Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1918 — COBB, MATHEWSON, RICKEY AND HAUGHTON WILL NOT ENJOY SOFT BOMBPROOF PLACES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

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.