Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1917 — Page 3

MOURN DEAD CHIEF

Russian Peasants Fall on Knees Before Um of Ashes. ■ Member of American Commission to New Empire Explains Keys to Their Political Play. “The keys to the Russian political play are, after all, simple, and to be found in simple events,” says Charles "Edward Russell, . who was sent by President Wilson, with the American commission to new Russia. Here is one such simple event as he gives it in Hearst’s Magazine: “There is a place on the Transgiberian railroad called Passing Point No. 37, a brown little speck op the illimitable emptiness of the Siberian plains. On the 23d of May there came marching up to it a procession of farmers —about forty of them, I think —carrying red flags. They tramped solemnly along what in Siberia, by a violence of speech, is called a road, and is, in fact, not otherwise than a trail of ruts in black gumbo mud. “A passenger train was coming from the east, from Vladivostok, At Passing Point No. 37 it took the sidetrack to wait for the train it was to meet. Of a sudden the processionists were seen to line up in front of the baggage car, to fall on their knees there, to lift their hands in attitudes of prayer, the while they uttered strange, wailing cries and many wept. - “What were they crying about? They had learned that in that baggage car were the ashes of a Russian revolutionist, an old-time hero of the long, long struggle. He had been condemned by the czar to one of the worst prisons in coldest Siberia; he had managed to escape and in the end to get to America. There he died, and his body was cremated. Now his ashes in a draped memorial urn were being carried in state back to that free Russia he had dreamed of and suffered for. But note:F~ “Of the peasants that fell on their knees before, that handful of dust that day, about one-half could not read. All of them, you might think, lived in a region farther from the world and its affairs than is Cape Nome from the Bowery. Yet all of them knew well enough the name of this dead hero and all his deeds, and instinctively all knelt before his ashes that they might testify at once their reverence for him and the fervor of their own revolutionary faith. - “But what did that procession mean, wandering red-flagged along the black ruts of lonely Siberia? It meant that the peasants were making a ‘demonstration.’ Demonstration about what? Why, if you will believe me, against the Austrian government’s sentence of death against Frederick Adler, slayer of the Austrian prime minister. “And there you are: that is Russia. Also, you may see in this incident how deep in the heart of every peasant and toiler are at least the rudiments of the revolution’s creed,”

Magnitude in Modem War.

The magnitude of the war, as a whole, is repeated in every phase of Its activity, and in no way more so than in its instruments of war. As we have more than once remarked, says the Scientific American, it has been necessary to multiply our units of measurement by from 10 to 100. Weapons which were thought massive and powerful in 1914 are puny in 1917. Thus, heavy artillery, whose weight tied it down to fixed fortification, is now moving merrily over the field of battle. Where, formerly, we talked in millions, now we talk freely in billions. Before the war 25 to 30 knots was battle-cruiser speed—today we have such ships of from 150,000 to 200,000 horse power steaming at 35 to 40 knots. A notable Instance of this growth is in the field of aviation, where the British have airplanes of 600 horse power and the Italians have gone up to 1,000. And the end is not yet.

Five-Year-Old Seal Skins.

A number of skins of flve-year-old fur seals will be taken on the Prlbllof Islands, Alaska, to enable the United States bureau of fisheries to determine fully how they will be received by the trade and the best uses to which such skins may be put, says the Scientific American. These skins have about twice the area of the skins from an average three-year-old seal, and are regarded by experts as fully equal in quality to the average skin of the younger seals that have heretofore made up the quota for the natives’ use. Two expert seal skinners from Newfoundland and two sealskin specialists from the St. Louis concern will proceed to the Pribilof Islands for the purpose of assisting the agents and instructing the natives in taking and preparing sealskins.

Japanese Playing Golf.

Some of the new millionaires of Japan have taken up golf, which they play on links maintained in the most approved style. They are building country houses like castles of old in splendor. They are following many American and European ways, and yet, lavishly as they are scattering large Incomes in air, they are wonderfully Influenced by subtle refinements inherited from their ancestors. For the pleasures of the table they care little. Mostly the extravagance of the newly rich of Japan, finds vent In endowing colleges, assembling treasures of literature and art, and ministering to those senses and desires through which men nourish the soul.

