Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 300, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1917 — Page 3

Worth Winning

By George Elmer Cobb

(Copyright, 1917, Western Newspaper Union.) John Beardsley charmed people. He was forty, rubicund, jolly, an encyclopedia of jokes and quaint sayings. He was liberal, too, and he made haste to tender the fullest service., There was no hotel at Bassford, but there were half a dozen grain elevators which drew the farming community for miles arond. This meant established trade for the one general store, which was a customer worth having for the jovial traveling man. Beardsley had to stay overnight at Bassford always, for the trains were infrequent. At his first visit he asked the storekeeper if there was any prospect of making an arrangement for meals and a room anywhere in the village. • - - ’ “Why, yes,” readily answered the merchant. “Mrs. Lisle has done something in that line for transients. She’s a widow, and thrifty, and industrious, and needs all she earns. Fine woman, sir! but had a scallawag of a husband who drank himself to death, leaving her a house and lot and a little child of five. That’s her place,” and the speaker pointed out an old-fashioned house a block distant. “Tell her I sent you, for she is shy with strangers.” Neither the blooming, kindly faced widow nor the pretty, lively little Ruth were long shy with Beardsley, however. He bustled in upon them, frank and hearty. He paid what was charged when he left, avowing that the Iqvender scented bed awarded him had induced the soundest sleep he had enjoyed for years, and the scrapple and pancake dainties would leave a lasting longing for more. Something seemed to pass out of the lives of the mother and child when he came to bld them adieu. He waved kisses to the responsive little one until he was out of sight, with his great echoing voice promising her the prettiest city doll he could find, on his next visit. Beardsley and the doll arrived on schedule time, and at the end of his second day at the neat, homelike domicile of the widow, Beardsley was more effusive than ever in his enthusiastic appreciation of the comfort and attention awarded.* After that, not only Mrs. Lisle and Ruth, _but he himself looked forward to these monthly meetings as an event tn their lives —he always the genial, pleased visitor, friendly, but respectful, the widow cheery, eager to prepare for him her best cooking, and little Ruth delighted while he was in the house and in tears when he went away. One wintry night a belated train carried an unusual and unfamiliar John Beardsley through the drafts and snowdrifts, for the smile was absent and the kindly eyes dulled with gloom. Beardsley had just left a town where a former fellow traveling man had settled down. A memory of the cheery home, the loving wife, the comfort anchored husband made him reflect that he was missing the best gifts of life. He was a lone sheep, indeed, he mourned, a wanderer, a species of domestic outcast. However, once beside the cheerful fireplace of the Lisle home his ordinary good nature revived. He awoke the next morning at the sound of a vigorous knocking on his bedroom door. “Oh, Mr. Beardsley!” called out Ruth’s voice, "mamma says you’ve hardly got time to get up to eat breakfast and catch your train.” “No wonder I” retorted Beardsley. “After those hotel beds this one is a ■luxury.' I’ll be right down, little one.” He hurried his breakfast, for he had limited leeway of time his watch told him. He ran up to his room, lit a cigar and began piling his traps into the satchel. He placed the lighted cigar on the window sill and forgot all about it, leaving it there and rushing down the stairs and Mrs. Lisle called —UP : “Mr. Beardsley, you have barely four minutes, and I hear the train already whistling at the crossing. Ruth insists on seeing you off.”

“Good for little Ruthle!” cried Beardsley, I am,” and they left the house in pompany, and he had just time to pile into the rear car of the train as it pulled out of the depot. He stood on its platform, swinging his hat, while Ruth threw kisses, and Mrs. Lisle waved him a friendly good-by. The dull season came on. and It was three months before Beardsley again visited Bassford. During the Interim he had sent little Ruth gifts from time to time, and when he was ready to start on the road again he wrote the Bassford merchant, telling him when he would call on him. It was dgrk when Beardsley reached Bassford. A little figure was there to greet him, Roth, and her mother was with her. "Well, I declare! It’s heart warming to have true friends waiting to welcome you,” cried Beardsley, and he not only grasped, but held the proffered hand of Mrs. Lisle. "Mr. Morton, the storekeeper, told us when you would arrive,” exclaimed the widow diffidently “and as w&haye moved since you were here last, we came to take you to our new home." <

