Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 190, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1917 — Page 2

The Slacker

By Alice E. Ives

(Copyright, by W. G. Chapman.) Jack Davies insisted on setting the wedding date a whole month ahead of time. Polly stood out stoutly against the change in time, said she couldn’t possibly have all her dresses made and set up no end of objections to the change of date. ,r ~7" ~ "But," persisted Jack, "Fve got to go away on business, and it's liable to happen just at that time and send all our plans galley west, anyway.” “I didn’t suppose business ever interfered with weddings," pouted Polly. “Well, it ought not to,” temporized Jack, “but sometimes it does. I’m afraid this will.” “I don’t believe it’s business. You’re afraid I’ll run off with Avery Dean before the ceremony.” There was such a provocative twinkle in Polly’s eye that Jack caught her in his arms and kissed her Into silence. Polly had expected him to be a bit jealous, and was disappointed. “You’re mighty sure of me, aren’t you?” And she smoothed back her hair with another provocative glance. “Well, I hope so,” rejoined Jack. “If I couldn’t rely on your promise, If I didn’t think you meant what you said, Td never want to see you again.” Polly looked up, a trifle frightened at his serious tone. “I was only joking,” she said. “But

Writing Affectionate Letters to Her Boy in the Trenches.

you know we really haven’t known each other so very long. It was only about two weeks, wasn’t it, after we first met that we were engaged? It has been pretty rapid, hasn’t it?” “Well,” laughed Jack, “what is the use of losing time?” Polly’s sister, Dora, didn’t like the changed date any better than the bride-elect. It damaged her plans, and when Avery Dean called the next evening she confided in him. “I’ve just been reading in the paper today about those slackers who get married to avoid going in the army. Aren’t they the cowards?” she said. “They certainly are,” agreed Mr. Avery Dean. “Goodness' Do you suppose that’s, why Jack is hurrying up the wedding?” asked Dora. Dean looked surprised, then rather pained. » "I would rather you hadn’t asked me. I don’t want to give any opinion," he answered. “Which means you know!” cried Dora. “Oh! isn’t that despicable? 1 thought it was an awfully rapid courtship, and could hardly believe my ears when she told me they were engaged. So that was the reason? Well, she’s going to be put wise. My sister is not going to' be made an excuse for a slacker if J can help it!” 4 “I did think I had the least little chance myself before Davies appeared on the scene,” mused Dean, “but it seems I’ve got to give it up.” “You keep up your hopes. All is not lost,” comforted Dora. “The invitations are not out yet.” Polly, who was away when Dean called, came in to hear the miserable news from her sister. At first she stoutly denied that such a thing could be possible, then Dora’s tearful remonstrances, the attitude of Jack and the unexplained “business” which was to take him away, all lent color to the dreadful suspicion. That evening Dean called, was very kindly received by Polly, and naturally he lost no time In pleading his own suit The form for the wedding invitations, which was to have gone to the. engraver that evening, was not sent. It was a coldly determined young woman that Informed the prospective bridegroom that she absolutely refused to have the date of the wedding changed. “But”* protested .Jack, "the fellows,

my best man, and the ushers all understand that it’s in two weeks. They've made their plans, too. And there’s Jennie Brice and Grace Cleary, both are going to the mountains the next day.” “t can’t help where they’re going nor what they think," was the firm reply. “I’ve made up my mind.” “If you hadn’t wanted a church wedding with all the trimmings, we could have just walked in to the minister and had ijf over in nb time, without everybody gossiping and being upset over the change.” “I think this Is of more importance to me than ‘everybody!’" snapped Polly. Naturally these little scenes did not promote a feeling of harmony, and' Dean began to find his office of comforter more and more In demand. As for Davies, he could but notice that he was becoming unpopular with the young people. They seemed to avoid him. He wondered if it was the delayed wedding. Did they think he was the cause of the changed,time? Once or twice he endeavored to explain, but 'his words seemed to be taken either coldly or incredulously. He did not know that it had been circulated that he was a slacker. Meanwhile Dean lost no time in pressing his suit. Polly, on the point of yielding, had several times refused to see Davies. One evening the telephone rang. Dora answered it. “It’s Jack!” she called to Polly. “Tell him I’m out,” answered Polly. Then a very determined voice came over the wire. “Your sister must see me now, or never,” he said. Dora repeated this to Polly. “Good heavens !” she whispered. “What do you suppose is the matter?” “Tell him I’ll be back in about half an hour.” Jack appeared before the time, in evident haste. “I’ve come to say good-bye,” he announced.

