Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 124, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1917 — Page 2

SPLENDID DNITED STATES FLEET PUTS TO SEA, READY TO MINUTE

. Gouvemeur Morris Visits a Fleet of American Warships “Somewhere in American Waters” and Gives a Vivid Picture of Life Aboard a Fighting Ship Men and Ships Fit to Meet Any Foe.

By GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

(International News Staff Correspondent.) Somewhere Near America. —On Friday, May 11, I received permission to visit a fleet of United States warships, was told where to find it, how to reach it, and that until Thursday, the 24th of May, I must not convey to the newspapers which I represent any of the impressions that it should make upon me, nor all of' the ithpressiOns until the end of the war. It may be of Interest to the public to know that the fleet which—l visited is somewhere in American waters, and that, backed by the proper authority, it may be reached In s'everal ways. More than this I am not permitted to say, nor may I give the composition of the fleet, nor the names of the ships composing it, nor of any of the officers governing those ships. I must deal in impositives. If I saw faults or virtues I must not particularize. In short, I must teTT about the fleet without telling a general impression with most of the impressions left out. --- J Battleship a Man. I shall deal, then rather with the humanities of the fleet than with its mechanics; with its aspects rather than its potentialities. And with one particular ship rather than with many. t , . It has been said that a modern battleship is a machine. It is not. It is a man. His eyes may no longer have the vision of youth, but he sees through a hundred pairs, whose vision is twenty-twenty magnified many diameters by lenses exquisitely adjusted ; his hands may not be large or strong, but they have within them almost a god’s power to destroy. It is as if his brain had multiplied his eyes and made telescopes of them, tad tncrensertdiis body to an ominous and beautiful abomination, displacing 30,000 tons, and had lengthened his arms and strengthened his handsuntil they could reach out clear away over the rim of the world, and there smash and crush and tear and kill. It was twenty years since I had set foot on a battleship. There was something familiar about him and something strange. It was like meeting a promising friend of your boyhood after he had grown into a man. (I will ■not be-she warships, nor be-her them. They are men.) He had grown older,wiser, grayer, stronger, broader, taller and swifter. And though neither of us had forgotten the best, nor the worst of those things which we had once had in common, he eyed me askance, and I felt embarrassed and shy. Warship Now More Kind. The officer of the deck spoke to a seaman. And by the tone of the voice I knew that friend battleship had not only grown stronger and greater, but so sure of himself that he could afford to be more courteous and more kind. Things A meal came and went. One threw dice for the cigars. One lost. One.listened und one talked, anfl one began to associate in the back of one’s head this face with the: rightfuL name- of its that insignia with lire office of its wearer. No two faces of the uniformed men around the long, narrow table of the ward room mess were, alike. But ithey were all fine, clean-cut faces of rigorously educated men in the pink of phyiscal condition. Like all travclefs, —they —were broad-minded, and like all men who have been brought up among true values, they were without affectation of any kind. I have said that a battleship is a man. It is not. It is a city. That it is a waljed city, defended by terrible cannon, every man knows. So I shall not here and now speak of the magic eyes with which it sees the approach of the enemy, the thick armor with which it repels his blows, nor of the terrible cannon with which It returns them. The government is the flagship. The admirals are the governors of states and the captains and commanders are the mayors of cities and towns. It is a complete civilization, a floating country, to which the devotion of its seamen and firemen is as necessary as that of its admirals, captains and commanders., ; But to return to our city. It differs from land cities in that it recognizes neither night nor day. There are more people awakel time than at night; but the city’s eyes are never closed,. And during each minute of his waking hours each cltl- . mm knows what he must do. or what he may do. ’ Our Ships at Sea.. One day I learned that on the following morning we were “going out” Close to my room was one of the steel tubes through which the anchor chains slide, and very early I was wakened by a sound that was as if, on a dozen adjoining alleys, giants were bowUng and making ten-strikes. A llttje later I felt the first revolutions of the engines. I did not need to look at -my watch. The captain bad said that we were going, out at 5:15, and I laid learned by now that when the na/y says 5:15, it means 5:15 to the secbnd. : ' ‘ v . ■ ’