“Moved? Hows that?” inqulrea Beardsley. “We have got a smaller house,” explained Mrs. Lisle evasively, and he found it so when he reached it, but immaculately clean and cozy as the old one. 4 “I’m going to stock up Morton,” said Beardsley, “so I shall be here two oV three days.” He arose early the next morning and took a stroll before breakfast. As he passed the site of the old Lisle home he halted, quite staggered, showed the burned-out skeleton of the house in which he had passed so many pleasant hours. “I say!” he hailed a neighbor, going about his yard on crutches, “what’s happened here?” “Oh, the house burned down.” “When was that?” v “About three months ago. It was the first oL February, as I well remember, about eifcht o’clock in the morning. It caught fn the west room. I saw ther curtains on fire from my place here, but I was alone. I’m a cripple, and I couldn’t do anything. I telephoned the fire house, but it was all in flames by the time the hose cart got here.” “How did it catch?” questioned Beardsley, dawning'intelligence in his face. “Don’t know—mystery. Mrs. Lisle and little Ruth had gone to the depot with a visitor, and wheifcthey got back they found themselves homeless. Beardsley started briskly away from the §pot. There was a queter, inspired, resolute glow in his eye. The first of February! Eight o’clock in the morning! Curtains on fire in the room in which he slept! “Where I carelessly left my cigar!” he muttered. “That splendid woman must have guessed it, tried to hide it from me, and never let out a word. Bless her dear, honest soul! but I’ll surprise. her.” /Two hours later, a roll of blue paper under his- arm, Beardsley reappeared afthe new home of the Lisles. “Oh, dear! where have you been, Mr. Beardsley?” cried Ruth. “We’ve kept breakfast .waiting for two hours, and mamma was afraid something had happened to you, and was alifiost crying” x 4 “Nonsense,” flushed up the widow. “Blessed woman,” apostrophized Beardsley audibly. “Never mind eating,” he almost shouted. “I’m too excited for that. Now then, Mrs. Lisle, here are the plans for a new house I’ve ordered built for you on the old lot, to replace the one I burned down.” “The one you—” fluttered the widow. “And you knew I did, and you never told me, or blamed me! Dear soul! If I wasn’t an old roustabout bachelor, and not worth two thoughts from any woman—l’d—l’d—” his extended arms quivered—“l’d grab you, and hold you, and ask you to marry me.” “You are nothing of the sort!” resented the widow indignantly. “You’re the best man I ever met.” “You think that, do you?” cried Beardsley hopefully. “I«know it,” declared Mrs. Lisle stanchly. “Then—” “Oh, Mr. Beardsley! if we have, a new house, why don’t you be my papa, And stay with us all of the time?” put in Ruth. /‘You’ve said it, little one!” chuckled Beardsley. “And what do you say ?” he challenged, turning to the blushing mother. Her eyes drooped and her head sank low. There was no need of words, however, for she had placed on his arm a warm, trembling hand, the symbol of perfect confidence and love.

SOAP BUBBLES ARE DURABLE

If Blown in Accordance With Scientist’s Directions They Can Be Made to Last for Months. The transient existence of the soap bubble is proverbial, but Prof. J. Dewer, in a discourse delivered at the Royal institution in London, explained how -soap bubbles could be made to last for months, ancfexhibited several specimens. The first requisite is that the air used in blowing the bubble shall be free from dust. In Professor Dewar’s process the alrds filtered through cotton wool, and the bubbles are blown by opening a stopcock in the air-supply tube. For the soap solution he prefers the purest oleic acid (tested by the iodine number) and ammonium soap (not potassium or sodium.) To make a bubble durable the sac of liquid must be removed from its bottom by suction through tubes applied from outside. The lecturer showed bubbles more than-half : a yard in diameter, blown in glass vessels containing pure air at atmospheric pressure. A little water is kept at the bottom of the vessel. A uniform temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit is favorable to longevity. Professor Dewar said some of the smaller bubbles were a year old.

No Place Like Home.

