Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 289, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1918 — Page 2

American War Service Organizations Help Soldiers of France and Italy

By MRS. RHETA CHILDE DORR.

American soldiers, a sort of an offshoot of the Red Cross, with which they were already acquainted. But soon the American soldiers began to fraternize with the French poilu and the latter, after visiting the huts, spread the tale of the many and varied conveniences and necessaries provided forthe Americans. Moving pictures and. entertainments, books, writing materials, banking facilities, athletics and garnet, education—a long list The K- of C. and the Jewish Welfare board care for all allied soldiers in the same huts maintained for American fighters; The Y. M. C. A. has established a special service for the Poilus with the approval of the French government, which has military supervision over them. “Foyers des soldats” they call them—literally, homes for soldiers; They need homes, these brave, tired, unconquerable French poilus. After four long years of terrible fighting they are dog-tired and need diversion. Between bouts with the invading Huns they love to drop into their foyers for a cup of hot chocolate, a smoke and a comradely talk. Their slender pay, a franc (20 cents) a day, does not permit them the extravagance which marks the American soldier. But chocolate, coffee, bouillon, cakes, pencils, postcards and the like they can buy. Ten centimes (two cents) is the maximum charged for these articles. The most celebrated of the foyers, the Foyer du President Wilson, is an underground cavern at Fort Douaumont, northwest of immortal Verdun. Other foyers in the area over which.the fighting has been most fierce have been lost to the Germans, but of these, 47 have already been replaced and the others will be, for the French government sees in them great possibilities for education of the soldiers. This brings us to the other newly established American institution, the public library. The library war service of the American Library association has established in “Y” huts, Knights of Columbus huts, Red Cross houses, Y. W. C. A. hostess houses and other stations overseas, circulating branch libraries with a-constant supply of books and magazines. These are not entirely fiction libraries, although of course good fiction is included. The American fighting man reads to improve his status as a fighter, to help him in his special line of work, and to get him a better job after the war. The library war service provides him with technical textbooks and with every kind of trade and professional work, from law to agriculture. - The French government has viewed this service-with admiration. A commission recently was formed, with President Poincare as chairman, to study the American public library system and to establish it throughout France. Already the system has been established in the foyers des soldats. The library war service sends libraries of fifty to one hundred books to each foyer, and the department will soon be enlarged, as the French government has requested that agricultural and other works be added. The war department has asked for moving pictures illustrating scientific farming, forestry, manual training, machinery, playgrounds and recreation centers. * American institutions, American secretaries like these are spreading from France southward into Italy. The K. of C. has ordered 100 secretaries to Italy, where ten huts are being constructed. At almost four hundred points the Y. M. C. A. has established its work. Soon Italy will have its homes for soldiers. Wherever the American flag goes to help in the war W liberty there also will go the war service agencies, the helping hand. ' , Seven of these agencies have been authorized to work abroad and, at home for the soldier, sailor and marine. These are the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A,, the National Catholic War council and Knights of Columbus, the War Camp Community service, the Jewish Welfare board, the American association and the Salvation Army. To maintain their efficiency a great deal of money is necessary, and the week of November 11-18 has been set apart to collect the sum of $170,500,000 to be divided among the seven. - Who contributes to the sum helps our men in every camp, cantonment, aviation camp, naval station, warship and transport in this country and in Europe. He helps the French and the Italian soldier. He helps to maintain the fighting morale of the allied armies. He helps to beat the unspeakable Hindenburg, the bloody-handed Von Tirpitz, the mad maniac of Potsdam. Every dollar given to that fund helps to win the war quickly and to bring back the men for whom millions of hearts yearn.

German Newspaper Is One of Most Pernicious Agencies of War

By Dr. P. A. DICKIE

Quite frequently it has been stated that the German newspapers should be retained for what they can do in teaching patriotic principles to our American ( ?) citizens who only speak German; and this reason has been advanced by intelligent American men and women. That.the principles of American patriotism can be taught by means of the German language is as reasonable to expect as that the principles of Christianity can be imparted through the agency of satan. • ' There is another reason popular among a certain lot of people when they want an excuse for their Advocacy of the retention of the German newspapers. This has almost become a joke on account of its frequent use. It is that of the old German Kdy whom the party knows—strange to say it is never an old man—who cannot be deprived of the great comfort her paper is to her. . . Those who are opposing the suppression of the German newspapers, whatever may be the reasons they giye, are, whether they realize it or not, virtually stabbing our boys in the back who are fighting our battles for us and risking their lives. t . To permit without a protest the existence of a propaganda of which ft is generally known that the German newspaper is one of the biggest and most pernicious agencies we have to contend against is to lengthen the war and increase the number of our bqys who will not come hack to us.

A big contribution which the United States has made to our fighting allies «is the war service work among the troops of the nations affiliated with America. None of the war service organizations was known in France or Italy until we came into the war. Before the war ends they will be as familiar there as they are here. # . When the Y. M. C. A., K. of C., Jewish Welfare and Salvation Army huts were established in France the native population was mildly interested but little curious. They thought the huts were canteens for

AadxxeM and'Tnvde*

of American Defeme Society

THE EVENING BEPUBUOAN. RENSSELAER, INI,.

