Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1918 — Page 3

YANKS QUICKLY ADAPT SELVES

American Youths SooruFall Into Free and Easy Life of the Soldier. SHAVE IN PUBLIC SQUARE Sight la So Commonplace That None of Townspeople Stop to Look on, Even When They Take to “Reading" Shirts. With the American Army.—lt hasn’t taken long for American youths to become acclimated to the free-and-easy lives of soldiers. They are as frank and as open and as shameless as theft French brothers in arms, and a good deal more so than their British comrades. ' A convoy of American troops halts k'or a few hours’ rest in some French town, not too far from the front but that the distant rumble of the Incessant cannonade can be heard, with occasionally the alternating buzz-buzz of a Boche airplane and the dull boom Of the archies hurled skyward-at it After “chowing" at the rolling kitchens that accompany them and washing up their mess kits, the doughboys usually turn to their toilets. Even though they are parked in the shade under the tall trees around the public square of the town, that doesn’t feaze them a bit. They unpack theft safety razors, their shaving soap and brushes and proceed to shave then and there. But It is such a commonplace sight that none of the townspeople stop to look on. The French children —“les gosses," as the Yanks have already learned to call them in true French argot—gather round, but that is all. “Read” Their Shirts. ' Then one doughboy who thinks he is a barber enters the nearest house and borrows a chair. He places it on a box and administers haircuts to such subjects as will take a chance on his handiwork with the scissors. These amateur barbgrs are not so bad, either, clipping off the hair close, so the doughboys stand less chance of having gas stick in their hair. Often the doughboys strip to the waist and engage fti the pleasing pastime of “reading their shirts,” as American hoboes term it. For, no matter where a number of men are congregated without women to tidy up after them, they are bound to have vermin. “Cooties,” the doughboys call fleas and body lice and other forms of animal life that inhabit their garments. Whenever they catch a particularly large specimen they examine it closely and announce that It is of German "origin, has escaped from the Boche trenches and has the Iron Cross stamp/ed on its back. If the Yanks bivouac near a stream everybody takes a dip right away*. Their officers always Insist that the men wear some sort of a breech clout in swimming, so the doughboys usually keep on the drawers of their B. V. D.’s and then stand naked on the bank of the stream waiting for them to dry in the sun. In the line the men shave every day when it is possible, because they have learned from the French that a gas mask fits tighter if there is no stubble of beard on the chin to let the deadly fumes seep in and burn them. They have become used to their respirators very quickly and wear them 24 hours at a stretch without it bothering them. Adopt British Custom. They have also adopted the British custom of merely nipping the nose clutch on their nostrils and placingthe breathing plug in their mouths without strapping the headgear over their craniums every time a gas alert is sounded. Il’ gas really materializes they proceed to adjust the mask according to regulations, otherwise they unsnip the nosepiece and spit out the mouth plug and go on about their affairs. Any tim j a dud shell lands —one that fails

MADE HAPPY BY MAIL FROM HOME

Delivery of letters from home is a great event “over there.” Here are ehown the hippy countenances of American Red-Croqa chauffeurs upon the art tval of the mail wagon In Paris. \ - . ♦ ■ .A.

to explode—it is likely to be mistaken for a gas shell and the alarm sounded. Nearly all of the doughboys in the line wrap their tin hats with burlap or some other material to cover the metal, as In walking through the trenches if one’s helmet strikes a wire or some projection it rings like a bell and Is often taken as a signal to open fire by some Boche sniper lurking hidden and camouflaged in No Man’s land. A stray bullet striking a barbed wire strand makes a ping that can be heard half a mile, and if one strikes a steel hat it sounds like a village fire alarm bell. -

HIS WELCOME IN ITALY MAKES HIM FAVOR WAR

Cleveland, O.—“if this be war, to hell with peace!” This is au extract from a letter written by Lieut. G. W. Connelly to friends here from his billet in Italy, describing the welcome accorded the first American troops to arrive in that country. His letter stated that the soldiers were deluged with flowers, fruits and gifts as they marched aloiig and were tendered several banquets and receptions.