Neighbor—Jierio, Jenkins! How are you? Haven’t seen you fpr qdlte a time,’and you never come and see the wife and me now. Why is that? Jenkins —Well, the fact is, old chap, that IQs not through ill will on bad feeling,' or anything like that, you know; only you and Mrs. Posmorq have borrowed so many things-from me that when I see your place it makes me feel homesick.

His Fault

"The preacher, who was an exbaseball player, seems to depend much upon his delivery.” “It would be much more effective if he only knew something about being a abortstop.”

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

OFF COME THE SHOES OF GERMAN WAR PRISONERS

The first thing a German prisoner of war does is to ta«e oft his shoes and rest his feet. A group of bodies captured by Canadians is here shown reposing in comparative comfort.

State Guard Is Eliminated In The New Army Plan

Identity of State Organizations Is Lost While This War Lasts. SUGGESTED BY GEN. PERSHING Reorganization Wipes Out Identity of Some Famous State Regiments— National Defense Act May Restore It After Conflict Washington. —War department officials, general staff officers and army officers generally frankly admit that the National Guard, as it was before the United States entered the war, is being gradually eliminated, certainly as far as this war is concerned. The fact is that since Gen. John J. Pershing was sent to France a decision has been reached to reorganize the regular army and National Guard from top to bottom. This decision was made on General Pershing’s urgent recommendation. General Pershing’s recommendations were the result of conferences in Paris between the American and allied commanders, and the new organization follows closely the lines of the present French organization, built up after three years of active fighting. The recommendations of General Pershing were an entire surprise to war department officials and the general staff. The latter balked at first, but ultimately followed the plan .recommended, by the American field commanders on the theory that Pershing was on the ground and in a position to know what the British and French have found most effective in battering their way through the German lines. That is the whole story. It is hard on National Guard organizations, especially the crack regiments, whose members have always taken great pride in them and striven to improve and perfect them. \ * For Keeping Identity. At the outset the general staff plan provided for mustering into the federal service state units as such, each of them to be given a new regular army number, but to i-etain its identity. When General Pershing urgently recommended that regiments be increased from 1.500 to more than 3,000, even crack National Guard infantry regiments, which had been recruited to full war strength were far below the required number. As finally perfected, the new organization provides for a regimental maximum strength of 103 officers and 3,652 enlisted men. This explains why it has been necessary to merge one National Guard regiment with another. It has been stated repeatedly that the National Guard would next go to France. By combining two Guard units the general staff figured the war department would have a maximum of men in the who had had some military training and experience. On the other hand, If the recommendations of governors; senators and representatives and National Guard officers were followed and the ranks of Guard units filled up with drafted men from We same states, the majority of every regiment, with a few exceptions, would be composed of wholly untrained men. This would mean a much longer training period. As reorganized, army experts are confident the National Guard troops will be ready for service after a minimum training period in this country. Superior Fighting Machine. * However disappointing the new organization -toay be to either National Guard or regular army troops, officials feel that there can be no doubt that every officer and man In both branches, as well as those now tn the National army camps, want to see the most efficient fighting machine possible. Army experts devoted most earnest study and thought to the reorganization. They think they have perfected an organization which has no superior as a fighting machine. In the reorganisation New York’s

