Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 267, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1917 — Page 3

PATROL WORK IS FULL OF THRILLS FOR MEN OF NAVY

Blindfold Campaign of Submarine Chasing Is Replete With Surprises. s “TORPEDO FISH” IS FOOLER —3 ' .. Interesting Sidelight on Work of Navy In Fighting U-Boat Peril—Many an Encounter With a Table Leg or a Swab Handle. New York, —Leaves from the diary of the commander of a destroyer and sidelights on the thrills that come to the men aboard the vessels of the United States navy in the war zone were made public in a statement Issued by the navy publicity bureau of 318 West Thirty-ninth street. “It is stimulating from the maze of convoy and submarine search work to untangle vivid threads of adventure,” the statement said. “For the first half of a certain month a few points stand out for emphasis or visualization.” They are theses “Enemy operations have been largely in the southern part of tour area. Calm weather and the moon have favored them. Merchant ships have assembled thickly at the rendezvous, and the sight has been frequent of one destroyer—often of the older type — with four or five great vessels on her hands before others assigned have joined the escort. “Many rescues of crews have been successfully made. “In ‘behind the net,’ however, it is less easy to borrow the lookout’s eyes, set for the pin thrust of the distant periscope through the blue frets *of the quiet, treacherous ocean. Or to hear in the dark small hours the throbbing general quarters alarm, the blowers hum in a racing crescendo, and the gun crews—like Tweedledums and Tweedledees in their slate-hued life preservers—tear the covers from the ammunition boxes.*’’ It is a tension to bear down at 25 knots upon the lean tramp that makes no response to the flap-flap of your -searchlight blinker, spelling out the challenge; to distinguish whether the phosphorescent streak that at night flashes across your bow is made by a Hun torpedo or the animal skippers have named the ‘torpedo fish’ a blackfish or porpoise. Survivors come mutely up the side, often Lascars and Cingalese, muttering of Allah and America indistingulshably. Given cigarette ‘makes,’ they ‘roll a pill,’ calmly stick it behind the ear, and as the - surgeon uncorks his iodoform in the washroom for gashes made by wreckage, some old gunner of the, reserve takes pneumonia from his hours of exposure, and is , put ashore at X say, on a stretcher, and with his hours of life numbered.

Two Ships In the Thick of It. The Y and the Z have been in the thick —of —such Incidents. At 78" minutes past 1 o’c'ock on the morning of the 11th, the X was steaming singly at 15 knots, with a quiet sea and good visibility for that hour. ' The captain was smoking a cigar on the bridge, wondering, he told me, whether Mrs. G. would ever have the pleasure of putting roses on her old man’s tomb up the Hudson. A heavy explosion, without flash, shook the darkness about three miles over the port bow. A whistle bleated three times, and the radio shack called up the tube that the steamer Kioto was torpedoed 20 miles southwest by west of Fastnet Light “The X switched on her general alarm for battle, changed her course to 228 degrees true and plunged thither at full speed. In two minutes she made out the staccato sparks of a blinker, repeating over and over. ‘Torpedoes !—Torpedoes!’ In five, she changed her course 19 degrees faster east, and at half-past one the flush decks of a single stacker of about 4,000 tons loomed over the cocoa matting and thrust men about a gun. “She was now nearing the freighter, bow on, a bit to port. Suddenly out of the darkness to the right a livid beam rushed, straight and shimmering at her under the sea. We put over full right rudder. The torpedo passed close aboard across his bows, to the left, Just ahead of the Kioto, and as the luminous wake receded like a muffled searchlight it seemed to break spent upon the near horizon. ‘Anyhow,’ said the captain afterward, *lt was worth crossing the ocean to see and feel that instant. It made those roses seem a lot nearer. “The destroyer began to circle the Kioto at high speeds, with alternate right and left rudder. Her blinker stammered on, that she had been hit tn the port quarter abaft the engine tjoom. Then the lights ceased. Ten minutes after two loaded lifeboats emerged out of the starboard darkness. They/, held 59 men, including the second officer and a tall engineer, wounded in the leg. Soon after two .o’clock all were safe aboard the X. She continued to circle the steamer, which was slowly sinking by.the stern. Alarm of the disaster hnd been' flashed to adjacent patrols. The Y nosed "into ■ sight and stood by, likewise H. M. 8. , who signaled’that she had taken aboard 16 more survivors and the Kioto’s impetuous captain—he that returned to the’ wreck. At 20 minutes past 8 the. freighter sank, leaving only floating wreckage and a Coston .light, which flickered up from time tp time until daybreak like a lantern in A lifeboat

