Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1917 — Page 2

MARVELS WORKED BY EYE SURGEONS

Remaking of the Eye Region One of the Wonders Performed. OPERATE WHILE GUNS ROAR Handle Patients With Coolness and Rapidity Under Constant Menace of Death—Wounded Loud in Praises of Surgeons. By C. F. BERTELLI. Paris. —The remaking of the eye region through the transplantation of part of the mucous membrane and the grafting of eyelids and lashes are among the marvels of plastic surgery accomplished in France during the ■war by Dr. Louis Borsch, the famous American oculist, who, since August, 1914, has been chief ophthalmic surgeon at the huge Grand Palais Military hospital iu Paris. Doctor Borsch has just returned from a trip to the trenches and fifeld hospitals, which he made at the request of the department of health for the purpose of advising aS" to the possibility of improving existing methods of treating wounds of the eye and saving the vision of the thousands of, soldiers who in this latter phase of the war are suffering from such injuries. “Three years of constant dally experience in the treatment of eye wounds at the Grand Palais,” said Doctor Borsch on Ills return, “has enabled me to witness a very considerable Improvement In the methods employed, and very gratifying results are now being obtained. If we could have taken up o’ur task in 1914 with the benefit of the experience we hijve since acquired, our results would certainly have been more than 100 per cent better. Under Menace of Death. “The one great lesson we have learned is that our chances of operating successfully in cases, of. eye. ■wounds are enormously Increased ■when patients are brought to us immediately after they have received their wounds. The same remark, of course, applies to all wounds. ' “How well the heads of the French medical service realize this will be when I say that during my- Champagne trip I found many cases in which the wounded had been brought from the trenches to the field hospitals, washed and operated upon, with all dressings completed, ■within four hours of their receiving their injuries. The surgeons and nurses work under the constant menace of death. I myself saw them working in first-aid dugouts and in the hospitals just behind the lines amidst never-ending showers of big .shells, yet they handle their patients ■with a coolness, rapidity and skill which cannot be surpassed in the operating theater of a Paris hospital. “The wounded are unanimous- in their praise of the treatment they receive, and so thorough and efficient Is it that I do not think it possible to improve upon the work of the field hospitals that we inspected. We saw many wounded with severe fractures of the thighs and legs who were walking about the wards in a special apparatus four days after their being wounded; these men assured me they had never suffered a moment’s pain. “We also saw many German wounded. and there was not one of them who did not seem pleased to be a prisoner in French hands. They are treated with precisely the same care and demotion as the French wounded, whose wards they share, and no distinction whatever is made. “Dangerous eye wounds, that in their treatment call for nerves of steel in the a hand that never •deviates a hair’s breadth, are tended amid the most hellish uproar Imaginable; the quick and efficient use of the eye magnet, for instance, for drawing out shell splinters from the region of the eye socket has saved sight in thousands of cases. “Unfortunately beneath the ceaseless cataract of exploding shells the

FIRST U.S. COMBATANT CONTINGENT

Thefirst American contirgent has been on the French front since May 24. ~Tt ft commanded by CapL E. T. Tinkham and Lieut. Princeton Scully who won the Cross of War before Verdun. The photograph shows the imerican Sold'crs saluting the Stars and Stripes. .

face wounds in many cases, are so bad that no ophthalmic skill could possibly save the sight. But here plastic surgery, one of the wonders of the war, comes in to make the victim’s face again presentable. Plastic work goes further than the reshattered jaws and noses; the upper part of the face, Including the eye region, can be patched up so as to make the poor wounded presentable and not objects pf horror to their fellow men." The records of the Grand Palais hospital show that Doctor Borsch, who was one of the first American surgeons to graft the cornea, has successfully transplanted skin, bone, cartilage and mucous membrane to the orbit. In several cases he has provided soldiers with new eyelids by taking cartilage from the ribs, grafting it over the socket and afterwards making an ipclsion in the new skin. To the upper and lower edges of the slit thus made he has grafted fleshbearing hairs, which is taken from the eyebrows, in this manner furnishing new lashes, and has afterwards patched up the eye socket” by transplantatlons from the mucuous membrane taken from the mouth.

Aged Woman Teaches Knitting.

Canton, O'. —Mrs. Amelia Brush, seventy, who knitted socks for soldiers in the Civil war, is doing her bit for the boys who are going to France. She is teaching a Sunday school class at the First Methodist church how Jo make socks.