RAT UP HIS TROUSERS LEG

Ohio Groceryman Experiences ExcitIng Contest With Rodent Inclined to Be Too Familiar. One of those unfortunate things which it would have been Interesting to see, as long as it had to happen anyway, muses the Ohio State Journal, is reported by the Gallipolis Journal, which relates in its graphic and gripping way what recently happened to Mr. Carlton Stone, described by the Journal, which, of course, knows him well, as the handsome and debonnair grocer of Gallipolis. Mr. Stonq, it seems, under stress of great and repeated provocation, been led to say some rather sharp things concerning the general charjacter and the unpleasant habits of the huge nits tvhlch infest his emporium, 'and one of their number, a gaunt, gray, wiry fellow, at last was unanimously selected to essay reprisals. This our rodent did by lurking and prowling about, awaiting his opportunity, and, when in his best judgment it had come, by making a sudden sortie and surprising our unconscious grocer by darting with marvelous celerity up Mr. Stone’s elongated but shapely limb, to employ the Journal’s relined but clear language. The verve and dash of the wholly unexpected attack all but robbed our hero of his usual calm presence of mind for the moment, but as the assailingparty passed the knee sector, Mr. Stone, realizing that something must be done, and done quickly, recovered his customary poise, formulated his plan of attack and soon was engaged in counter-movements combining high kicking, frantic slapping and complete removal of trousers with a versatility, a vigor, a determination and a change of pace that beggar all description. Suffice it to say that the misguided rat in scarcely more than a trice was hors de combat, as we say in Ohio, while Mr. Stone was soon the center of an admiring throng, the observed of all observers and the cynosure of all eyes, panting and pantless, but victorious. “I have striven to do my part,” gasped he in his droll way, as our special representative reached the scene of the encounter, “to make the world same for democracy.”

Expert U-Boat Trapper.

There is a Gordon Campbell who is the “mystery man” of the British navy. He has been given the D. S. O. and the V. C., and now he has five silver bars on his ribbons. But not a word of explanation has ever appeared in the official gazette. His name and tris new honors have been printed, and that is all, writes a correspondent. - The explanation is that he is engaged in U-boat trapping. The stories told of his exploits are intensely interesting and amusing, but must not be repeated as yet. In a general way it may be said that he is almost absurdly without fear, and that the devices by which he catches the Hun are Immensely clever. “He came in the other day from a cruise,” said a navy man. “One-third of his crew was on strike. They said they would never put to sea again with such an absolute madman. “The remaining two-thirds said they would not put to sea with anyone else.”

Conservation of Wool.

The President’s national committee of defense has been' busily sending out announcements to the wholesale dressmakers. They tell the dire tale that wool must be saved by this country, and they make the pertinent suggestion that the coming gowns shall not be made all of wool, notes the New York Times. There is a substitute for wool, woven of what is called “remade wool” (they are using some of this in the army), and, then, there is our life-long friend, the cotton and wool mixture —not considered very elegant in the past. There is no telling what will be the result of all this looking forward, but the fact remains that wool is going up and up and that something must be done, not alone for the sake of the government, but for the sake of poor, suffering pocketbooks. We may yet be dressing in paper and spurning wool as old-fash-ioned and out of date.

Naval Supremacy.

Sir Cyprian Bridge has said one of the functions of a fleet is the defense of commerce. There is no more important function for a fleet than this, writes John Hays Hammond, Jr., in the Atlantic Monthly. A nation may be subjugated by direct Invasion, or it may be isolated from the world by blockade. If the blockade be sufficiently long, and effectively maintained, it will ruin the nation as effectually as direct invasion. Thus, in the maintenance of a nation’s merchant marine on the high seas, its navy exercises one of its most vital functions. There can, therefore, be no naval supremacy for a nation unless Its commerce Is assured of immunity from considerable losses through the attack of its enemy.

Stosstruppen.

First Tommy (after consulting German dictionary)—Well, Bill, if he ain’t l<in* he’s one of them shock troops according to this. Second Tommy—Lo, love-a-duck, you're right. You’ve onlyjjot _to • kmk at the blighter’s face to see that. — Passing Show.

No Patronizing.

“What coal man do you patronize?” “I don’t patronize any," replied Miss Cayenne. ‘lf a coal man observed any signs of a patronizing attitude he might take offense.”

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

ENGINEER OFFICER STUDENTS BUILDING A BRIDGE

The young engineering officers whom the government is training at tlieeamp at Belvoir, Vtt., get not onty theory, but actual practice in engineering problems. Th’y are seen here constructing a light pontoon bridge.

UNDER FIRE IN FRENCH TRENCHES

Correspondent Describes Visit to Battle Line in Argonne Forest. NOISIEST THING IS BIRDS Germans Drop an Occasional Poprly Aimed Shell—Officer Calls It Dull Life—Visit Acceptable Break in Monotony of Daily Life. Somewhere in,France. —Just now the Argonne forest is no place for a man aching for a scrap. Vauquols Plateau, where thousands of French and Germans met death in bloody combat, is as-jiulet on these sunny autumn days as the Polo Grounds in midwinter. Barring—an occasional thunder roll from far away batteries, and an hourly reciprocal bombardment by French and German guns, the noisiest thing ' that stirs the valleys is the twitter of the birds. A young French officer, returning to his trench sector from a village a short distance behind the front, escorted three correspondents to a positlon from which a wide stretch of the Argonne front could be easily seen. Our car sped through an utterly deserted village, devastated by the retreating Germans after the battle of the Marne and more completely ruined by later bombardments. The road led straight out into a great amphitheater bordered by wooded hills, criss-crossed by the ruins of old trenches. Batteries In Woods. “See those sticks?” said our escort, pointing to a row plainly visible to the naked eye along the top of a hill to our left. “Therq are the Boches’ barbed wire and trenches. He has a few batteries In that woods. If he wa§ energetic he might give us a few shells.” The German positions were getting uncomfortably nearer. We left the car under a slight rise in the ground that hid it from German observation, and