I breakfasted at eight and went on deck. There was nothing to be seen but water and blue sky, a close-up battleship which resembled ours as one pea resembles another, and several far-off battleships that looked as if they had been cut out bf cardboard. All the time that we were out I kept away from charts and compasses, _Qnly the sun by day and the stars "by night gave me any notion of our whereabouts. It was a restful feeling. We were moving at the rate of 15 knots an hour. There was nothing vague about this. That was our speed to the inch and second. It was also the leisurely rate maintained by the close-up battleship, and his distance from us at the end of a given hour was within Inches of what it had been at the beginning. A marvel of battleships Is the precision with which they move and keep their distances and mind their manners. It Is only less marvelous than the mobility of their turrets and their gri?ar--gtt»s.— -A--turret revolver, with---out a sound. It may be turned so fast that if you got in the way the business end of the gun would knock your head off, or It may be turned so slowly that to the eye It is not turning at all. That day I attached myself to a grpup of boys who were learning to be a gun crew and who that afternoon would hear a gun fired for the first time in their Ilves.wouldfire one and would try to hit a target. Although I did none of the hard work, I think that I shared as an equal in Illi their mental processes and I know that I suffered just as much as they did when, after rehearsals and dress rehearsals, the gun finally and y§ry suddenly and horribly went joss.

Learning to Shoot. First, they were taught how to loaxL, For this business a short dummy gun with a genuine brush, screw box and plug is provided. I am not nojy speaking of great turret guns, but of lesser guns, whose bark, however, is much higher pitched and less tolerable to the ears, eyes, nose, spleen, liver, toes, spine and scalp. I am speaking of a gun which has the highest muzzle velocity of any gun in the world, and much the most disagreeable voice. This Is how”you load it: The plug man with his right hand swings a lever, the plug swings out of the breech or screw box, and to one side. With his left hand the plugman slips into Its chamber in the plug a primer (possibly a ,44-callber blank cartridge) to replace the exploded one which has been automatically extracted. Then

OFFERS HOME FOR HOSPITAL

Mrs. Margarete Sauer of TompkinSviHe, Staten island, has offered her house to the' government for a Red Cross hospital and herself as a nurse. Mrs. Sauer came to Manhattan the other day, and at the ferry entrance at the Battery asked a pottceman to direct her to someone whom she could offer her services and her property. She told him that her husband had volunteered in the navy, and she did not feel like allowing herself to be outdone by- him. Mrs. Sauef was referred to Col. Jefferson R. Kane of the American Kntinnal Red Cross society and she Immediately wrote a long letter to him. —The house in which Mr. and SJrs. Sauer live and which she has offered to convert Into a hospital, has a 30foot front and is nearly double that in depth, and has grounds running back to the next street. Its rooms are large, light and airy, and there is a large cupola on top resembling the upper part of a lighthouse with large windows all around, 4md commanding a view of New York harbor. Mr. and Mrs. Sauer are both Germans apd have a twelve-year-old daughter living at Dresden, Saxony. Photo shows Mrs. Margarethe Sauer.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

the plugman swings- his lever again and closes the breech of the gun. That is what the plugman does. White he Is doing ~ffy®ve other men are doing other things of equal Importance. The moment the gun is open the trayman slaps Into the form box a metal contrivance which protects its fine gears and edges from being Injured by the sharp point of the heavy wheel, and which guides the shell Itself into the bore of the gun. The brush being open and the tray in place, the first shellman with all his might hurls Into the opening the shell that he has been holding, the first powderman hurls after it a bag of powder, and then even as the tray comes out and the breech closes, the first shellman has turned, without using his feet, and received from the second shellmamr'fresh shell, and the first powderman has turned and received from the second powderman a fresh bag of powder. . • That is how the gun is loaded. It is a matter of seconds. In practice the shell and the powder bag (omission by censor?) to keys the junction of two lines that cross each other at a right angle on the exact center of the bull’s-eye. A third pointer does the same, thing with another pair of crossed lines, but the wheel elevates the muzzle of the gun end or depresses it. And of all the men in the compartment of that particular gun he is the luckiest, for he is the only one who knows the exact moment when the bang Is coming. He causes it by pressing a button. At any moment while a certain buzzer is buzzing, and the crossed lines are on the bulTs-eye, he is at liberty to fire the gun.