‘‘Neither submarine nor destroyer had used gunfire. The German was not even sighted. Only two torpedoes were known to havfi been fired —the one which crossed the X’s bow, and the one which settled the Kioto. “Only two days before the X had had a better brush with a ‘sub,’ and may have~ got her 7 skippers put--tn-the claim on evidence as good. She was steaming in the same area, under like conditions, when at ten minutes past eight In the evening she sighted a pronounced wake. One could even estimate the speed at which the submarine had been submerged—about, eight knots. “The X worked up to full speed, turned with left rudder, and ran down on the right hand side of the slick. In six minutes she had reached its ‘head,’ ready to drop a depth charge; four minutes to run to the end of the wake, two more to allow for the ‘sub’s’ run beyond—and she tripped the pump. With the charge, which was set for 80 feet, was dropped a calcium torch pot. to mark the place. The explosion audibly jarred the blowers, and within three minutes bubbles swirled to the surface. But In the 20 minutes that the X circled the vicinity, hoping the injured enemy would rise to the surface, no further sign of damage was revealed.

Four days later the turned her convoy over to the at two hours before daylight, and returned to her regular patrol.. About five o’clock in the morning she took under her wing the steamer Pentwy, bound for Manchester. At. a quarter to eight Cap" tain Lyons sent a quartermaster aloft to the main track to clear a fouled commission pennant. Scarcely had the quartermaster reached it when he called down to the watch on the after deckhouse, ‘Periscop# two points abaft the port beam !’, The thing was 1,500 to 3,000 yards from the , who was 400 yards ahead of the ——, one point on her port bow. The whole body of the submarine was distinct to the quartermaster though, oddly, invisible both to the bridge and the fore top lookout. The periscope seemed headed westward, and she —at once started to submerge. Within 20 seconds, as the destroyer came to general quarters, first one torpedo, instantly followed by a second, radiated from the point where she had vanished. Both were making surface runs, for the sub’s conning tower hatch still must have been near the surface. They threw spray up fully 20 feet, clearly visible against the choppy sea. All hands on the bridge and decks saw them —as did the . astern; for she swung sharply to starboard, present-

German People Are Starving

Teuton Wife of American Soldier Tells of Conditions There. HARD FIGHT TO GET AWAY Woman Has Harrowing Experiences in Trying to Leave CountrySays People Are Fleeing - When They Can. San Francisco. —The real conditions in the fatherland were described here by Mrs. George B. Szadelski, the German wife of an American soldier. Mrs. Szadelski arrived here after a plucky fight of over five months to get herself and three children out of Germany and over here, where she could join her/husband, who is with the quartermaster’s corps, United States army, at Honolulu. “Germany is starving. Her people do not want war, and are fleeing the country when they can. * Not so much the war, but food and where it is to come from is what the German people are thinking of,” said Mrs. Szadelski. “When the people crowd up too eagerly in the street, waiting to get their small bit of food, men come out with whips, or pour hot water on them to make them orderly. That is in the town of Mecklenburg; there we stand waiting two hours or more in rain or snow. But in Berlin it is worse, and men and women wait in line all night.

Buy With Cards. a “All things are bought by cards, even clothing and shoes. If I need a new suit or my little boy needs new underwear, I must go to the officials and explain the need and show them the worn things. “A grown man or woman gets half a pound of meat a week, a tenth of a pound of butter and three pounds of bread. This bread is made of potatoes and a kind of green turnip, and Is so soggy that only a little can be eaten at a Time. There Is no coffee, except a kind made from the turnip, and there Is no rice. One gets a fourth of a pound of sugar, and there is no soap at all. • “Famine? There’s a famine now. The rich—yes, the rich can buy a goose, but they must pay for it 175 marks (about $44). I have .seen wild ravens sold In Berlin for three and one-half marks. Everything is much worse than America thinks. “Yet there will be no revolution. That Is because there are no men at

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

ing her tail to them. At the same moment the sounded six blasts on her whistle, followed by two, to mean that the attack was being made to port. Miss by Small Margin. “Both torpedoes missed, the but by the smallest margin. The , making high speed, swung with full left rudder toward the submarine. At five minutes past nine o’clock a third torpedo was/fired at the convoy, apparently from another submarine, about 200 yards ahead of the first It approached from the broad on the —’s beam, also making a surface run at about the same range as the first two. and missed. “But now the was in sight, some four miles distant, ready to relieve the of her convoy. She. too, made full headway on signal, ‘Make all speed to us; submarine in sightand searched in the vicinity of the , while the followed the ‘sub’s’ slicks. The first wake tended east, but in ten minutes lost itself among the whitecaps. The .second and plainer one led westward, irregularly, as if the ‘sub’ had been zigzagging. A depth charge was dropped at its end, but a half hour’s search found proof of nothing. The really had saved herself by quick and efficient handling. “The ’s adventure with the steamship Tarquah cannot be told until that flivver comes Into port. The ——, and had a hand in it; and the first’s account of the sinking of the Obuasi —where she arrived long after the deed—shows the defective functioning and poor marksmanship of German torpedoes. The reports to the same effect. At halfpast ten o’clock on the morning of the 13th she picked up in her sea area two boats and 23 survivors of the steamship Charilaos Trlcoupis. Two hours before, two/torpedoes had been fired at her, at an interval of 25 minutes. The first struck the starboard quarter, between rudder and propeller, and, falling to detonate, did little damage; but the crew abandoned ship. The second hit the starboard side amidship, blowing up the Greek so that she sank in five minutes. Between the two shots the submarine came to the surface, but instantly submerged. Not a man appeared on deck. This submarine, like all others reported for the fortnight, are declared to have been of the U-50 to 60 types. “So, as yet, no blood has been spilled on any of our gun mattings. The mean, blindfold campaign continues with small apparent losses either in ‘subs’ or shipping. We follow oil slicks with the thrill of a woodsman striking a strange cross-trail in the forest; w’e mass guns over a ‘periscope’ that turns into a swabhandle or table leg; vide the ’s and ’s famous battle with a ventilator off the French coast. And the and , I hear, have celebrated the chagrin and thrills of it all in ballads which I shall try to send you.”