CAT AS “SNIFFER” HELPS SOLDIERS

No Doubt About Poison Gas When Tabby Comes Hurrying Back. REAL WAR DOG WEARS MASK Norman Lee,* American Ambulance Hero, Writes Interesting Letters of Life at the Front—Luck of Section Seven. New York.—Eliot Norton of New York city has received a letter from an American volunteer in France, Norman Lee, eighteen years old, son of a newspaper man, who has been driving an American Red Cross ambulance for the last nine months, and who has received the Croix de Guerre. The letter follows: —— ; - •. “It’s 2 a. m. I have just returned from a trip and it’s a good time to write. While I attempt this two men are busily engaged in piling up trench torpedoes just outside ,of the ‘dugout.’ I call it a dugout —in reality it's only a cellar—but it serves its purpose — keeps the ‘eclats’ from hitting you—of course, a direct hit would be a differthing. The Boches dropped a few gas shells over about midnight. Have you ever heard a rattlesnake? Well, a gas shell has the same effect. No one has to tell you what it is, you know. It just goes ‘put’ and lets out a greenish vapor. That’s enough down in the dugout —put on your masks and wait until the Boches are finished. But it’s a ghastly scene.miecandle burning, and every one sitting around with masks on the cat hugs the fire while James, the medicine dog, has his mask on, too —it's a special one —and he knows enough not to paw it off. He’s a real war dog. Official “Sniffer" Appointed. “During these sessions there is always an official ‘sniffer’ appointed, who has-to take off his mask, every once in a while, go to the door and see if the stuff is still around. The other day we were in doubt, so we threw the cat out. She came back so quickly that no one had any doubt that it still was there. Oh I it bothers me, the gas more than the shells. It’s a pretty rotten way to make war. “A Boche avion came over the town

1 1 THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER, IND.

RUSSIAN SUFFRAGIST

Dr. Pollksena Schnischkina Yavein, president of the “Defenders of Woman’s Rights,” the Russian branch of the International Woman Suffrage alliance. When the war broke out Doctor Yavein and her coworkers threw the whole strength of this powerful suffrage unit into war service.

we stay in the other night and dropped four bombs. One hit on the house next the one the ‘chief’ Was sleeping in, the rest a few hundred feet from our tents. No one was hurt. We called it the luck of Section Seven. Strange to say, the name of the street all the bombs fell on is ‘rue de la Bombe.’ “I had an interesting experience a few days ago, in fact, at the time, it was too interesting. If I remember rightly I closed by last letter up In order to get a little sleep while I had the chance. Well, I hadn’t been asleep more than an hour when I was awakened by the noise of ‘arrivees’ —not shells, but shrapnel. There was a battery not far from us and the Boches were trying to silence. It by making the gunners take to cover; hence, the shrapnel. I might remark that the entrance to our dugout having once been German now faced the wrong way—said entrance’ being covered by a blanket. Each shot kept coming nearer, and you can’t imagine a weirder sound, than the whine of bursting shrapnel. » Burst at the Door. “Pretty soon it came so near that you could hear pieces hitting the top of the dugout. The last one burst the nearest —right in front of the door. Zowie! ing! patter, hit, bang! They ripped through that blanket like a clown going through a paper ring at a circus. I held my breath and lay still. Fortunately, none of us got hit, but in the morning we picked pieces out of all the walls. The blanket resembled a huge piece of Swiss cheese. The gunners came down in the morning to look us over, and told us the Boches hadn't succeeded in driving them from their guns for a moment. We all agreed with the brancardier, who remarked, ‘Sale Boche.’ “The same weather continues. Rain hail, snow and mud—inches deep. Think of the poor wounded in it all. But we do help them. With love to aIL “Near Soissons. NORMAN.”

“KAISER” OUSTS COON AS POPULAR TARGET

♦ . ■ __ -; • Columbus, o.—“ Hit the kaiser ’ —three throws for a jitney.” ( • This is the cry one now hears ’ at street carnivals and will soon • hear at county fairs, for a local ! carnival worker has replaced the • “baby rack” with a human target < dressed to resemble the German " war lord. One Ejets three cigars I for cracking the “kaiser” on the • head.

JAP WOMEN TAKE MEN’S JOBS

Wages Ranje From Ten to TwentyFive Cents a Day—Actresses 1 Best Paid. Tokyo.--That Japanese women con stantly ai a taking a larger part >n the activities of the empire is shown bj recent Investigations. As in Europe, so in Japan, women* are filling positions formerly exclusively held by men. There are 4,000 women working under the railway bureau, most of them ticket sellers, cashiers and accountants, and 6,000 women find employment in the cigar and cigarette factories of the government tobacco monopoly. Their wages range from 10 to •25 cents a day. Male clerks in banks and mercantile houses constantly are being replaced by women, who receive $5 to sls a month. Actresses receive the highest wages paid to women in Japan, but their clothes are expensive, and so they are financially in no betted position than the more humble workers.

AUTOMOBILES STREWN ALONG RAILWAY

VALUABLE MACHINES SCATTERED ALONG TRACK.