A CAMOUFLAGE ARTIST

Here is a soldier who makes himself look like a wire screen so that the enemy will think he is nothing but wire. Some camouflage. The French pollu who Is seen here has succeeded in weaving about himself a wire entanglement and after completing th!p job is at work putting together a deadly grenade in a trench the French had taken from’ ‘he Germans.

started on foot across a field to seek cover behind a hill held by the French. We had barely clambered out of the car when a shell burst 6(10 yards ahead in a field near the road over which our car had been speeding. "Well, he did try one on us,” laughed the French officer, “but ft was a bad one. I’ll wire the kaiser to take away his Iron Cross.” Over in the dugouts behind the French trench line an assortment of poilus were whittling away at knicknacks, playing cards or taking cat naps. The dull boom of grins came across intervening < hills from the Ver*'' dun front, only a few kilometers away. Our escorting officer led the way on up over the hilltop past, qn anti-aircraft gunner who wished us “bonjour” and lamented because he hadn’t seen a German for many days. Calls It Dull Life. At an artillery observation post our coming was an event. The officer in charge confided that it was a dull life. The Germans hadn’t sent a shell his way for a long time. He was glad to meet newcomers and mighty glad to break the rtronotony of a day’s work by pointing out the Boche trenches in the valley below and the great Vauquois mine crater on the yellow side of Vauquols platehu. No sign of life came from trenchland. At one point where a V-shaped German trench seemed almost to tan into a V-shaped French trench —only 60 feet separated them—there had been a little grenade tossing a few hours earlier, w’hen poilus and Boches needed warming- up exercises after breakfast. That was all. Back we went to the officers’ dugout for quite palatable war bread and wine. “War out here,” he said as we were leaving, /‘moves like molasses.”

ORDNANCE NEEDS MEN

Many Posts Open to Americans in That Service. Chief Officer Announces That Opportunities for Technical Men With . Unit in France Are Good. Paris.—The ordnance department of the United States army in France wishes to correct tan erroneous impression prevailing —that, by reason of being a particularly desirable branch of the service, it already has enlisted its full quota. On the contrary, there are openings in every class, from private to the highest ranking noncommissioned officer. Enlistments are required to fill the positions of clerks, stenographers, typists and general office help, both at headquarters and the various depots throughout France. Many armorers and carpenters are also needed, and a prompt warrant for a grade commensurate with ability displayed is assured. An especially attractive opportunity is presented to technical men and graduates of mechanical schools. The ordnance department offers to such men a chance to specialize along the lines of their iffdivldual training. Promotions to the grade of commissioned officer are made on the merits of the work done, anfl many enlisted men have won this reward solely upon the grounds of the ability and training they possessed. Enlistments will be accomplished in

FEEDING SOLDIERS IN CAMP ENORMOUS TASK

■ Chicago.—Soldiers in training at the 16 National army cantonments in the United states require approximately 2,500 carloads of food daily, according to statistics given out here by the railroad war board. It is estimated that at least five pounds of food is needed each day for each of the >1,000.000 men now training for the National army and National Guard divisions. Railroad executives are giving close attention to transportation problems presented by the taAk of moving this great quantity of foodstuffs. The task Involves the supplying of all the necessities of life for 16 non-productive cities of a • population of 40,600 each, and-56 smaller cities ranging in population from 300 to 3.00 Q. l£

UNCLE SAM LANDLORD

May Have to Build Homes for War Workers. Great Influx of Laborers at "WarBride" Cities Puts Living Space at a Premium. Washington.—With thousands of workmen crowding into the “warbride” cities of the nation. Uncle Sam fa/es the proposition of becoming a landlord or having his important was work crippled. The crowded conations in many Industrial centers already are hampering the work Of munitions manufacture, especially with additional plants being v built to employ more workmen. The great demand for laborers in many sections has been followed by the demand for houses. Companies have built houses for their own workmen, and real estate men and builders have done their best * to , relieve the situation. However, the onward sweep of workmen has defied all efforts toward proper housing. The use of beds inT eight-hour shifts has been resorted to in such cities as Younstown, O.; Erie, Pa.; Bridgeport. Conn.; Chester, Pa.; Newport News, Va., and ma n y others. All of~these cities were crowded even before the United States entered the war. In Erie 45 munition workers procured room and board in oneflve-room house, with cots in every room and in the cellar and attic. Conditions in all of these cities are becoming worse each day. One shipbuilder procured 200 badly-needed workers and lost them the next day because he could find no place for them to sleep.

the usual manner and under the military rules and regulations observed by the recruiting offices in the United States. Men who are eligible and desirous 01 enlisting should make application at once, writing direct to the chief ordnance officer, American expeditionary forces, France, who will make all arrangements and notify the applicants accordingly.

