Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 279, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1918 — Page 3

YANKEE SOLDIERS UNWILLING TO LEAVE BASEBALL PARAPHERNALIA FOR GERMANS

Playinfl Championship Game Behind the Firing Lines in France.

Next to rifle, ammunition and canteen, American soldiers seem to rank baseball supplies among the list of the necessities ,of life in the front lines. At least such was the decision of a Yankee unit operating with forces lately.. It happened that this unit get into a very hot corner and the order came to retreat. •«. . —. The necessity for haste made it impossible for-the men to carry much■with them in the way of personal belongings, but when they arrived at a station out of immediate danger it was found that the baseball parapher- - malia had been saved, while many kinds of personal belongings had been sac* rifleed. -/'■'i S ■ ■ - ~H'.'■ The balls and gloves had been furnished by the Y. M. C. A. and the men took it upon themselves to carry them In preference to their own, little luxuries. . t ' As sopn as the unit bad reached a quiet place the supplies were turned over to the Y. JI. C. A. secretary, who was immediately called on to reissue _them for a game. The tide of war ebbs and flows apparently, but baseball* goes_pn forever. r > ~ . J < ? -a

COBB LEADS IN POPULARITY

Bats Bearing Autograph of Detroit Slugger Are In Greatest Demand by Soldiers. Who, Is the most popular major league ball player ainong the Yankee sdldlers abroad, and at camps at home? The question has been answered by the demands of American; soldiers on the Clark C. Griffith bat and ball fund for. bats. In applying for the baseball

Captain Tyrus Cobb.

outfits the soldiers are permitted to specify which player’s name goes on the . bats. Willows bearing the autograph of Ty Cobb are in greatest demand —5,882 sticks on which appears the name of the leading American league slugger have been distributed to Uncle Sam’s fighters. Walter Johnson is the next popular player. The famous twirler's name appears on 1,740 bats. Then in order come those stamped with Benny KaufFs name, 1,680; Sam Rice, 1,138, 'and Frank Baker, with 1,121. These are the only ones above the thousand mark. An outstanding feature of the request is that Tris Speaker’s name is marked ort only 821 of rnjre than 20.000 bats. ■ ■ • .7

IS NOW SECOND LIEUTENANT

"Chuck” Garland of Pittsburgh, Former Tennis Champion, Is Given Commission in Army. Charles “Chuck” Garland of Pittsburgh has been commissioned a second lieutenaqj inathe field artillery. ’ Lieutenant Garland was the former United States junior tennis champion and also the, former western Pennsylvania -title holder, relinquishing the title to William T. Tilden 11, in the tournament held at the P. A. A. courts last July. Lieutenant Garland was tn training practically ail sunpner at New Haven and Camp Jackson, S. C., receiving his preliminary military training at the Yale K. O. T. G * .-X

SCHROTH AS SWIM CHAMPION

■—*• l "■ . i ■ Sacramento Lad Seems to Have Succeeded Lieutenant Norman Ross on Pacific Coast. George Schroth of Sacramento seems to have succeeded Lieutenant Norman Ross Of San Francisco as the all round swimming champion of California. Although hyrdly in Ross’ class, Schroth has been winning most of the Pacific A. A. U. title races since Ross left the sport to enter the aviation service, and he has just added to his laurels a victory in the-long distance classic ot the district. The event was decided over a two mile open water course at Neptune Beach, Schroth completing the trip through heavy seas in 1 hour 12 minutes 42 seconds and. defeating by nearly six minptes his closest opponent. Jack Wolynlek, of the Coast Guard service. ’ "■ . . '

BOXING BOUTS IN AUSTRALIA

Hippodrome, Accommodating 3,000 Persons, Is Used Twice Week-ly-Interest Prevails. piscusslng boxtng.. in Australia, "Snowy” Baker says: “For reasons that must be known' to Americans there have been important modifications of professional contests. The huge Sydney Stadium, which has- a seating capacity rtf 17.C00, is cloned during the war, so now local mitt ar-' tists must trek to the Hippodrome, a fine building, which can accommodate 8,000. The • structure Is used twiceweekly for m’xed boxing and vaudeville, but, as the boxing contests are limited to ten the price of admission must not exceed 50 cents, It Will be seen tbpt.no very big purses can be hung tip for the lads. However. Interest In the sport prevails, and Mg crowds attend the bouts.

ROWING RACES AT HARVARD

Sport, However, Will Merely Be InterDormitory—William Haines PeEngaged as Coach. William Haines, re-engaged as coach rowing* at Harvard to the advisory “»?wing committee, has asked students •* terested in the sport to report for {•actlce daily. - ~ No attempt at organized college aquatics will be attempted, it is announced. Member# of the student army training corps who wish may form crews for inter-dormitory competition.