To Stop Death Under Fifty.

London. —Death under fifty must be prevented. Sir George Newman, in making a health report to the board ofeducation, lays down this aim. All medical education, be argues, is budded primarily on the curing of disease, not its prevention. Examination of records shows, says Sir George, that most fatalities under fifty are more or less directly preventable.

In the six years from 1911 to 1917 -membership in trade unions in Canada has grown from 133,132 to 204,630.

SERGEANT LOSES HIS LAST FIGHT

Soldier Wins Admiration of Comrades Through Cheerful- , ness in Hospital. HE WAS GAME TO THE END Four’ Operations Were Too Much for Strength of Non-Com. Who Was Wounded in Action ati Chateau-Thierry. An American Hospital in France.— “No, they’re not going to bring the sergeant back to the ward, boys.” These were exactly the words the nurse used. But the tone of her voice and. the look in her eyes said more. ' The little group in the ward which had been playing cards bn one of the beds to forget the tension they felt while the sergeant’s operation was taking place,’ stopped suddenly, tentlon, all hungering for good new&, “You don’t mean the sergeant’s gone, do you?” exclaimed one. \“Yes, boys, the sergeant’s gone. Four operations were just too much for his strength. He never regained consciousness.” He Was a Game Boy. “Gee, the sergeant’s gone," huskily said a chap with one leg gone, “he sure was a game boy.” “He was the best fellow I ever Knew,” said another, “and the cheerfulest, too. I’ve seen them drossing his leg time'and again, and gosh! but It hurt. But did the sergeant ever say anything? Not the sergeant—he never batted an eye.” * “Just to think,” mused a third, “it wasn’t half an hour ago when we

TITE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RBNBBELAER. UTL

DROVE AMBULANCE IN FRANCE

Miss Caroline. Stevens, daughter of Mrs. Richard Stevens of New York and Newport, who returned to this country, recently from France, where she drove ambulance at the front for many months.

saw. him go out. I shouted, ‘Good luck, Sarge,’ when the stretcher was carried through the dbor, and he smiled and said: ‘Thanks, I’ll be back In a fedßmlnutes with you.’ ” The sergeant was Frank Carbaugh of Greencastle, Pa., a member of the Seventh Machine-Gun Sanitary detachment. No mother ever reared a braver son. The sergeant, who was a mathematics teacher before the war, was founded when his outfit was rushed into action near Chateau Thierry. None of his bunkies knew just how. because, as one of them explained “the sergeant wasn’t the kind of a fellow who’d talk of himself,. You can bet he was wounded doing something for somebody, though.” They did know that the sergeant lay out in the open a long time after he was wounded. Medical records show that. His left leg was badly smashed, and they operated at the first hospital he reached. But gangrene had set In, and four operations had followed. They have had lots of brave patients that doctors and nurses and patients admired unlike in that hospital, but never one just like the sergeant. The little group sitting on the cots, with the nurse, had been talking of the sergeant for a long time, when one of the boys said: “You ought to write to his mother, Miss Cutter. The sarge thought the world of his mother.” ' ‘Tm going to,” replied the nurse. “You boys write out what you think oi the sergeant, and I’ll send that, too” What the Boys Wrote. The boys did, and here are a few lines from them: Private Elmer Hyland wrote: “I was with him as sopfi as he came from the operation, and I cried when he went. He was a great boy—a clean fellow through and through. I wish my foot 'vrr so I could walk with him to the cemetery.” - Wagoner John Trask wrote: “Our sergeant Is gone. Why, I loved that fellow like ray own brothers. Pve seen other fellow’s go, but I never felt like this.” Sergeant Vincent Sauer wrote: “I never felt worse since I came in the, fight. He was game to the last; always cheerful, and when I called ‘Good luck to you.’ he answered r *Thanks. I’ll be 6. K. soon.’ We always had fun around his bed; he was so cheerful. He was one of the finest fellow’s I ever knew.” Arthur Stain, who knew the sergeant better than the rest, the boys say, because ‘he and the sarge liked to dabble in poetry;’ wrote a poem to send the sergeant’s mother. They buried the sergeant in the lib tie American graveyard In a - pretty Lorraine valley,/ with an' American flag over the coffin, as 18 soldiers fired three shots over the grave and the bugler gave “taps.” Then some of the boys whose injuries permitted their attending the funeral, gathered flowers In the valley and the nurses placed 'them on the grave with red, white and blue ribbons around them.