“Good-bye!” she echoed faintly. “Yes, I must leave tonight.” “I suppose it’s that business,” she faltered. “Yes, I suppose I may as well tell you now that it is. It doesn’t matter now. I may never see you again. I don’t think you’ll care very much if I ( don’t. It has been a pretty hard blow to me to —to think I made such a mistake about you. All I can say is that I loved you with all my heart. Well, good-bye.” “But you haven’t told me —” “No, you see before I asked you to marry me, I joined the army—” “Joined the army I” she gasped? Then the whole miserable slacker suspicion was blurted out. “I was assigned to some secret service, and it was best not to talk,” he said. “But now I am off to France tonight. I hope to be in the trenches in two weeks.” It was a very repentent girl that sobbed out her plea for forgiveness, and about the most hurried wedding on record, with no bridesmaids nor “trimmings.” And now Polly spends most of her time knitting or writing tenderly affectionate letters to her boy in the trenches.

NOT AWAKE TO THE CRISIS

Patriots, Who. Incidentally Are Running for Legislature, Are Very Badly Discouraged. “dur citizens don’t act as if they fully realized the crisis confronting them. Some of the time they actually seem to be asleep to the fact that we are at war,” grumbled the landlord of the Petunia tavern to the Kansas City Star. “Of course quite a number of the lads have enlisted, and registration went off without a bobble. The good old mothers in Israel are knitting ; socks and wristlets like mad. The girls are getting ready to be nurses and giggling a good deal about it. Two grim young doctors will go to help kill Germans, and a pin-feathery dentist who has volunteered is clacking his instruments mighty ominouslyi- We didn’t have to be dinged at any more than other communities to get us to buy Liberty bonds and contribute to the Red Cross. And Theodore Pappakryiacocopulous, the Greek, who has only taken out his first papers, got in a hurry and set a Red Cross day of his own, and gave the entire receipts of his candy store for that day to the cause. “But when one of the town busybodies calls a grass mass meeting and demands that we come and expose our patriotism to the world, comparatively few of us attend. Those who do listen calmly to the band, and then when Hon. Bray Louder, Hon. Howland Rave and other blatherskites arise and shout about the gur-rand old ful-lag and Incidentally consent to run for the legislature if earnestly Solicited by their many friends, we either go to sleep on them or gaze fishy-eyed for a while and then mizzle off home. I understand that the Huns are pretty badly discouraged about us.”

Indian Prophet Killed.

Hood River, Ore., grieves the loss of "Indian George,” aboriginal patriarch and last survivor of the Indian men born in the mid-Columbia before the coming of the white men, who met death when struck by a,train. George Shinidlk Chinhdere was the full name of the departed relic of the earlier days, but he was commonly .known as “Indian George." Because of his accurate ( predictions of the heavy snowstorms of the winter of 1916-17, the old man had won repute throughout the northwest as a weather prophet.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