When an axle broke on the rear car of a freight train near Cincinnati recently, and the car was overturned, the resulting wreck strewed along the track a number of the new automobiles with which the train was loaded. The photograph shows the odd sight presented when the single track was cleared of the wreckage, valuable autos and freight-car trucks being scattered on both sides of the right-of-way. Some of the autos sustained little damage; others were wrecked beyond repair.—Popular Mechanics Magazine.

ENGINE IS UNIQUE

Drivers Under Tender as Well as Under Cab and Boiler. HAS SIXTEEN DRIVING WHEELS First Machines of This Type, Used on Steep Grades in North Carolina, Made by Using Discarded Locomotives. The latest thing in locomotives has drivers under the tender as well as under the cab and boiler. This disposition makes it possible to equip a single engine with no less than 16 driving wheels. The set of eight, under the tender, has its own pair of' cyllnders. In fact, the first machines of this type, used on the steep grades of the Southern railroad In North Carolina, were made by mounting tendertanks on the machinery of discarded locomotives. Says a writer in Railway and Locomotive Engineering: Relieved Congestion. “Between Asheville, N. C., and Hayne, S. C., there lies a stretch of trrfck 69 miles long on the Southern railroad, of which Mr. J. Hainen is general superintendent of motive power and equipment. . . . This sin-gle-track line had been much congested until Mr. Hainen worked out a design of engine which has a much greater tractive power than the type of engine formerly employed. The plan is briefly the mounting of tender-tanks upon the machinery of discarded locomotives. There is a 4 per cent grade three miles long on this division, and the new engines built by the Southern have to encounter this grade as part of the day’s work. Used Scrapped Engines. “The first of the new type of duplex engines was put upon the road about a year ago, and it proved to be so satisfactory that seven such locomotives have been turned out of the company’s shops at Spencer, N. C. The number of trains has. been reduced, though the total tonnage is considerably greater, and the speed of the train’s run has been increased. To effect this satisfactory result It was not necessary to buy new cylinders, wheels or runninggear. The parts used were taken from scrapped Mogul and Consolidation engines, so that the expense Involved was reduced to its lowest terms. “The scrapped engines furnished the frames, cylinders, wheels, axles, side-rods and valve-motion complete. By the use of specially designed carriers, the tanks of -Mikado tenders were mounted where the boiler of the engines had formerly been. With 7,500 gallons of water and 12 tons of coal the auxiliary engine carries a weight of 176,000 pounds as a maximum, the mlnimupi being about 100,000 pounds.” This duplex engine has a drawing power of 64,000 pounds, as against 46,000 for the single engine formerly ftfed. Steam is carried to the cylinders under the tender by flexible piping. The main or forward engine runs on superheated steam and the rear on either saturated or superheated steam. ~ -

TO EXHIBIT OLD LOCOMOTIVE

Mississippi, One of First Engines Used In United States, Was in Serva . Ice 54 Years. . The locomotive Mississippi, built in England in 1834 and operated on the Illinois Central railroad 54 years, has arrived in Chicago. The little engine, which is hardly 12 feet long, was one of the first used in the United States. It was bought for Service on the old Natchez and Hamburg road in 1893. Later it was turned over to the Baltimore and Ohio and became part of that company’s exhibit in the St. Louis fair in 1904. President Markham of the Illinois Central heard of the historic engine and it was found in the Baltimore and Ohio yards at ‘ Martinsburg, W. Va. Space in the Twelfth street station probably will be fenced off and the locomotive will be hlaced there as a permanent •xliiblt.

TO KEEP TRESPASSERS OFF

Now That Bomb-Plotters Are Seen Behjnd Every Culvert, Railroads Keep People Off Tracks. Now that guards are everywhere about and bomb-plotters are seen behind every culvert, some railroads show signs of making an effort to keep the public off their right-of-way. Signs are being posted in places where the railroad’s land has served as a highway for years, perhaps for generations. Not improbably the railroads may soon start a big attempt to exclude the foot passenger from their tracks. He has been their bane for ages. He travels on the line without paying; Indeed, instead of paying, he or his survivors frequently seek to collect damages from the railroads for hurts sustained by falling afoul of the running stock. Nothing would suit the roads better than to be delivered of trespassers. Now is obviously a favorable time to move In the direction of such a desire. Privation of the free-born American’s supposed inalienable right to walk a railroad track would not do much serious damage to anyone; hr many places it might be necessary to provide short lengths of genuine highway, so that workers should hot find themselves deprived oflSnn easy route between home and factory. In addition to temporary measures, a permanent system for policing roads and punishing trespassers is required. Above all there must be a popular realization of the enormous cost in life and limb that the reckless habit of walking along the railroad track entails upon the country.