Blast of the Guns. We steamed slowly down the range a number of times, and all the compartment guns on our side of the ship swung slowly from left to right, as the pointers kept the crossed lines on the bull’s-eye. And we all got a line because we knew that each practice run brought us nearer to that real run when~the-awful blasts—that we anticipated would have to be endured somehow. We turned and steamed slowly toward the range. We were In the compartment, the gun crew and the officer in charge, myself and twenty or, thirty fledgling seamen, who were there to pick up what they could by eye and ear. I have never in one time or place seen so many forced smiles. One of them was mine. We had beejn served, with absorbent cotton and had plugged our ears. The cotton made men’s voices sound numb and far-off. It had no effect whatever upon the voice of the cannon. The steel doors of the compartment had been closed and locked. There was no escape. The range came over the speaking tube. The first pointer repeated it and made an adjustment. There come a voice, even through cotton, a bellowing voice: “Coming on the range! Coming on the range 1” There was a dead silence. Then low, clear and insistent, like the deadly rattle of our most infamous native snake, the buzzer. I had forgotten about the gun in the next compartment. I shall never forget it again. It went off. Lifted by the Concussion.

I was sitting at the moment and my feet were swinging clear of the deck. I.'.had nothing <sto jump into. But i rose in the air and came down. Then our gun went,'The .flash was brighter than sunlight. It was of an intolerable brightness, and all but intolerable was the bang that went with it. The assault was less upon the body than upon the soul. My ears did not suffer at all. I went out to see how many shots were fired. I did not get used to it. I know that, for not once did I see the gun recoil and go back into place. Try as I would, that white, hot, deafening flash shut my eyes tight for me. I watched a second run from the btidge. It was pleasanter. The bangsticks were even farther off and-_you could see the tall, white splashes of the ricochetting shells. I got so that I could keep my eyes open. I have said that a battleship is a man. I have said that it Is a city. It is neither. It is a romance. I recall searchlights that searched the hear,ens and the face of the waters, thiit Crossed and crisscrossed; the starry calls of the bugles and the .sea-salt- immes-of things.—-Have you lived in Arcadia? Well, I have lived in the “Junior Officers’ Country.” I remember a night of firing of shells that gave off fire so that you could watch the long, lovely curves of their flights; and of searchlights which spoke to each other as easily and as freely as a man speaks to a man. > But what is best in our navy is not the machines, nor the drives, nor the -controls, nor any of the death-dealing or life-saving appliances. It is the spirit of these men who, through discipline'and self-sacrifice, have learned to find the-true values of life and the true meaning of that flag for which at any moment they are ready to lay dowfi their lives.- — ——’ I speak not ohly of admirals and captains, of wardroom officers and junior officers, biM of the boatswain’s mate and the eql/sted men.

Fearing Onion Shortage, He Stole.

New York. —Having visions of the Germans capturing Bermuda and cutting off the onion supply, Charles Fqx of New York city, sixteen years old, carried home a sack of the luscious vegetable, sl3 worth. The onions weren’t his and, he was sent to jail,

If you don’t know what is in yourself, nobody else will ever know it But just as soon as you recognize that you have considerable ability, that moment your ability sticks out. Assert Yourself. Napolfeon was scarcely more than a boy whSn he took command of the Army of Italy. His soldiers almost mistrusted him, but the minute that he began to give his orders, concisely and straightforwardly, every man enthusiastically followed his lead. And battle after battle was won. For a Master Mind ’wnij w: helm. * Assert Yourself. The inactive mind is the mind asleep, but the active mind is the mind Asserting itself. Just the minute you begin to systematically organize the forces within you and put a definite purpose in front of tliem, that minute you Assert Yourself, and the world reedgnizes in you a man or woman of initiative, of action, and of doing. Assert Yourself.—. ;—-= You have yourself largely to blame if you stand complainingly today over your lot. Assert Yourself, demand recognition. And the happiness that is sure to over you from the secret knowledge that you are going forward is sure to make you masterful and dominating. Assert vourself.