COBB, MATHEWSON, RICKEY AND HAUGHTON WILL NOT ENJOY SOFT BOMBPROOF PLACES

That Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Branch Rickey, Percy Haughton and other men prominent in the sporting world’have not been handed soft bombproof jobs In their appointment as officers In the chemical department of the war was made known by Maj. Gen. William L. Sibert, -director of the United States chemical, service, in answer to a pointed question regarding the duties of such officers. “Our troops, that is the gas troops, are not chemists, nor are the officers that go with those divisions,” said the general. “Those officers teach the men how to use the gas masks and stay with them through the engagements. “It was for work of this kind that those men were taken. They were not taken because they are baseball players; we simply wanted to get strong, robust fellows that have good average common sense, and these men wanted to come in, and we took them. They will go over in the gas troops as gas officers;” In the offensive end of the gas service the gas troops carry out cloud attacks, operating the projectors or light mortars that throw shells filled with gas. f So it looks as If the famous baseball men will be right at the front, administering gas to the enemy.

LAVAN NAMED NEW MANAGER

Former Washington Player Appointed as Leader of Great Lakes Baseball Outfit. Assistant Surgeon John Lavan, known in major league baseball parlance as “Johnny” Lavan of the Wash-

Johnny Lavan.

ington Nationals, has been appointed manager of the Great Lakes baseball team. Retiring in favor of Doctor Lavan Is Phil Chouinard who has had charge of the club during the current season. The change was made because of Lavan’s rank and greater' baseball experience. The new manager has been one of the greatest shortstops of the game for the past four years, playing both In St. Louis and In Vyashington.

TO TRAIN SOLDIER ATHLETES

Edwin N. Holmes to Have< Charge in Vicinity of Austin —Dennis Scanlon at St. Paul. Dr. Joseph E. Ra’lcroft head of the athletic division of the war department commission on training activities, announces the following appointments: Edwin N. Holmes of Austin, Tex., as athletic director for camps in the vicinity of Austin. Mr. Holmes is a graduate of the Springfield Y. M. C. A. college. After the matriculation, he served as athletic coach at Sioux Falls college, S. D., and William Jewell college, Liberty, Mo. Dennis R. Scanlon of St Paul, Minn., as athletic director at the Signal Corp? Aviation Mechanics’ Training} school at St. Paul, Minn. Mr. Scanlon has for some months past been volunteering his services at the training camp. , , ‘

IS SPORT DEAD? NO!

It was announced officially that the attendance at the New York police athletic games at Sheepshead Bay was 200,000, and that $250,000 w r as taken in at the gate. This is the largest crowd that ever attended a sporting event In America. Despite the fact that this country is in the thickest of things “over there,” athletics still are popular as attested by this remarkable outpouring. Again we ask, is sport dead? The answer is .“No.”

NOT DISTURBED BY SHELLS

Motortruck Drivers Continue Baseball Game While Germans Keep Up Terrific Fire. “You don’t hear sgMuch about these motor transport drivers,” said the captain, “but don’t forget they are part of the big job, and ,a big part. And don’t forget they have dangerous work to do. “The supplies have got to go forward, whatever the conditions, and I have neyer had a man yet show any inclination to shirk dr dodge or complain when he had to go under heavy fire and deliver his supplies. “I’ll give you an example of their spirit. After a recent hard push we had an afternoon off, so the men arranged a ball game just back of the front with a rival outfit. They had played about two Innings when this kid here (pointing to a young driver standing by) came up to bat. Then the fun started. "Two big German shells lit in the outfield. The rival pitcher turned around to see what the trouble was. Another Shell fell just back of second base. Once more the pitcher halfway turned, when the kid at bat called out: ‘Aw, what the •; come on and stick it over.’ The pitcher stuck one over and the kid cracked out a double to right”—Stars and Stripes.