TO BASEBALL IN AIRPLANES

New Mode of Travel May Be Adopted After War is Over—-Scheme Has Been Tried. When this cruel war is over, perhaps the* major league clnbs —and some of the minors, too, for that mat-ter-will adopt the Scheme of some of these hall teams of military aviators and mfike their trips in airplanes. Several instances are recorded of aviators setting out to play a ball game with some other service, team making the trip through the air.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN RENSSELAER IND

JOHN PHILIP SOUSA THANK ON SHOOTING

’p m IA/ith Rftth Pvaq Ooafi ■— men—Makeh Clever Demon- : stration of His Point I . . A OWn That’s the advlce-of John Philip Sousa, sometimes known as a bandmaster, sometimes as Lieutenant Sousa, U. S. N., but for the moment speaking as a trapshooter of long experience' and for some years president of the American Amateur Trapshooters’ association. * The trapshooters are in high glee lust now, because shotguns have been playing an important part in the re-« cent successes of our troops, so important a. part that'the Germans were provoked to the point of calling them barbarous, there being some subtle distinction in the German mind between scattering shot with fl shrapnel shell and with a shotgun, shell. The load they are reported as using In the shotguns in the trenches will go through a two-inch plank at I<X> yards, covering an area of nine square feet. ' “The Germans can never stand against our marksmen. We are. too good shots,” Sousa believes. “But why do you say, ‘Shoot with both eyes open? Isn’t it instinctive to close one eye when sighting a rifle?* “Yes, it Is instinctive, but most instinctive things are wrong. We have to specially train and put .checks on

John Philip Sousa.

our instincts all the time, and shooting is no exception. •'“Why should you use only eye when shooting? Do you look at s pretty girl with only one eye? Do you squint up one eye when you read ' “No, sir; my boy, keep both o: your eyes , open when you shoot—rile- or shotgun. Nature has taken car 1 that one eye will do the actual sighting—we call thatftlft pilot eye—an I that the other will remain passive ’The arrangement of vision varies in different people.’’ And to demonstrnte this point Sousa made the interviewer sight an object across the room through a finger ring, keeping both eyes open. “Now close one eye.” / The Interviewer did so, and the object was still in range. “Now the -other.” The object appeared a foot out of range. “That* merely shows that in your case the right eye is the pilot eye. But your passive left eye, if you .kept it open, would be roving around, doubling your horizon, and free to detect the slightest motion* elsewhere. “Let a Hun stick his head up three feet away froni where you happen to be aiming with one eye do-ed, and you’d probably never see hT.n. And you want to see-all the Hurts you can when you’ve got a gun handy. “So, I say, shoot wltlr both eyes open.”

BOSTON FANS ARE VETERANS

Organization Was Formed Jn 18’3 and Called Junior Baseball Players’ 1 Association. There Is an organization of baseball fans In Boston that antedates the National league. It was formed in 1873 and was named the Junior Baseball Players’ association, its membership then being young ball; players. When the National league was organized tn 1176 it became ah organization of fans rather than players and has maintained its status since. The-youngsters have becoide old men, but they still meet to “fan.” Recently the annual reunion was held In Boston, with some twenty or more of the original members in attendance.

ROOT IS ARMY CAMP TRAINER

Former Light-Heavyweight Champion Appointed Athletic Instructor at Arcadia. Jack Root, former light-heavyweight champion of the world, has been appointed athletic Instructor under Colonel Hensely at Camp Arcadia, in southern California. This camp was established on what was the former gite of “Lucky” Baldwin’s Santa Anita race track.

CLOOUET, MINN., DESTROYED BY GREAT FOREST FIRES

All that was left of the town of Cloquet after It had been swept by the serest fires that devastated a large section of northeastern Minnesota, killing 1,000 persons and doing 1100.000,000 damage. ; ,

CHATEAU-THIERRY TAKES UP TASK OF RISING FROM “CUT OF ASHES”

Refugees Returning to the Little Left by Heartless Hun—Already Small Storekeepers Are Operating at Full Blast—Germans Chased Out Too Fast to Take Their Loot With Them— Where Marines Wrote Themselves Into Fame.