HOW AMERICA CAN FEED ITS ALLIES

Important Message to People From Herbert C. Hoover, Administrator. WORLD SUPPLIES ESTIMATED Increased Elimination of Waste and Careful Control of Food Exports Form the Solution of Thia War Problem. Washington, Aug. 20.-— What the people of the United States not only can but must do in the matter of food production and use in order to help win the war is set forth in detail in a statement issued today by !*><»d Administrator Herbert C. Hoover. If we fail to do our part in this respect, he says, the people of the allies cannot be maintained at war, for their soldiers cannot fight without food. The normal imports of wheat and other cereals by France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Belgium, and the estimates of the 1917 crop in those countries compared to the normal production are given by Mr. Hoover in tabulated form, and the conclusion is drawn that in order to provide normal consumption it will be necessary for them to import in the next 12 months 577,000,000 bushels of wheat and 674,000,000 bushels of other cereals. If the crops of the United States and Canada all mature safely, North America will have an apparent surplus of 208,000,000 bushels of wheat and 950,000,000 bushels of other cereals. The allies, therefore, must use other cereals than wheat* for mixing in their war bread, and the people of America must reduce their consumption of wheat flour from five to four pounds per week per person. Decrease in Food Animals. A careful estimate of the world’s food animal position shows a total net decrease of 115,005,000, and this will be greater as the war goes on. As the increase of herds and flocks takes years, we must reduce the consumption, eliminate waste and carefully control meat exports. Our home dairy products supplies are decreasing, while our population is Increasing, and we must ship increasing amounts of such products to our allies. Consequently this industry must be stimulated, and home users must save the wastes in milk and butter. ‘Much the same may be said in the case of sugar. Mr. Hoover urges a greater consumption of fish and sea foods, in which our coasts and lakes are enormously rich. The products of the land, he reminds us, are conserved by the eating of those of the sea. Our Duty. “ In conclusion the food administrator says: I have endeavored to show in previous articles that the world is short of food; that Europe is confronted with the grim specter of starvation unless from our abundance and our waste we keep the wolf from the door. Not only must we have a proper use of our food supply in order that we may furnish our allies with the sinews with which they may fight our battles, but it is an act of humanity towards fellow men, women and children. By the! diversion of millions of men from production to war, by the occupation of land by armies, by the isolation of markets, by belligerent lines, and by the destruction of shipping by submarines, not only has the home production of our allies fallen by over--500,000.000 bushels of grain, but they are thrown upon us for a much larger proportion of their normal imports formerly obtained from other markets. They have reduced consumption at every point, but men in the trenches, men in the shops, and the millions of women placed at physical labor require more food than during peace times, and the incidence of their saving and any shortage which they may suffer. falls first upon women and children. If this privation becomes too great, their peoples cannot be maintained constant in the war, and we will be left alone to fight the battle of democracy with Germany. The problem of food conservation is one of many complexions. We cannot, and we do not wish, with our free institutions and our large resources of food, to imitate Europe in its policed rationing, but we must voluntarily and Intelligently assume the responsibility before us as one In which everyone has a direct and inescapable interest. We must Increase our export of foods to the allies, and in the circumstances of our shipping situation, these exports must be of the most concentrated foods. These are wheat, flour, beef, pork and dairy products. We have other foods in great abundance which we can use Instead of these commodities, and we can prevent wastes in a thousand directions. We must guard the

Improving One's Good Points.

The aft of posinglies in one’s ability to acquire it without appearing affected. To make those with whom one comes in contact weary with unnecessary affectation is of course a thing to be deplored. If the individual, however, realizes the importance of helping nature’s endowments, she will appear perfectly natural in always striving to look her very best. . Learn to know your own good points and take the trouble to cultivate them. Yon will find that it will nay.’