Guardsmen have suffered disintegration. For instance, the men of the First New York Cavalry and Squadron A find themselves today mere “dough boys,” as in the past they termed the infantry. They are bidding final farewell to their horses, and the parting is a sad one, for many of the former cavalrymen have had the same mounts for several years. The officers and men of the old First Cavalry are being split up among three units. The One Hundred and Sixth Machine Gun battalion will claim 550 of the enlisted personnel and the One hundred and Second Trench Mortar battery, the first of its kind to be organized in this country, takes One Hundred and Eighty One. The One Hundred and Second Ammunition Train will also claim a number of officers and men of the old regiment. Squadron A, too, has lost its mounts and the organization is now.tbe One Hundred and Fifth Machine Gun battalion. In the Spartanburg camp of the Twelfth and Seventy-first regiments, there are not enough men left to make a decent sized company. The historic commands have been drained of their men that more fortunate regiments in the first line might get their war quotas. ’ In some Instances units from two states have been combined or are about to be thrown together. These are extreme cases, and they tend to stir up even keener resentment than the combining of units within a single state. Missouri Protests. The Fourth Missouri and Third Kansas furnish a striking illustration. Both of these regiments were below the strength required by the new organization. Both contained a large number of veterans. When It was decided to combine them, Missourians immediately rose and protested the case in person to Secretary Baker, pointing out the injustice to both states and the damaging effect on the morale of the officers and men. He said this was true, also, of the Second Missouri, which was slated to be carved up and transformed into machine gun battalions. Governor Gardner used all of the arguments he could muster, but wound up by declaring emphatically that if the government could not do otherwise Mr. Baker could count on Missouri supporting him and doing its duty to a man. This case has not yet been finally disposed of, but it is entirely probable that Governor Gardner will lose. Mr. Baker personally regrets the necessity for breaking up state units. Ohio, his own state, has some crack regiments, and the Buckeye state is being treated exactly as every other state. The first consideration is a military one. The government wants the best possible military machine and only efficiency was considered in perfecting the organization plans. After the War. If there are any definite after-the-war plans for the National Guard they 'have not been revealed. Military experts who discussed the matter declared that after the war the National Guard naturally will revert to its status under the national defense act, which was passed with a view to federalizing the Guard and making it more responsive to national authority. But what will be left of the National Guard if the war lasts a long time, it is asked? When the Guard was shaken together after its service on the border it numbered approximately 150,000. Since that time many thousand Guardsmen have been discharged on account of dependent relatives. Its strength at the time the United States entered the war may be put at 125.000 officers and men. Men who have enlisted since that time did so “for the period of the war. and will be? automatically discharged when it ends. Meanwhile, it is fair to assume that many of the veteran Guardsmen will appear on casualty lists. .At best, therefore, the National

Guard proper at the close of the war will be nothing like as large as at present—37B,ooo men. Or course, many of the men who go through the war safely will re-enlist for peace time service. For "Period ft War.” What is true of the National Guard in this respect also is true of the regular army, two-thirds of which is composed of men who volunteered their services for the period of the war, and cannot be held after peace is declared. The terms of thousands of other men will have expired and they also must be released. i It will be recalled that the formal announcement tof the war department, in defining the new organization, specifically stated that it was for “overseas service.” It is but fair to assume that this organization is not now intended to be permanent and that there will be no disposition to maintain National Guard units as now organized after peace comes. In fact, Secretary Baker has repeatedly Informed the newspaper men that all plans for the hrmy are temporary, or “for the period of the war.” Congress took particular pains to specify Ihat the selective draft law applied only to the war period and was not to be considered as an approval of the principle of universal military training as a permanent policy. It is freely predicted that the ( men who do the fighting in France will see to it that congress provides far a permanent system of universal military training. When the National Guard troops returned from- the border they were almost a unit in demanding universal legislation as a matter of common sense and element ary justice. Even with a system of universal military training in vogue, It was pointed out, the National Guard would not necessarily be eliminated.

“SLAFETY FLIRST,” SAYS WOO

Chinese Carrying SI,OOO at New H» ven, Conn., Tells Why He Goes Armed. New Haven, Conn. —“Slafety flirst allee tllme.** This, ‘ according to vice squmd officers, is the motto of Woo Tick, Chinese. » Woo, who Is ' the proprietor of a laundry, was arrested for carrying concealed weapons. Vice squad policemen said they found a revolver on hi* person. “What are you carrying a revolver for?” Hauser asked Woo. “Tloo many tough gluys in Cleveland,” he replied. V “Have you got any money’” queried Hauser, thoroughly interested. “Sure,” replied Woo. Searching his pockets, the officers were surprised to find SI,OOO, SSOO of which was in gold.

Corset Saves Her Life.

Houghton, Mich. —The life of Mrs. Frederick Landroche of Hancock was probably saved by a corset stay. Her husband, arraigned in court on a charge of non-support, asked for permission to speak to his wife. This being granted, he pulled a revolver and fired twice. One shot went wild, the other was deflected by the corset stay.

