Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 185, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1918 — Page 2

STORIES of AMERICAN CITIES

Official Sanction Given to the Girl “Bellhop” LOS ANGELES— Enter the girl bellhop as a war measure. Any day now we may see her at her post in some hotel filling the place of a young man nabbed by the work-or-fight order of Provost Marshal General Crowder. She

is considered perfectly proper by the government and. in line for honors along with the farmerette, the woman b* driver and the female elevator | boy, it was announced at a meeting of the Southern California Hotel Men’s association by Robert M. Shearer, who represented the city draft boards and gave an interpretation of the new ruling. 1 That the “hopperettes,” as they may come to be called, are to be protected from possible affronts by male

guests of the hostelries was his further statement. It will be a duty of the proprietors to see that their charges are treated with all proper respect. As a bellboy, woman is permissible, but as a night clerk, never, stated Mr. Shearer. Wherever she is efficient as a day clerk or accountant, she is to be welcomed, for then a mere man may "be put to “work” provided, of course, he is not of draft age. But even though male clerks are considered “essentials” by the government, not so with the myriads of hatrack men, waiters, porters telephone boys, and underclerks that are to be found in every first-class hostelry. Their positions are considered of the “susle” variety which almost any girl can fill. Even the alien enemy gets a chance, It was said. He is considered permissible” although hardly “advisable” In a hotel, Mr. Shearer remarked. That is, provided he keeps his mouth shut and his hands busy at productive Industry. The jazzy “artists” of the cabaret have been declared as not necessary to the winning of the war, the draft board representative averred, and are to be hauled out of office along with sonm “ham” actors and the film supers? “To the trenches with ’em,” he said. “May their sweet voices lull Fritz to sleep.” And perhaps they will 1

Ownership of Dog Might Have Puzzled Solomon

BROOKLYN. —After a collie dog answered to every name everybody in the court hurled at him, Magistrate Gelsmar announced that if he lives to the overripe age of one thousand years he will never again try to decide the ownership of a dog. No, sir; not even

Green cut in, emphasizing the verb. “His name is Laddie. The idea of calling my pet such a common name as Rover!” Magistrate Geismar told the women to take positions in different parts of the courtroom. He directed one of the attendants to take the dog to the door of the room and release him. Mrs. Knappenberger hugged the animal when he trotted to her side. “Try it again,” ordered the court. The second time the dog galloped up to where Mrs. Green was sitting. At Magistrate Geismar’s order the women changed places and the dog trotted to each alternately. “Here, Jack!” said a policeman. The dog nearly knocked him over answering the call. The dog answered to Bouncer, Lizzie, Jake, Marmaduke, Rex, Molly, Sylvester, Topsy and Henry in turn. “Here, George!” yelled a lawyer. The collie leaped, over chairs to answer that one. “I give it up,” said Magistrate Geismar. “When a dog has as many aliases as that it’s time to call for help. You two women had better go to a civil court.”

Decision May Cause Diminution of “Joy Riding”

NEW YORK. —Walking, a method of locomotion that went out of style with the advent of the flivver, is due for a grand revival. A Brooklyn court has decided that an automobile owner is responsible for injuries suf-

sered by friends who happen to be in his automobile just before it hits a tree or tries to dispute the right of way with a train. Thousands upon thousands of persons who spend Sunday helping some friendly car owner gasoline himself into bankruptcy and the rest of the week telling others what a rotten car he has, will now have to stand around and roast him as, he starts out unaccompanied, alt alone by himself. Widptnat decision staring him in

the face, even the owner who likes totpke an audience along to listen to his garage patter will hesitate before Trading his chariot with potential lawsuits. In the Bronx and other sections where it is a common thing to see three or four adults and five or six children stuffed into a half-portion car, the decision will cause acute distress. The woman who sued wms out riding with a neighbor. The neighbor was jolly well hitting it up along a smooth road. In the offing a big motortruck was in charge of a fellow with nothing on his mind but his hat. There was a grinding of brakes and then the crash, and the woman who sued found herself hapging by a perfectly good skirt to the limb of a perfectly good tree, and to say that it spoiled her outing is putting it mildly. She was awarded >4,000. ~ . The owner of the car took her to a hospital and paid for the arnica and all that sort of thing, but tbe law held that in this age of radical reform in the relations of mankind there was nothing to do but assess damages.