drainage of exports from the United States, that we retain a proper supply for “ / 3ue own country* .and we must adopt such measures as will ameliorate, so far as may be, the price conditions of our less fortunate. We might so drain the supplies from the country to Europe as by the high prices that would follow* to force our people to shorten their consumption. This operation of “normal economic forces" would starve that element of the community to whom we owe the mpst protection. We must try to Impose the burden equally upon aH. Action Must Be Voluntary. There Is no royal road to food conservation. We can only accomplish, this by the voluntary action of our whole people, each element in proportion to its means. It is a matter of equality of burden; a matter of minute saving and substitution at every point in the 20,000,000 kitchens, on the 20,000,000 dinner tables and in the--2,000,000 manufacturing, wholesale and retail establishments of the country. The task is thus in its essence the daily individual service of all the people. Every group can substitute and even the great majority of thrifty people can save a little—and the more luxurious elements of the population can by reduction to simple living save much. The final result of substituting .other, products and saving one pound of wheat flour, two ounces of fats, seven ounces of sugar and seven ounces of meat weekly, by each person, will, when we have multiplied this by one hundred million, have increased our exports to the amounts absolutely required by our allies. This means no more than that we should eat plenty, but eat wisely and without waste. Food conservation has other suspects of utmost importance. Wars must be paid for by savings. We must save in the consumption in commodities and the consumption of unproductive Iflbor in order that we may divert our manhood to the army and to the shops. The whole of Europe has been engaged ever since the war began in the elimination of waste, the simplification oflife, and the Increase of its industrial capacity. When the war is over the consuming power of the world will be reduced by the loss of prosperity and man power, and we shall enter a period of competition without parallel in ferocity. After the war, we must maintain our foreign markets if our working people are' to be employed. We shall be in no position to compete if we continue to live on the same basis of waste and extravagance on which we have lived hitherto. Simple, temperate living is a moral issue of the first order at any time, and any other basis of conduct during the war becomes a wrong against the interest of the country and the interest of democracy. The impact of the food shortage of Europe has knocked at every door of the United States during the past three years. The prices of foodstuffs have nearly doubled, and the reverberations of Europe’s increasing shortage would have thundered twice as loudly during the coming year even had we not entered the war. We are today in an era of high prices. We must maintain prices at such a level as will stimulate production. for we are faced by a starving world and the valve of a commodity to the hungry is greater than its price. As a result of the world shortage of supplies, our. consumers have suffered from speculation and extortion. While wages for some kinds of labor have increased with the rise in food prices, in others, it has been difficult to maintain our high standard of nutrition. By the elimination of waste in all classes, by the reduction in the consumption of foodstuffs by' the more fortunate, we shall increase our supplies not only for export but for home, and by increased supplies we can help in the amelioration of prices. For Better Distribution. Beyond this the duty has been laid upon the food administration to co-op-erate with the patriotic men in trades and commerce, that we may eliminate the* evils which have grown into our system of distribution, that the burden may fall equitably upon all by restoration, so far as may be, of the normal course of trade. It Is the purpose of the food administration to use its utmost power and the utmost ability that patriotism can assemble to ameliorate this situation to such a degree as may be possible. The food administration is assembling the best expert advice in the country on home economics, on fodd utilization, on trade practices and trftte wastes, and on the conduct of pubffc eating places, and we shall outs’" line,from time to time detailed suggestions, which if honestly carried out by such individuals in the country, we believe will effect the result which we must attain. We are asking every home, every public” eating place and many trades, to sign a pledge card to accept these directions, so far as their circumstances permit, and we are organizing various instrumentalities to ameliorate speculation. We are asking the men of the couhtry who are not actually engaged in the handling of food to sign similar pledges that they shall see to it, so far as they aFe able, that these directions are followed.

Our Difficult Language.

Apropos of the difficulties that pur foreign-born friends experience in learning “United States,” a subscriber writes: “A boy born a Dane and raised in a German family came to me and said: ‘Will you borrow me your wheelbarrow?’ and when be saw me smile he said, ‘I mean, can I lend it from • you?’ ” —Outlook. • 1

Dally Optimistic Thought.

•The liberty of the press is essential to a free government.