Paris.— “Chateau-Thlerry,” repeated, a marine officer and smiled at me pityingly. “Yes, that was interesting a month ago. A Boche potted me there aqd I’m just going back to join my men. But you won’t find it Interestingnow. All the Germans are gone.” I But he was wrong. There are Germans marching through the -streets of Chateau-Thierry every day—German prisoners armed with shovels and picks who are claming out the wreckage and desolation they left ip their path when they evacuated the city on July 22; proud Prussians who are wielding scythes to harvest the crops in the fields that they called'“Unserland” a month ago; mild-faced boys from the south of Germany who seem to prefer jobs as chore-women with mops and scrub brushes to carrying guns for the kaiser. And as for the Interest of ChatenUThlerry, the curious have visited'the field of Napoleon’s Waterloo for several centuries. They will visiS the Waterloo of the Boch? march on Paris in 1918 for several more centuries and thrill with every century at the story of the battle on the outskirts of that city where American marines, artillery and Infantrymen started the Huns on their run for Berlin—and gave them such a good start that the goal Is getting hotter each day. .

War Activity Everywhere. It takes Just an hour and a half by rail from Paris to reach the outposts of the battlefields of yesterday; an hour and a half that runs by like the fast reels of a cinema with hurried glimpses of'passing trains loaded with horses, with cattle, with big guns and meh; of camions crowded with soldiers wearing dust-colored uniforms; of hospital trains marked with red crosses and groups of civilians hurrying back to see whaj is left/ of their homes in the reconquered districts. At one of the stations the marine officer swung'off to Join-a k-not of men whbsebacks were loaded with marching equipment, showing that they were going “up the line.” War was written in large letters Aver every human activity, bul off to my right was the Marne, sleepy and peaceful, flowing quietly through valley fields, hiding behind gentk slopes covered with wheat and splashed with vivid popples,, and emerging again from a clump of thick trees and heavy underbrush. At La Fertg there is a great gash in the station where a Boche plane, swooping down' within a few hundred yards of the mark, dropped n half dozen bombs just a few nights ago. And from there an auto road, pockmarked by shell holes, runs through fertile country and pink-roofed tillages, lifeless and deserted, to Lucyle«Bocage and Belleau woods, where the American marines showed the world just what fighting 'stuff the United States army is made of. “Lucy” keeps open house for all comers. There are a few doors left In the'vlllage, but they sag heavily on rusted hinges. Windows v are . open spaces through vhlch the winds And rains' drite at w.ll, leaving facetious puddles about the little heaps *of broken glass that strew the ground. The few roofs left look apologetic in the midst of the ruin about them. The village huddles about a little church that has been pitilessly battered to ruin. Only bits of the walls are left but in the midst of the wreckage rises a tall crucifix unscratched The altar of the small chapel on the right side had been cleared off and the old abbe, tolling alone, was searching among the de''brls for precious relics. A prayer book and a few pathetic little ornaments of glass were all that he had found to restore in his temple. Guarded by the Dead. From Lucy-1 e-Bocage to Belleau wood the road literally Is guarded by the dead, whose bodies were covered where they fell and marked by simple wooden crosses on many of which the soldier’s trench helmet has been hung. It was the way of the cross for the

American boys who journeyed it those July days when they started forward in the face of nfurderous machine gun fire to smoke the'Boches out-of the stronghold that assured their Tooting in Chateau-Thlerry. I climbed over graves and shell holes, through underbrush* and past isolated bits of barbed wire entam. glements into the heart of the woods, where the Boches had their dugouts. And at every step of the way, difficult to traverse even bow when it has been trampled over and cleared out since the battle, I wondered at the courage of the boys who had faced hidden machine guns and unknown horrors lurking in the shadows. A human jawbone lay at the doorway of a hunting lodge which had been desperately contested for and from the underbrush near by protruded the boots of an unburied Hun. A group of dugouts off to the right was well concealed by rocks and underbrush and I peered down into several of them. The openings were just big enough to permit a man to wriggle through pn his stomach and Inside was a little straw and perhaps a battered helmet or rotting gas mask. A good hole for a dog, if the dog wasn’t' particular—but the conducting officer with me assured me that a dugout of that size was used to accommodate five men during a bombardment or barrage. When the barrage was lifted the men would come out and go to work again with their machine guns. We saw lots of dugouts, however, from which the Germans never emerged. The opening had been filled up with earth from exploding shells and the sanitary troops that came through after the battle were spared the trouble of burying those men. Many of thp holes had a sickly greenish hire, the mark of gas which poisons even the earth, and around others were mounds of empty cartridges showing they had been used as semiprotection for machine gunners.