Took His Freedom Just a Little Too Literally

CHICAGO.— Marguerite Krohn was perfectly willing to give her husband to the United States, but to another woman, never. So read what happened »to Henry E. because he took too much for granted. Henry’s patriotic spirit

he would be in training, to his wife.- So Marguerite became suspicious, and her suspicions bore fruit when she met Henry, in civilian togs, parading a South Chicago thoroughfare, and on his arm was a beautiful blonde. To her protests, Marguerite told the police, Henry replied that when she said she could get along without him, he took unto himself another wife who wouldn’t be so Independent She went to Crown Point and found recorded there, she told the police, the marriage of Henry to Christina. Smith <4 Chicago. • * \ Judge Prlndiville granted the usual warrant for Henry’s arrest. lie’ll “tell it to the judge” later. •- ' <

If he knot’s the dog’s owner intimately and had been In the habit of meeting them taking each other out for an airing three times a day. Mrs. Sally Knappenberger of 4522 Third avenue and Mrs. Jane Green of 127 Thirty-second street, Brooklyn, each claimed the collie. “His "name is Rover, your honor,” explained Mrs. Knappenberger. “He was like oi>e of the family until—” “He is one of my family,” Mrs.

waxed wroth at the ruthless U-boats, according to MargueHte. He wanted to join the navy and help drive .Von Tirpitz and his crew off the high seas. Being self-reliant as well as patriotic, Marguerite . gave her ’ consent, with no little pride is her husband’s desire to fight for his country, telling him that she could support their little daughter while he was at war. So Henry went on his way. But Henry neglected to write from the naval station, where she thought

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER. IND.

GUN HIGHER THAN THE HOUSETOPS

One of the giant British guns that have been Instrumental In checking the German offensive on the western front. A gun of this type is used only for long-range firing, and can fire to a distance of about 15 miles. They are placed far in the rear of the Infantry.

DESCRIBES BRUTAL GERMAN PRISONS

French Soldier Tells How Huns Fed Prisoners Food Even Dogs Refused. TREATEDWDRSETHANBEASTS Rendered Half Insane by Hunger Men Fight Among Themselves for Scraps of Food—Sawdust and Straw in Bread. Bangor, Me. —In contrast with the anxiety or willingness of the German soldier to fall captive to the allies, so often manifested, is the declaration of Gaston Julian Defoirdt of Woonsocket, R. 1., now visiting relatives here, that he would much rather die fighting on the front line than to go through such pains and miseries as he endured in two years spent in a German prison camp. Defoirdt, who is twenty-four and well educated, was visiting in France when the war came and very soon he was in the ranks. On the second day of his service at the front he was wounded in the left ear by a fragment of shrapnel and three days later he was taken prisoner. With many other prisoners he was sent to the rear, and there they were loaded like so many cattle into freight cars and started on a seven days’ ride to the prison camp at Altengrabow.

“At every way station where the train stopped,” says Defoirdt. “the German people gathered round and threw stones and spat in our faces. We were subjected to all sorts of insults. Many of us were wounded, yet we got no attention whatever, being given scarcely food enough to keep us alive and made to sleep on the floors of the dirty freight cars. “When finally we found ourselves in the German prison camp conditions were Worse rather than better. There were about 25,000 men at Altengrabow, all nationalities mingled. We were guarded by German soldiers who had been incapacitated for service at the front and who on account of their wounds were revengeful toward us. Dogs Refused Prison Fare. “It would be difficult to picture in words the awful conditions prevailing in that camp. Our diet consisted for the most part of hot water and decayed vegetables—they called it soup. Sometimes we were given herbs mixed with grass to eat. Under such treatment the strongest men soon fell sick and were scarcely able to move about. The smell of this soup often was so nauseating that men held their noses while eating it. Dogs would take one pnlff at It and refuse to eat At times the men became sq. desperately hungry that they caught and ate rats and even a dog. Occasionally we were given herring broth, made by boiling whose, uncleaned herrings into

POILU TACKLES GUM

Looked Like Food So They Tried to Eat It. Now' Have Remarkable Regard for the American Digestive Apparatus. Paris.—One of the struggles in which the French soldiers became, involved when the Germans swept across the Aisne between Soissons and Reims was with chewing gum. I refer to Chicle Americanus, the—to us —wellknown vegetable product which may be found adhering to the underside of desks, to shoe soles, and to trouser seats throughout the United States. The self-same article that at once solaces the weary shop girl and the tired business man who endeavors therewith to conceal the fume of the drinks that cheer. ' An American ambulance train was operating in thb general region of the

a thin liquid, the heads, bones and scales of the fishes being served with the rest. One of the prisoners was operated on for appendicitis after' his transfer and four herring heads were found lodged in his intestines. “I have seen prisoners, rendered half insane by hunger, fighting among themselves for bits of food. If one’s rations were stolen or taken from him by force and he complained to the guard the answer would be: ‘Why, are you not all friends —allies? Surely there can be nothing to complain of.’ When the neutral commission would visit the camps the prisoners would be given a short cut of frankfurter sausage and a lump of bread, so that It might appear that they were fairly well fed. Sawdust Bread. “This bread contained all sorts of stuff, 'such as. potato peelings, straw