WAS PRISONER IN A CROCK

Boy's Plight Analogous to That of Many Whose Heads Are Stuck Fast In Worries. An earthenware crock which a boy, playing policeman, had put on his head as a helmet, slipped down and stuck fast The boy made a record resignation from the police force, and his muffled howls attracted prompt attention. His alarmed mother tugged at the crock until the boy’s face was sorely bruised; then excited neighbors took turns until his neck was . painfully twisted. / Meanwhile the howling boy was suffering terrifying visions of lifelong imprisonment, as secure as In a dungeon, and of his head from year to year growing larger and tighter In the crock. The poor boy’s trouble shut him in from all the rest of the world with an ingrowing Imagination. But that Is only what anyone’s trouble of any sort Is apt to do for one, observes the Christian Herald. The mother, the father, who had been sent for, and a half hundred neighbors, who had invited themselves under the delusion that curiosity is sympathy, finally settled down to solemn conclave and decided that, since the crock had slipped on it must be possible for it to £e slipped off again, but that only a skillful surgeon could perform the delicate operation. A delegation was on its way with the boy to a surgeon’s office, when a resourceful motorman, seeing the situation, smashed the crock with his controller handle. Thus, by the simplest of processes, the boy’s trouble was suddenly ended. And it is by equally simple and direct processes that most of the troubles of most of us may be ended. With our heads stuck fast in worries, we rack our brains over a thousand roundabout ways of slipping them off—and the harder we tug at them the more they hurt—but we overlook the simple expedient o. smashing the crock. Like the lad, we -ce terrifying visions of the f.<- °; we suffer our feelings t r - be cruelly lacerated and our bodes to be twisted and torn in mental anguish and despair; we run here and there for symsithy and advice and help; and It does not occur to us how easy it is Just to break the crock. z Most of the erocks that seem to slip down over our heads are merely imaginary, anyway. They require no street car controller handles to smash them. All they call for is a mental controller handle. Did it ever occur to you that most of our troubles come, as this lad’s did, through trying to appear what we aren’t?

Soap.

Soap Is excellent as a means of getting the face clean or correcting coarse language In the young, but it has its drawbacks. It cannot always be depended upon. A cake of soap that has been in the family long enough to seem tame and harmless will sometimes run amuck in the bathroom and lead one to the brink of nervous breakdown. Starting from a given point a cake of soap, if slightly provoked, will dash about, leaping from place to place in wild -flight till the pursuer swoons in exhaustion. The cake of soap peeks out from a safe place under the tub to snicker maliciously. If you recover and have the spirit to resume the chase you will have a gay time in bagging the soap, even though you have it cornered. The soap is clever. It will not make a move till you have seized it, tmd then it will slip a few inches away. After several of your grabs the soap will estimate neatly with a quick eye Just the length of your arm and then it will settle down a few Inches beyond your reach. In this case your only move is to get a long stick and have the soap out with a few sweeps. If you are only human you will probably beat it to death with any blunt instrument at hand. And then go and get another piece of soap.—lllinois State Register.

Light a Fire Without Matches.

How to light a fire without matches is an important part of the training given to United States Marines at Port Royal, S. C. The primitive flint and steel, used long ago by our forefathers, and the old “wooden friction” method borrowed from the Indians have been revived, so that the sea soldiers may dispense with matches when dampness renders them Usd 688 United States Marines in the tropics can start a fire almost instantly by using a hollow piece of bamboo. This is done by slitting the bamboo, stuffing it with dry moss, and drawing a stick to and fro across it as a violinist uses his bow. These resourceful world-wide soldiers are expected to find a substitute for the useful bamboo in France.

Siberia's Resources Unrivaled.

Siberia is believed to be destined one day to become the richest country in the world, for it has a natural wealth so diversified and as yet almost untouched, that it has no rival in the old world. Before the war Siberia was producing from 1,000,000 to 1,300,000 tons of flour a year. As a grazing country it has no limits, and it exports large quantities of leather, tallow and butter. Its forests are almost-** Inexhaustible, and it supplies furs to all the world. Its mineral wealth can only be guessed at, for the greater part of the country has never been prospected. But there are several enormous deposits of oiL