home, to make a revolution. "The women look at one another and shake their heads. ‘When the men come back,’ is the word they pass around. We have men of fifty and seventy for home defense, and as doctors and officials, we have boys of fourteen. All other men are in the army.” Mrs. Szadelski said she never received SSOO which her husband sent her last February. A woman friend of hers who went to the authorities for money sent from America was told that no more money from the source would be given to any private person.

Do Not Want War.

“The people do not want war, but what can they do? They cannot even say what they think or there would soon be chains around their necks. "Yet there is bitter feeling against America. I would be sorry for any American soldier that falls into the hands of the Germans, either the soldiers or the people. That is because the newspapers talk always of the evil-doing of America —and the people believe what they rend. They began hating America long ago, when they heard it was aiding England. It is not France so much, but England and America that Germany hates.” Sergeant Szadelski had been an American soldier for years before he met and married the little German woman, during a visit to Germany several years ago, but he left Just before the war. This led to suspicions that he was an American spy. and so when his wife wished to leave Germany last May she had an immense deal of red tape to untangle. For a month she had to go before the police each day; then she was summoned to Berlin. At the Danish border every scrap of paper but her passport was taken away, and in Copenhagen she was received coldly by the American legation, because they would not believe that the wife of an American soldier would speak only German. After correspondence with Secretary Lansing and others, the legation was finally convinced that she was not a spy, and she was permitted to sail for New York. She will leave In a few days with their three children for Honolulu.

Potatoes Without Vines.

Findley, O.—Fred Neeley Is growing some vineless potatoes in his war garden here. When his potatoes failed to comp up he started to plant cabbage plants, and found that the potatoes he had planted were developing, but that the vines were absent They were larger than walnuts.

BURNS RATED AS GREATEST SUN FIELDER

The best sundog in the big leagues! Here, in a sentence, you have the opinion x>f a majority of National league managers regarding George Burns, left fielder of the Giants. Burns Is rated by many as the greatest sun fielder since the days of Wee Willie keller, who, though he faced the sun day after day was seldom known to muff a fly ball, and whose batting eye was not dimmed by the rays of Old Sol. This is Burns’ sixth year as a member of the Giants. He came to the New York* club from Utica in the spring of 1912 and stuck through the season, although he played In only 29 games. Since that time Burns has missed few regularly scheduled games with the clan of McGraw and he goes on from year to year, hitting and fielding as consistently as though the very turning of the clock depended upon his being in the lineup. Started as Catcher. Burns is a short and rather chunky athlete, and when he broke into professional baseball with Utica in 1909, at the age of twenty, he started out to be a catcher. Because of the fact that small catchers, of the Ray Schalk type, were not attractive to the scouts

SORRY TO SEE WICKLAND GO

Speedy Outfielder Has Been Big Help to Indians in Winning Association Pennant. Indianapolis fans will be sorry to lose Al Wickland, speedy Indian outfielder, who may get a chance with the Boston Nationals. Wtckland’s chance to go

Al Wickland.

up came when the Philadelphia Na-, tlonals cancelled their draft on Pitcher Dana Fillingim. Wickland, one of the best outfielders in the league and a long-distance hitter of note, has been a big help to the Indians in winning the pennant, although he has been out of the game much of the time recently on account of an injured Jeg. • , . .