OWN GUNS SLAY FOE

Yankees Take Weapons and Turn Them on Hun. Run Out of Ammunition and Make Night Raid on Trenches for More. With the American Army in France. —Turning “Heinie’s” own machine guns back on him is the newest and favorite stunt in a certain American outfit. The boys just stumbled onto this sport, and they like it. Recently in raids the boys brought back some German machine guns, after driving the Germans away from their own strongholds. - * “Why not use these German guns on the Helnies?” one thinking doughboy asked his pals. “You’re crazy; we haven’t any ammunition that’ll fit them.” “Why can’t we go over and get some?” replied the thinker. “Never thought of that,” replied the others; “we’re on.” That night they raided the German trenches and brought back plenty of ammunition and another German machine gun. Next day the guns were playing on the “Helnies.” “They’re darned good machine guns,” said one chap enthusiastically, “but the Heinies don’t know how to use them. We do, We’re getting a little low on ammunition. Guess we’ll have to run over to Germany tonight and make ’em hand out some more.”

Russian radicals' demand the prohlbition of child labor during school age up to the sixteenth year and the limitation of the working hours of minors (sixteen to eighteen years) to six hours a day. s "

drive, and the army post exchanges established and operated for it by the Y. M. C. A. were well supplied with the things which are necessary to the comfort —physical and mental —of the American soldier. The Red Triangle officials had established a storehouse to supply these exchanges, and a carload of supplies had been shipped to it just before the Germans started their drive. The carload carried —besides chocolate, ; tobacco, canned goods, cookies, etc. —a considerable quantity of chewing gum. When the drive started the Red Triangle workers available started out with what they could carry to serve the men to whom they were attached. The storehouse was left deserted. As the French retired they foraged to keep supplies from falling into enemy hands, using what they could and destroying the rest The Pollas who came upon the chewing gum—like most Frenchmen — were totally unfamiliar with it They knew only that it looked like food, was wrapped like food, and was stored with other things they knew to be ' _ * ' t.

ENEMY AGENT BLAMED FOR POOR WHEAT CROP

Salem, O. —Enemy agents are blamed for an Insect pest which has reduced Butler township’s bumper wheat crop to much less than normal- The ravages of* the Insect have been tremendous. Last winter the farmers now remember an aged man of German extraction was observed wandering about the township visiting wheat fields to the exclusion of others, .and apparently digging in them with his hands, as if burying something in the soil.

and sawdust., All prisoners were made to sign papers Indicating their willingness to work. If they refused to sign they were severely punished. The ntfn supposed that they were to engage in farm work, but were sent to coal mines, salt mines and munitions factories. I refused to work in a muni-, tlons factory flbd was tied to a post for three hours. One group of* prisoners who persistently refused to work were told that they would be shot and were placed under a special guard. At the end of 11 days, during which they momentarily expected to be executed, they were told that their Ilves would be spared.

“While in prison I slept on the sn,fle cot for 18 months and in all that time the straw was not changed. When I left the straw was as fine as dust and alive with vermin. After 18 months at Altengrabow I was transferred to Mersburg. After an exchange of prisoners had been effected I was taken to Constance, where I was provided with a new suit of clothes and was well fed and kindly treated for eight days before being turned over to the allies. I suppose this was done in the hope that in my new comfort and the joy at being released I might forget the past. “In Switzerland I was taken in charge by the Red Cross and kept In the hospital there for 14- months. Had the Germans given me proper treatment for my wound I would have recovered In a few weeks; as it Was, after years of neglect, dirt, semistarvation and hard work, I was in such condition when released that for a time my life was despaired of. Even now, .after the best efforts of the Red Cross physicians and nurses, the left side of my face is partially paralyzed and I can see but little with my left eye.”

KNITS 24 SOCKS WHILE WAITING TO TESTIFY

Los Angeles, Cal. —Called here from Detroit to testify in the federal court, Miss Olive Kidder brought along her -knitting needles and yarn, and while waiting to be called to the stand knitted a dozen pairs of socks for Uncle Sam’s soldiers in France.

BATHTUB AT THE FRONT

The boys see to it that their- pets get a scrubbing up once in a while, too. Photo shows a Canadian giving his pet a much-needed wash during a rest from the line.

food. They ventured further and tried it, stuffing the entire contents of a package into their mouths at one time, if tasted like food, so after a brief period of mastication they essayed to swallow it. Too many of them, succeeded. While no serious casualties resulted the Poilus were in* spired with a remarkable regard for American digestive apparatuses and’ considerable ewe for American edibles.

Making Greek Cheese.

Madison, Wis. —Three factories tn this state are now manufacturing Greek cheese. The factories are located at Milwaukee, Janesville and Shawano. The manufacturers are confident that the work has passed the experimental stage. They are making two varieties —Feta and Mynzethra.