Wrote Themselves Into Fame.» When the Germans entered ChateauThierry in reached the apex of a -triangla, the other ends of which were at Sbissons and Reims. They held the city, for 52 days and were so strongly'intrenched that the French and American troops who retook the city /lid it by outflanking movements Instead of a direct drive which would, have cost many times as many lives. The marines of the American divisions which turned the scale of the fighting, wrote themselves Into fame by taking Belleau woods. The other troops of the divisions, eager for a similar chance of distinguished service, were “allowed” to take Vaux, dlto the west of Chateau-Thlerry, which became the pivot point for the scissors that squeezed the Huns from the city. American artillery battered the village to bits and’then the infantrymen, armed with maps wlftch had been drawn -by an old stone mason- of the village, marched In and corralled the Germans who had taken refuge In the cellars.

The mason knew just where the cellars of the village were located because he had built them, so’ that the “cleanup” after the artillery preparation was quickly done. And the little town is now rebuilding with equal rapidity. It lies on the main road from La Fere to Chateau-Thlerry so the people are drifting back, and as we passed through I saw carpenters and plasterers at work making houses habitable. A group of red-fezzed Moroccan soldiers were clearing out a courtyard, and further down the road were Italians repairing shell holes. Another turn and we were In the city ftself, crossing the substitute for the famous stone bridge over the Marne that the French were fen years in-the building, hut which the Americans blew up in ten minutes to hinder the German advance last June. We climbed on dp to a hilltop from

which we overlooked the river and the"" city. Malicious Destruction. JThe towering cathedral steeple had offered a gunner’s mark which had not been overlooked. The spire of the Hotel de Ville also had bwn shot and the weathercock-Aung at half'-maSL In the square about the city hall the bouses had been shelled to ruin. A radiator stood out in midair from one of them. On the second story wall of another hung a large portrait of a girl. Bombs and shells had torn thefr way through roofs and afterward when I walked through the city streets I realized that the work of destruction had been completed by malicious hands. Furniture had been smashed and thrown Into yards and streets, pictures had been ripped from frgmes. and even kitchen utensils had been thrown out to rust. A large part of the loot of the city was recovered when the Germans were hurriedly* forced out and a nurse in an American Red Cross hospital which followed the allied troops into Chateau-Thlerry told me of seeing great sacks filled with gold and sliver cups, candlesticks, tableware and ornaments of every description which had been stored there in the hospital and left in the retreat. The hospital, originally for French civilians, has changed hands five, times arid was In such a state of unspeakable filth when the Americans took it over from the Boches that it took ten days to clean Up back of the hospital are the grounds of the ancient chateau for which the city was named. They once belonged to the duke of Thlerrv, who was one of the famous selgrieurs of the early eighth century. I climbed through subterranean passages there which were built by his vassals that he might escape to the othjer side of the Marne whenever his enemies pressed him too closely, but which recently have been used by Boches as protection during air raids from French planes. The openings are partially filled up now so that they.no longer afford passage under the river, but they offer adequate protection against bombs; There are .deep built wine cellars with thousands of bottles which the Germans carried up there and emptied. And there are old stone mortars that the inhabitants claim date back to the battle of Crecy, with empty cartridges from Boche guns ly*/ Ing beside them. A city of desolation is ChateauThlerry, but a city whose wounds already are beginning to heal. It escaped total destruction because since the German troops were on one side of the river and the allled*troops on the other the artillery on both sides was prevented from direct operation; and so civilians are coming back. The newspaper proprietor of the place, having found that only one side of his house had been torn off, is inhabiting the other side and preparing to turn out news for thofce who are returning. Every scrap of cloth and linen In his house was carried off and much of the furniture destroyed, but he found the silver which he buried In his* back yard before he fled with his wife, and his wife has found a Job cooking for American military police who are stationed there. A millinery shop has opened up and there is another little store of “notions," where perfumes and nail polish are-on sale. Fruit stands and cheese shops, butcher stores and postcard venders are operating at full blast on street corners or in drafty rooms-that 'open on the streets, guiltless of protection of glass or even windows or doors In many cases. The more habitable houses have been cleaned out and are being used as headquarter# for the military ofiiclals. ,< --

VETERANS’ GRANDSONS GO TO FRANCE TOGETHER

1 La Grange* Ga.—On geptem- ( her 2X18(53. Jack Thornton and 1 i W. A. Callaway, eighteen. *et , t forth to join the Confederate army. 1 September 23, 1918, Jack t Thornton Kontz. grandson of - Jack Thornton and W. A. Calla- . way. Jr- grandson of W. A. Cal1 la way, left together for lite t world war. t Friends of the “18 boys”... I feel sure they will be in the pa- , ‘ rade down “Voter den Litr- » den.”