BEST SUNDOG IN MAJOR LEAGUES.

in those days, Burns was eventually shifted to the outfield, and although he made good as first catcher with the Utica club it was believed that his wonderful hitting ability could be bettered if he played the outfield. So into the garden went Burns, and after two years of it he was grabbed by the Giants. He has been with McGraw ever since, and his baseball experience In professional ranks has been limited to the two teams. Hughie Jennings once said of Burns: “He is as good a player as ever drew on a spiked shoe. It’s too bad he hasn’t a little more aggressiveness in his makeup. He would be doubly wonderful.. There’s nothing he doesn’t or cannot do well on a ball field.’’ That’s Burns. Ask any of the big leaguers about iilm and you’ll get the same answer, and it is a tribute none too good for him because, with all of his ability, he is one of the most unassuming ball players in the game, and he doesn’t care a tinker’s rap for publicity. Burns was born at Utica, N. Y„ in 1889. He is five feet seven Inches tall and weighs around 175 pounds in condition.

TOO MANY I. W. W. PITCHERS

Bill Clymer Gives Characteristic Reason as to Why He Wouldn't Win Pennant A Toledo writer approached Bill Clymer of Louisville in the middle of August and asked: “Are you going to win the pennant Bill?” “No. Don’t think so,’’ Bill remarked very curtly. He never is pleasant in Toledo anyway. “What’s the matter?” “I’ve got too many L W. W. pitchers on my club.” The Toledo writer got a translation of I. W. W. from Clymer, and it reads as follows: “I won’t work any oftener than I have to.”

FIRST TRIPLE PLAY IS MADE

Description of Thriller Pulled Off on Forbes Field—Stunt Engineered by Boeckel. The triple play made in the Pitts-burgh-Boston game of September 18 is said to be the first ever pulled on Forbes Field. With, the bases fun in the second inning of the second game, Myers hit to Boeckel, who thr»-w to Schmidt, forcing a runner at the plate. Schmidt sent the ball to first ahead of the slow-running Meyers, and when Kelly tried to come on home from second he was retired by a throw back from first to the catcher.

Healey Awarded Commission.

Thomas Healey of the Milwaukee Brewers was awarded a commission in the dental corps of the army and has reported for duty. Healey, who had his trial wjth Connie Mack, is a ; graduate of the University of .Pittsburg. He famous in baseball, basketball and track athletics in col. lege, but could not stick in the jshow as a professional ball player.

“PASS UP" $500,000

Amount Yale, Princeton and Harvard Toss to Discard. ■ . -- A - Big Sum of Money Big College* Could Coax From Sporting Public's Bottomless Pocket Will Be Left Untouched. • Half a million dollars which has annually been spent for the last three years by spectator* at the football games of Harvard, Yale and Princeton will be saved or diverted elsewhere this year. The withdrawal of the Big Three from ’varsity football for the 1917 season will leave this large sum in circulation. The sad part of the circumstance is that the $500,000 is ready to be exchanged for football tickets again this fall, but the three universities have decided that It ought not to cheat the sporting public by putting on inferior teams, and not a cent of the money will come into the athletic treasuries as a result Harvard, Yale and Princeton can afford tqt pass up Its annual taking of football receipts this season better than most of the other colleges, but nevertheless these three big fellows could find plenty of uses for the money. Fixed charges are still going on in Cambridge, New Haven and Princeton, N. J., and in the absence of ’varsity football, such charges will amount to a loss. Office salaries still continue, and the usual expense for the upkeep of the football plants must be met. Money to meet these normal expenses must come out of the athletic treasury, for it is the law that sports must be kept as a separate item and not encroach on the academic appropriations. When the war is over and athletics is resumed, it is certain that Harvard, Yale and Princeton, in common with most of'lhe other colleges of the country, will face deficits in the athletic departments. In the case of the Big Three, however, it will probably not take more than a single football season to balance the ledgers. Football is always the best paying sport, and can be depended on to make more than its heavy expenses. In a few years Immediately following the war, however, it Is probable that some of the other sports will have to be handled more economically than they previously were. Crew racing, for instance, rolls up a heavy expense and returns but little in receipts. The same thing goes for track athletics. In the reconstruction period It is probable that football can pay for Itself and make up for the deficit caused by the unprofitable war years, but there will not be much money left over to pay for the big losses rung up by the nonpaying sports. For that reason, economy will still have to be practiced after all departments of sports are once more operating on a normal basis.

BRICKLEY TO COACH BOSTON

Former Harvard Star Half-Back Expected to Boom Athletic*—Will Have Assistance. A big boom in athletics at Boston college Is looked to follow the naming of Charlie Brickley as supervisor of all branches of sport at a recent meeting of the graduate board of athletics. Working with Brickley will be a special subcommittee of the graduate

Charlie BrickLey.

board, consisting of Rev. R. A. O’Brien, 8. J.; Thomas D. Lavelle, R. S. Teeling and Francis R. Mullin. Plans for the erection of an athletic dormitory are in mind, and the faculty has been consulted on this special feature. Dr. “Archie" old gold-and-maroontabletestOTyaafS gone by, and Dr. John *A. O’Brien have been appointed medical to tb< football squad.