POULTRY

The breeding pens in all kinds of poultry should be mated now, even if eggs are not wanted for hatching for two weeks or more. The spare cockerels from the earlyhatched broods sell readily for broilers, if they are well grown and fat, when they are eight to ten weeks old. The way to avoid competition with the majority, is to hatch early abd have poultry products to sell when the majority has nothing to sell. A good hen, well housed and in proper condition, will give better returns for some nice alfalfa chopped up with hot water poured over it, than will any other bird or animal on the farm. The inexperienced man or woman who starts wtth-u few birds generally grows into "The poultry business. An . inexperiencedperson who kfearts out with a lot of birds and an expensive house generally gets scratched out of the business. Be sure to kill the lice on all sitting hens by dusting them frequently and thoroughly with lice-killing powder, filling their plumage to the skin in every case. The last dusting should take place three days before the eggs are due to hatch. Outdoor exercise is a great invlgorator for all kinds of young and old poultry; and when the weather will permit, both the fowls and the little chicks should be out in the sunshine on x the ground, though care must be taken that the little ones do not get chilled. When the turkey is ready to bring off a hatch, it is advisable to place a wire screen or some enclosure over her so that she cannot leave the nest until the hatch is complete; otherwise she will sometimes leave with the first few poults hatched, leaving the others to die in the shells.

Average Woman’s Part in War Not Spectacular but It Is of Vital Importance

You may think of the war nursing service as a pyramid. The apex, which alone comes in contact with the fighting forces, is the small group of professional nurses. Behind these comes a slightly smaller group of nurses’ aids, nonprofessional women selected from the Red Cross training classes, who will have charge of the housekeeping arrangements of the hospitals, and who will also to some extent be permitted to £lve nursing attention to soldiers in convalescent homes and camps, says the Red Cross Magazine. But the base and most of the superstructure of the pyramid are the tens of Thousands of capable women everywhere in the United States —in the big cities and the small towns and on the farms —who will keep the small professional service supplied with hospital necessities, attending in various capacities to their manufacture, collection, packing and shipment to central depots. Here the average woman must find her opportunity. sacrifice, of time and money for such service is not as inspiring as the direct ministration to mangled and bleeding men. in khaki —the movies will not pay so much attention to it —but who shall say that because of its prosaic drudgery it is not after aft the more heroic? Who can measure the patriotism which will khep women on lonely farms day after day bending over this work, with none to applaud or even-te-know of the loving care put ifito those stitches?

Wise and Otherwise

Platitudes are useful in conversation. They give one such an air of respectable dullness. It takes the moon two weeks to get full and two more weeks to get over it Meh are different. Too many people spend their time condemning the conduct of others instead of spending it in improving their own. There arg. two periods in a man’s

ASSERT YOURSELF

By GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS.

Around the World

The fastest-firing rifle now in use in the great war is the German Mauser. Borax furnishes the surfacing for a mile of country roadway In Oregon. The anthracite mines of Pennsylvania have over 7,000 miles of underground tunnels. The United States government, in 1916, collected a $31,450,000 tax on 25,233,000,000 cigarettes. The United States forests supply annually products valued at $1,250,000,000; employ nearly 1,000,000 men, pay $367,000,000 in wages. Osaka, the Japanese Industrial center, has more than 1,500 factories making steel, machinery, cotton, brushes and rubber tires. The highest wages are 64 cents a day to men, and 24 cents a day to women.

life he doesn’t understand a woman. One is before marriage and the other after. If sealskin sacks could be plucked from trees the average husband would have to squander his coin on other things to match. that he is free from worry than it Is for him to prove it to the satisfaction of other married men.

Barbed Wire for Trenches.

One American company alone, the American Steel Export company of New York, has sent to Europe since the beginning of the war more than 12,000 tons of barbed wire, which in its way is as effective as machine gunfire in stopping the rushes of German troops. This amount -of wire, if stretched out in a single line, would extend 86,000 miles; that Is, it would girdle the world at the equator with a three-strand fence and have enough left over to build a similar fence from New York to France.

GOOD JOKES

His Day. —’.... •» “Your day, of

Quite a Difference, “Say, doctor, explain, a little matter to me, will you? What’s the difference between an artistic temperament and the other kind of bugs?” “Oh, about $5,000 a week and a padded cell," answered doc. Doubtful. “Is your husband a regular attendant at lodge?" he takes a night away from home regularly every week for that purpose." Of Course Not. / “Mary Jane,” called a voice down the stairway, “do you and that young man know what time it is?” “How foolish, father! How can we be expected to know, sitting here in the dark.” Good Management. “Say, old Doolittle is an unlucky fellow. The court allowed him only $9,999 for the loss of his finger." __

all days,” quoth the fortune teller, “is Saturday Watch for it, for on that day you will receive a certain sum of fiioney.” “You’re right for once,” said the fellow with the i adjustable grin, “that’s pay day.”

