessons,**

His Price.

"I see farm bands In Manchuria are paid only 15 cents a day." } “The idea! Why, they can’t 800k* more than one cigar a day at' that Idtel”