TOTES GUN AT FUNERAL

About two hundred priests, Sinn Fein M. P.’s, the Countess Marklevicz arid thousands of young men , and young girls, many of whom were ln costume, attended' the funeral of Thom Ashe, the Sinn Fein leader who died following a hunger strike, who was burled at Glaenevin cemetery in Dublin. The picture shows Countess Markievicz,-prominent Irish chieftalness, carrying revolver. She marched In the cortege attired in a costume ofu greeny v

GRACE VS. FAILURES

Often Times It Is the Great Revealer of God’s Mercy, Love and Power to Deliver. The disciples learned through their falls, but they never learned anything which would not have been better learned through their faith. It is enough to say that God"Xlll teach us through our stumblings -when that Is the only text-book left to teach us out of. We need not go into any raptures about failure. When he had denied his-Lord and then suddenly saw him in all his truth and beauty, Peter knew well enough that he might have seen his Lord more clearly without a fall. But be that as it may, the fall was there, and the wonder of It was that his master was still willing to reveal himself through what was left. Almost, any master could take the defects and mistakes of his disciples and point out what they had lost, but who else would take the meanest and most in one’s existence stud make even them a lens through which they could sge the divine if they would? There are more normal ways of revelation, points out the Sunday School Times, but when this is the only way we have left to God, then he takes our falls and reveals himself through them. Without ever once saying that the fall was upward, or that the sin was goodness in the making, the Bible takes what men give and shows how wonderfully God will commence the miracle of repair. It may be that we do not learn as we might because we are too proud to learn through the only means we have left for God to employ in teaching us. A great fall may still be a great revealer. When we have had one we may look upward because there is nowhere else to look. At last we look unto the hills whence cometh our help. One of the marks of a Christian believer is that to him a fall is something different froth what it is to another man. To the non-Christian a fall may seem nothing but a finish. To the Christian it must in some way seem more terrible than to anybody else. But though he is cast down, he is not destroyed. _

Every Christian is brought very low at times. To anyone else it would be the end; but he is taught to expect so constantly exhibited the exuberance of the Gospel, said: “I have known as nearly as any man what tt was to be forsaken, I have reached out and found no help, that is,'%o lateral help. The only direction from which helF~ could come to me was vertical.” These exhaustions ought; never to have been, but they are here, and they may be made the ground of revelations. When we cannot pray to God out of our nearness .to him, then we can pray out of our distance. George MacDonald said that sometimes he felt he had no other claim upon God except that he was so miserable; and he made that claim. One man lets his weakness overwhelm him. His religion ends there. But another takes his stand upon his weakness, it is all he has, and he uses that as an approach to God; and the willingness to do that has been a great revealer to men. Pride may ruin us, it may keep us waiting until we have some better basis on which to speak to God —and we never find that basis, Who would not wish that he might look into God’s face from a life that was all clear? But we cannot. The Pharisee tried it in the temple and failed. The publican knew that if he was to see God at all he must see him from the standpoint of sin and shame; throwing away his pride, waiting for nothing, saying "God be merciful to me a sinner,” he saw God. There Is not a sinner in the world who may not add to the glories of revelation.

"God fulfills himself In many ways.” 5Ve could wish that- the truth might come to us steadily, through eyes that are always bright and glad. But the truth comes to many of us through tears. It may come that way. Let us not despise our disappointments. So far our sins and falls may have only revealed to us ourselves. They may have only intensified our selfknowledge. This is something; but If it is all, it may end in death. But when one realizes that just this experience is what Christ has been looking for, and that, made over to him*, he may make it a means of revelation, then our greatest days may be drawing nigh. You are having some terrible dis-, appointment or sorrow or failure. Do not let it be that and nothing mote. Do not be proud about it. Do not say you will not see God unless he comes in the grand way. If this is all you have by way of present experience, then it will suit God better than anything else you can offer. Christ always took men just where they were. He never asked that the situation should be altered. He said nothing about "hard cases.” There was no depth to which one had fallen which might not become a ground from which to rise again. Just there the soul may find, if it is humble enough, the help which just matches his need. When Thoreau fell and sprained his ankle in the woods, as he lay on the ground looking about he saw for the first time in many months the herb arnica mollis, good for sprains, and felt it was a parable of much else In the spiritual world. So when our first shame and discouragements are over, we are to> It may be the beginning of greater revelation than we have yet