NEW CROSSING OVER TRACKS

Lightweight Steel Device Cleans Itself and Eliminates Jolts—lt Is Easy to Adjust. —r-r— *— Wherever a road crosses railroad tracks, this lightweight steel crossingbelongs. . It will fit any standard-gauge track, it can be put down or taken up by one w'orkman in 30 minutes, or in case of repair work it can be adjusted to a

Crossing Over Tracks.

skeleton track in ten minutes with sufficient security to qil° w teams, automobiles and other htehvy traffic to pass safely. Its surface is such that mud, snow, gravel, sleet or ice cannot get a purchase, yet its knobs prevent horses from slipping. It eliminates jolting.—Popular Science Monthly.

RAILROAD MEN ARE PRAISED

Pick of Industrial Workers of Country Have Developed Natural’.' Resourcefulness. You-seldoin see a sullen face among railroad' men. You seldom meet with one who thinks confusedly, and never with one who goes about his work sleepily. The railroads have had the pick of industrial workers of the country and they have developed natural resourcefulness into second nature, independence into that fine flower which understands the worth and necessity of obedience, says Washington Star. In sending 12,000 railroad men ,t 0 France as the first contingent for service overseas, Washington will not merely meet pressing requirement in France, but also have a representation warranted to make the .impression we • desire to form. In imagination, we can see those strong, capable, dean-skin-ned, clear-eyed men landing, see them take to their tasks with a vim, making French and English railroad workers hump to keep up with them. It was a wise selection of manhood material.

HOME TOWN HELPS

MANAGER PLAN IS GROWING Is Spreading More Rapidly Than Commission Form of Government With Which It Is Linked. A great many people inquire just what the city manager form of government is and just how it compares .with the commission form —in reality both are linked together, only the commission form did not go far enough. It was like a corporation with only a board of directors and no general manager or superintendent to run the plant and be in active charge of the operations. It provided In an excellent way for the legislative functions of the 'city, but gave little consideration for the executive features. In the commission nianager form there is a combination of the two in an effective and natural way like the elements of a standard corporation. The commission plan dates from 1901, when a Texas court decided that the emergency government of Galveston appointed by the governor could continue no longer and the governing commission of five men must be chosen by local election. The plan was not designed to be an elective plan. It became one by this unforeseen decision. The Galveston . commission plan nevertheless was so much of an* improvement over the old style mayor and council plan tha» 300 cities and towns copied it in the next 15 years with an average of high satisfaction. Only one city (Salem, Mass.) has reverted to the mayor and council form; that was as a tactical incident in a local fight where the merits of the plan were not an issue. In 1912 Sumter, S. C., adopted the commission manager plan, followed in 1913 by Dayton and Springfield, O. There are now 40 cities with this plan of .government, and it -is spreading • more rapidly and with more approval from political scientists than the commission plan.

WILL KEEP DOWN THE DUST

Driveways and Walks Around Home Improved by Occasional Oiling With Homemade Sprinkler. In summer, the suburbanite is often confronted with dusty driveways and walks that are easily improved with

Homemade Oil Sprinkler.

a homemade oil sprinkler, like that shown here. A steel frame, mounted on wheels, was rigged up to hold an ordinary oil barrel. Inserted in the bung is a short piece of pipe equipped with a shut-off. To this is attached the sprinkling pipe, having perforations, about one and a half inches apart, of sufficient size to allow the oil to flow freely. The cart may be drawn, or pushed, the latter being more convenient, discarded shoes being worn, and a thin layer only applied.—Popular Mechanics Magazine.

Beauty in Small Houses.

Small houses formerly were almost universally considered as cheap houses, not from a cost view point, but otherwise. This fallacy has been exploded. Formerly, because a house was small and perhaps cheap in appearance, Its lapses of good taste in architecture and finish could be overlooked. Good taste is now Invariably practiced in constructing small houses Those who do not exercise discretion in building details and decorations make a grave error, which they fully realize when the building is completed. Small houses, when miniatures of well built dwellings, are enhanced in value and attractiveness. They should be simplifications of larger and more elaborate houses. The same discrimination used in constructing a large house should be exercised on a smaller scale for the small dwelling.

Wild Gardens.

For those who wish simple yet strong effects, in planting it is advisable to build wild gardens, for the effects desired and aimed at do not admit of the expensive plants for they would be conspicuous or Instantly recognizable as a foreign note and the whole spirit of the wild or natural garden would be lost until such plants were removed. Too much display has spoiled commendable Intentions in garden building, the builder gradually and unwittingly yielding to temptation for possession of plants of striking appearance or effect. The one thing to guard against in building wild, gardens is evidence of man’s handiwork. For this reason while a plan should be fol- . lowed the fact must not be betrayed through unnatural effects in either plant material or its disposition. ,