GENIUS IN GUTTER

□reat Artist Made Drawings on Pavement for Pennies. ' Many Famous Writers Spent the Later Years of Their Life and Died in Abject Poverty. It has sometimes been said that It Is mediocrity that makes money, and while this may not be true, it is certain that genius is not unacquainted with the gutter, observes a writer in, London Tit-Bits. Everybody knows, that Francis Thompson, the poet, sold patches on Ludgate hill among thei venders of penny toys, and that James! Thompson, the author of the “City of Dreadful Night,” made his regular dormitory the Thames embankment. No wonder he found so apt a title for hlsi masterpiece I One of the most tragical Instances of. genius In the gutter Is presented by! Simeon Solomon, the pre-Raphaelltei artist, friend and comrade of Rosettl,. Burne-Jones and Swinburne, and of. every artistic and literary notability’ of his day. Perhaps he had gypsy blood as welli as Jewish blood In his veins, or InherIted some wild strain from nomadlcl forbears. Be that as It may, he went, down and down till the man who had exhibited In all the galleries and salons became a pavement artist, begging pennies for crude chalk drawings on the flagstones! And he was a failure at It. Many a man born and bred, to It could beat his head off. He died in the workhouse. Stephen Phillips, the poet and dramatist, who wrote “Paolo and Francesco" for Sir George Alexander, who staged it lavishly, and “Herod” for Sir Herbert Tree, who -’ag. It gorgeous-, ly, and who ’"a -»j tot universal renown ijui.e* lately, leaving only oi £5. He was never actually . iue gutter, but he must have been occasionally over the poverty line. Paul Verlaine, the Parisian poet, woke up one night to find a couple of burglars In his room. Shortly before he had been driven by poverty to sell every stick of furniture, and was reduced to sleeping on a sack. His visitors were so touched by this evidence of his dire poverty that they gave him a franc apiece and took their departure.-—: —— r Goldsmith lived in a slum for years, and had often not a stiver to bless himself with. He would perforce spend days together In bed, afraid to stir out on account of the bailiffs. If St. James’ square could tell Its story It would reveal Samuel Johnson, the sage of Fleet street, walking round and round, with the prince of literary vagabonds, Richard Savage, talking the night away, because neither of them could raise the price of a night’s lodging! So, though things are' infinitely better than they were, It Is evident that the eighteenth century had not the only Grub street, and that it is still possible to combine poverty and genius.

Tradition and Good Books.

Good books, like well-built houses, must have tradition behind them. The Homers and Shakespeares and Goethes spring from rich soil left by dead centuries; they are like native trees that grow so well nowhere else, says Henry Seidel Canby in the Yale Review. The little writers —hacks who sentimentalize to the latest order, and display their plot novelties like bargains on an advertising page—are just as traditional. The only difference is that their tradition goes back to books instead of life. Middle-sized authors — the very good and the probably enduring—are successful largely because they have gripped a tradition and followed it through to contemporary life. This is what Thackeray did in “Vanity Fair,” Howells in “The. Rise of Silas Lapham,” and Mrs. Wharton in “The House of Mirth.” But back-to-nature books —both the sound ones and those shameless exposures of the private emotions of groundhogs and turtles that call themselves nature books — are the most traditional of all, for they plunge directly into what might be called the adventures of the American sub-conscious.

Locks In Ancient Days.

The Greeks used an iron latch to fasten their doors. This latch was fastened by a key which was easily applied from within, but, to reach it from without, a large hole was made in the door allowing the hand to enter and reach the lock with the key. The Lacedaemonian lock, which was a later invention, did not require a hole to be made in the door, but consisted of a bolt placed on that side of the entrance door which opened. When a person outside wished to enter he inserted a key in a little hoi? and raised the bolt. In time this kind of fastening was Improved by the Insertion of the bolt in an iron frame or rim permanently attached to the door by a chain. Heavy and intricate iron locks discovered at Pompeii give evidence of the progress made in the art by the Rpmans. These locks were much mote efficient than any known to the Greeks, but Inferior in principle to the older wooden Egyptian locks.

Pursued a Policeman.

“They tell me you have been arrested for speeding.” “Yes," replied Mr. Chuggins. “And it was due to my kindness of heart. 1 tried to overtake a man on a motor* cycle, to warn him that he was violate ing the law.”