ST. VITUS’ DANCE GOOD FOR SERVICE

New York.—Little things like Walking in one’s sleep or being afflicted with St. Vitus’ dance have naught to do with a man’s ability to fight in the new National army, ruled a local examining board recently. When a stalw’art candidate informed the board he was afflicted with both “aliments” members winced. Then they considered the case and decided that he was “fit” for service. “But I might get up some night and w alk right into the enemy’s camp,” argued the applicant. “Then the St. Vitus’ dance will come in handy,” said board member. “You can jump right out again.”

HOME TOWN HELPS

SEEKING SITE TO FIT HOME Many People Do Not Stop to Think at All of the Vast Importance of the Mouse's Sotting. Most of who are saving to btfild a house —the sort they have dreamed of possessing—give so much attention to the actual plans of the dwelling that they do not stop to think at all of the vast Importance of the house’s setting. They are joys and profits in site hunting that the average home-builder who is willing to content himself with the first strip of land in a desirable neighborhood with which his real estate dealer confronts him never guesses. Obviously the awjerage city lot Is the “fiat, treeless, 50 by 100,” on which, of course, there is little possible latitude in building. The house must be oblong and stand on one of its ends about in the center of the lot. with an Inconsequential margin on either side, and a flower-trimmed square of green in front and rear. There are many streets of this type in every suburb. But in every suburb also there are odd corners that have been passed by as unsuitable. Like the neglected creed beds in the farmer’s fields, they are generally of odd shapes and wooded, the hand of the “improver” having passed them x as hopeless. In rural districts where land is rated by its cultivatable area, these are literally waste and can often be bought for very little. ' One of the least appreciated kind of sites for a home is the gully or draw. Everywhere among the hills there are places where the. waters have cut out a bed to the rocks and a stream splashes swiftly downward among the trees. There are few greater outdoor joys for folk who like to plan things themselves and execute them with their own hands than the development of one of these spots. If you have a definite plan for your house In mind before you have an Idea for the site, you should seek your site to fit the home. A chateau would be out of place where a bungalow cottage would be wholly at ease. A barn might be badly misplaced on the ideal site for a farmhouse. But site hunting untrammeled by aught save the limits of one’s imagination is great fun and a liberal education.

HOME SHOULD BE EXPRESSIVE

Character of the Owner Shows in the Architecture of the Dwelling and the Decorations Within. The essential in the art of home building is the ability to suit your own taste —to express your own nature. Your taste may not at all coincide with that of your neighbor, but that is not important. There are as many individual expressions of the art that Is within one as there are leaves dn a tree and there is no good reason why the expression of the individual qhould not continue in the home itself. Imagine what a thrilling adventure in human nature all of us might have In the course of a day spent in making calls if our neighbors and acquaintances only allowed their souls and minds to express themselves in the houses they build and furnish, says an exchange. It is not hard to imagine such an adventure, for about every one has seen one such home. But these are by no means frequently found. For people’s characters do show In their homes—in the architecture of the dwelling, the decorations within, the selection of the furniture, even in the pictures and the way they are hung. To persons who are not especially observant this fact is as plain as the fact that one can always detect the presence of feminine fingers in the arrangement of the bric-a-brac, the flowers or vase on the stand or the books and magazines on the library table. The thing is so palpably human that It is almost impossible not to recognize it-

Duty of the Community.

A happier childhood, better provisions for play, better surroundings, greater bodily vigor and a stronger spirit, less hampered by gathering doubts, are gifts which the community, as the fairy godmother of the rising generation, can lay at:the cradle of every child in> America. The community that has not the vision, the loving kindness A and the plain common sense to make the child better fitted to fight off the doubts and the fears of the future, commits a crime against’ itself as well as against its children. —New York Evening Mail.

What of It?

Jimmy had not come up to his father’s expectations in regard to his studies at school and an explanation was demanded. “Why is it.” inquired the irate parent, “that you are at the bottom of the class?” “I can’t see that it makes any difference whether 1 am at the top or the bottom,* replied Jimmy pacifically. “You know they teach just the sama at both ends.”