Day Dreaming

Oh, they sing of the day dreams: The April and May dreams. That gladden the sensitive mind. To doze all-forgetful Of matters Regretful Is pictured as gently yeflned. It's exceedingly pleasant To live in the present . Like a frolicsome kitten or pup. But it has this objection. You’ll And on reflection. That some "3ay you've got to wake up. The toiler and set enter Regards the day dreamer As quite an impractical elf, Who makes plans artistic On lines altruistic And falls to take care of himself. So while we are drifting 'Mongst fancies uplifting And quaffing serenity’s cup. Let’s still be preparing For doing and daring, For some day we’ve got to wake up. —Washington Evening Star.

Hunting the "Blue Tiger” With the Mercury at 150 Not the Greatest Sport

Hunting for tiger in a climate where the temperature at midday registers 150 degrees and at night 95, and where the humidity approximates 95, would not be considered sporf exactly by the everyday citizen. Yet it is only one of the conditions with which Mr. and Mrs. Roy C. Andrews had to contend in leading the Asiatic zoological expedition of the American Museum of Natural History. Organized early In 1916 for the purpose of collecting zoological and ethnological material in southeastern China, the members of the expedition went to Fukien province, where the first real*dollecting was to begin. The account of their progress says in part: “One of the special objects of the expedition was to obtain, If possible, specimens of the ‘blue tiger.’ Mr. Andrews was fortunate In making the acquaintance of Rev. Harry R. Caldwell, a missionary, who, having seen tWo of these animals during his residence 10 that region, was the first to give authentic reports of the presence of this species of tiger. Members on two occasions had the blue tiger almost within reach, but he could not be Induced to come out Into view from the grass, which ivould have given an opportunity for a shot. During their stay in this province, however, they secured about 350 birds and 150 mammals, which have already been received at the museum. “While, in the vicinity of Li-Chlang the expedition worked for seven weeks on the sldpes of a mountain 18,000 feet high, and during that tlme-eollected - more than 1,100 mammals, which indicates the richness of the fauna. Among other specimens, they secured five gorals and four serows. Both of these animals are exceedlnly rare and difficult to obtain. A large percentage of the mammals secured here will undoubtedly prove new to science, since no zoologist has previously visited this region." S.

Salonica Churches Survive War.

The finest remains of the ancient city of Salonica are its churches. How they ever survived the tempests of the middle ages is a miracle. Nevertheless they did, 21 of them, says the National Geographic 'Magazine. The oldest of these churches, and after the arch Ads Galerius- the most ancient monument in the city, is St. George. During the long Turkish period it was the inosquff.of Hortaji Suleiman Effendi— St. George js unlike any other church in\ Salonica or Constantinople In that it* is of circular form. The dome of the church contains the finest mosaic ip tie city and one of the finest in the world.

“Unlucky! Great Scott, man! He lost one digit and gained four. That’s good business.” A Drawback. “The photographers' club I belong to is going to a debate." “Can’t be done.” “Why ..not?” “Became every man in the club will want to tpke the negative side.” L ■ ~ ; ■ .... ■■U, 2__ . . x... 2. Happy Fellows. “These restaurant proprietors must be happy men,” said Henpeek, glancing at a sign on the wail. “Why so?" asked the only friend his wife would let him have. “Look at that,” responded the downtroddenAbne, pointing to a sign which read, “Npt responsible for hats, other apparel or valuables.” \ \ V “ . But She Must Have.

“How do you do, Gladys, my dear? I hear you nave a hew baby* pt your house.” “Gee whiz, Mrs. Askalot, I knew he cried awful loud, but I didn't s’pose you cou® hear him way down here.”

Clever. “Is that young man you are going with clever?” “Clever, I should ,say he is. The other night when I was out riding with him he jollied three traffic policemen out of making complaints against him for speeding.”