Ragtime Bugler Killed.

Gary, Ind. —Joe Mayulers, who was recently killed in action in France, was known here as the “rag-time bugler.” He was an expert bugler and was one of the few buglers In the army who played bis calls in ragtime.

A VILLAGE SLEUTH

By WARREN L. TRESHAM.

tUupyright, 1018. by Western Newspaper Culuu.) • "Dolph,” -his familiars called him. his full name, was Adolphus Barclay, and “the sleuth” he was dubbed by certain derisive residents of Brookdale. He had won the appellation fairly, for inquisitiveness and a habit of following up that characteristic with prying- / ways had become a part of his nature, Dolph had finally engendered a distinct detective ambition, but the local scope was limited and he was compelled to accept what offered, which, was a half-salaried position as a constable on the staff of the sheriff. Here Dolph shone, or fancied he did. At all events he worked up a deepmystery about once a month. It usually ended in smoke, but the amateur man catcher was diligent. He invested ordinary civil cases with a tinge of uniqueness and Importance, discerned purposes of arson in a common bonfire and the occasional thefts of tramps as the operations of a leagued clique of bandits, bent’ upon devast*ing the district. Dolph confessed to a sneaking fondness for Margaret Dunn, who thoroughly despised him and his methods. They merely spoke and Dolph never ventured to go further than that. He had high hopes, how “t, of some day coming across-a mystery, a. tragedy, where his professional acumen would arouse the interest and admiration of the pretty daughter of old farmer Dunn. "That’s strange!” muttered Dolph one afternoon, as, near to the Dunn home, he observed a young man enter the yard little farm and lift his*cap to Margaret. A conversation ensued. Dolph dared not venture near enough to overhead it. He could only trace that Margaret was fairly cordial to the stranger. She went around tp the barn, reappearing with old Dobbin hitched to a light wagon. The young man carried one arm in a sling. They drove down the road for about a mile. Then the young man alighted. He went in among somebushes, reappeared with a suitcase, placed it in the wagon and the trip back home was made. The young man was evidently Invited by Margaret to tea. Dolph, sneaking closer to the house, observed, them both seated at the table In thedining room. Dolph edged his way around to the front porch. The mysterious suitcase had been left there by the stranger. Dolph observed that it was only strapped. His inquisitivetemperament urged him to get a glimpse of its contents. He nlftily released the straps, opened the satchel and — “A spy—worse!” he breathed, his eyes sparkling, his face eager, inspirited. "At last a famous catch!” .Then he restored the suitcase to its original condition and made off down the road in feverish haste.

The stranger of military bearing, arm in sling, as though some returned war hero, had politely addressed Margaret He told her that he was due in the village at seven o’clock, that hehad made a mistake in leaving thetrplley and had been unable to carry the suitcase more than a mile oil account of his injured arm. He told enough of how its transient uselessness came about to not only interest, but to enthuse Margaret, who at once offered to recover the abandoned object, give him his supper as well, and then drive him to the village, for wa* not she to meet her father there and. accompany him to the war meeting in behalf of the Red Cross at the town, hall? Meantime Dolph Barclay raced down the turnpike, never letting up on his speed until he had reached the office of the sheriff. “I’ve made a marvelous discovery,” proclaimed Dolph, and told his story graphically to the point where he had opened the suitcase. “Weel, weel, go on,” urged the sheriff impatiently. “What did you find in it?” “The outfit of a regular spy, a dynamiter!” declared Dolph in ponderous tones. “I found in that suitcase —” “Yes, yes; go on!” “An enemy flag, an enemy helmet end an explosive shell. Say! it would turn you pale to see' its deadly size. Oh, I’ve made a catch this time, believe me!”

-“Come on," said the sheriff, “we’ll find this mysterious stranger and explore the contents of that suitcase.” “There they are 1” announced Dolph, as half a mile down the turnpike he saw the wagon approaching, and on the front seat, chatting and laughing, Margaret and her stranger guest. “Halt I” ordered Dolph, springing Into the road. “Sheriff, I denounce this man as a spy and the proof of it will be found in that carpet bag!”

Margaret uttered a slight laugh. Her companion broadly grinned. This ; somehow discomposed the sheriff. "May I ask,” he inquired, “what you have in that suitcase?” “Surely," answered the stranger with promptness, “an enemy flag, a helmet such as our foes wear, and a sample of the explosive shells we use on the front. I have just come- from there, and am assisting your lecturer at the war meeting* tonight by exhibiting these trophies of warfare.” “Why, yes, Mr. Barclay," added Margaret sweetly, “and we invite you, as a public official, to have a seat on the platform.” So the great discovery of the amateur sleuth went up, as usual witijybia cases, in smoke, but it brought about a later further companionship for Margaret and her soldier guest.