PRAISES GREAT LAKES FIELD

Manager Clarence Rowland Loud in Complimenting Naval Station Athletic Ground*. One of the warmest compliments paid the new athletic field in Camp Paul Jones at Great Lakes comes from Clarence H. Rowland, manager of the White Sox. “I never dreamed of finding such a magnificent diamond and field at any military training camp/’ said Rowland. “The diamond is going to have It gri anything in the big tent after Charley Kuhn has worked with it awhile. “It is as fine a new diamond as can be found in either major league, while the football field, track, etc., tops any thing I have ever found anywhere." .

WOULD UNITE GAMES INTO SINGLE SPORT

_ . p 1-4--Englishman conceives . Mer S >n B Cncket. English Critics Continue to Offer Suggestions and Wewail Fact That I Foul Is NolAllowed to. Figure U ■ .< There is now some talk in England, where baseball Is invading the sport domain, of a sort of compromise game which should embody some features of cricket and ; basebgjl. Nothing will probably ever come of any attempt radically to change the baseball game, as it has been evolved, any more than would any endeavor to adopt some baseball features into cricket. The two pastimes would mix about as well as oil ami water. -- But English critics of basebail continue to offer suggestions, and one of them in a recent Issue of an English periodical bewails the fact that the baseball “foul” is not allowed to figure In the' run getting. He thinks it should be as important a factor in the American game as the “snick" in cricket, to which it corresponds. Here is how he puts it: “The snick or corner stroke is undoubtedly the most spectacular hit in baseball; indeed, it is practically the only spectacular stroke, except the hit out of the ground, which occurs once in a blue moon. “It seems a Ivery great pity that this ‘corner strike’ is merely thrown away in baseball. In making the stroke the batsman hljs as usual with a horizontal bat, and getting Just under the ball sends it at a very great pace to a tremendous height behind him, and sometimes to a considerable distance.** If the baseball foul were to be treated the same as. a fair fly or grounder, the grand stand would have to be moved about as far back of the home plate as deep center field is in front of it and a “back field” that would. literally be a back field would have to be provided—two players at least, Which would bring the batsmen up to the cricket number of eleven. All the grand stand fans would have to have spyglasses, and the bleachefs never would know which way the game was going, forward or back, tne catcher would also have to have eyes in the back of his head if there were men on bases, and the batsmen should knock a nice grounder or lofty “snick” about 150 or 200 feet back of the homo plate. It Is to snicker. No, let both these fine games go along together but separately, as it were.

MILLER HUGGINS SETS MARK

Enters Washington Series With Smallest Squad on Record—Twelve Players in Outfit. . It is doubtful if any major league club during the past twenty years entered a series either at home or on the road with such a limited number of players as Miller Huggins did when the Yankees played their last set of games at Washington. He had no extra catcher, nor had he an extra fielder or outfielder. ■ Besides this, there was no such thing as a pinch hitter on the team. Twelve players made up the entire outfit, the three extra men haying been pitchers. One of these waft Sanders, who did not pitch one complete major league game during the past season. The Yankees set a record for losing players, as 17 of the original 24 left without a release being handeded out, and another one who started the season. Hank Robinson, also quit.

TRYING TO GET IN SERVICE

Umpire Bill Byron I* After Place in Aviation Corps—Age Keeps Him on Outside. While manv of the noted baseball stars are trying their hardest to stay out of the service, Umpire Bill Byron, who is forty-seven years old, is trying

Umpire Bill Byron.

his, best to get In. Byron has made many applications to get into the ground service of the aviation corps as a mechanic, but' has always been turned down because of his age. He’s going to keep on tryihg, though, arid expects to be successful before long