LITANY FOR PESSIMISTS

Regarding this war, yon are mobilized or not mobilized. If you are not mobilized there U nothing to worry about. If you are mobilised you )pive two alternatives: Either you are at the front or in the reserves. If you are in the reserves there is nothing to worry about. If you are at the front you still have two alternatives: Either you get hurt or you don’t get hurt y If you don’t get hurt there is nothing to worry about If you do get hurt you still have two alternatives: Either you get slightly hurt or seriously wounded. If you get slightly hurt there is nothing to worry about. . > If you get seriously wounded you have two alternatives: Either you recover or you don’t recover. If you recover there is nothing to worry about If you don’t recover —Well —y° a can’t worry.

QUAKER QUIPS

Most things lack novelty to a widow, even a honeymoon. Every man may have his price, but he Is mighty seldom worth it. It’s all right to put your best foot forward, but don’t let the other one lag. War costs a lot of money, besides which there’s the devil to pay. Every married woman has a feeling that she would know better how to manage her next husband. Clothes don’t ’make the man, especially the fellow who makes a cloak of his patriotism. Hope Is a good derrick, but it won’t get a fellow to the top without the assistance of hustle. What a delightful world this would oe If it were possible to size a man up by his opinion of himself. —Philadelphia Recprd.

AROUND THE WORLD

.Americans have destroyed 50 German submarines. • Of United States cities 83 are now paying six-cent street car fare. Germany Is known to have lost 250 U-boats thus far in the war. —* Britain is planning standard clothing for women. Florida permits citizens a quart, of liquor monthly. China has provinces that have never heard of the war In. Europe. ■■Ml Washington state will abolish study of German in all schools in the state.' United States is providing compulsory common* school courses for all 11Uterate soldiers in camps.

YOUTH AND WAR

Farragut was an ensign at twelve. Grant was a lieutenant at twentyone. ' *Napoleon was a lieutenant at seventeen. Washington was a major before he was twenty. Alexander the Great was a celebrated soldier at twenty. The duke of Wellington was an ensign at eighteen. Ney—“Bravest of the brave” —was a Hussar at eighteen. Lafayette was a major general In the American army at twenty. II ■■ James Lawrence—" Never give up the ship”—entered service at, sixteen. Kitchener at twenty was fighting for the French in the Franco-Prussian war. Murat, who rose from a stable boy to be king of Naples, was a chasseur at twenty. -r- ~ * Commodore Stephen Decatur —“My country, right or wrong”—entered the navy at nineteen. One of the greatest of Napoleon’s marshals, Berthter, entered military service at thirteen. Massena, the son of a tanner, entered French sendee at seventeen. and Napoleon later considered him as the greatest of all his generals.

STRAIGHT STREET

By MAY NEWCOMBE.

From time immemorial what bad once been a country cow path straggled through the nucleus of what finally became Groverdale. As houses were built here and there along its sinuous length, it assumed, or absorbed, or was given a name: “Crooked'Lane.” « When the first small stores began to find a location on ’a line with the depot, the town commissioners cut a broad line west, condemned curves and windings and laid out a eompasscorreet thoroughfare. 'lt was not a appelative they bestowed on the new. thoroughfare, but it was fully appropriate as a Contrast. It became Straight street. To do business on Straight street was to be quite in the business sphere, to live farther out in its residential section was to be acknowledged and -accepted socially. One day a stranger entered the town, a jaunty, fairly welldressed fellow, about twenty-two.. He was straight as an arrow, supple, swift of gait, bright-eyed, wide awake, suggesting a person seeking a brandnew environment and off the alert to seize its best opportunities. A whimsical smile crossed his expressive face as he glanced at the sign on a- lamp

post. .i;, . < ■ “Straight street,” he read, as though it had made a pleasant sound. “That suits me and I take it as a harbinger of fortune. It’s the road I’ve had in mind.” The young man started looking for a room, a cheap room. Side thoroughfares invited in this direction, but he maintained his tramp along the street called “Straight” until he finally found an apartment suited to his thin purse, and then cast aboift for work His brisk, cheery ways and frank, open personality caught the ’fancy of the bookkeeper of a large’ factory and Abel Morse, as he gave his name, was employed. He became a favorite all' around. There was one peculiarity about him—he took long jaunts, and it might have been remarked that he never left Straight street' Beyond were the dance halls, drinking places, tawdry side shows and rollicking crowds,- but, in town or leaving it,Straight street became his beaten path. One moonlit night he was pacing its middle pavement, for'the sides were blocked where new, cement was being laid. Abruptly a spirited horse attached to a high trap turned into the street. The animal became frightened at the presence of a road roller and made a wild dash across the rubble stone and fill-ing-in debris. A handsome girl held steadily to the tense, straining reins, but the Jiorse was frantic. As the vehicle was all but upsetting, the young man sprang at the head of the speeding animal. He clung to the bridle, was dragged, swung, almost trampled, but halted the affrighted steed at last. “Oh, don’t let him get hurt, trampling among the cinders and glass!” called out Miss Eva Powers, his driver, and Morse led the horse to the center smooth roadway. “You huYl better let me drive him home,” he said, and that was how it came about. that he first saw at the sumptuous Powers’ mansion modest, petite Maty Lane, seamstress. I' . ' • ’

, <Theraafter when he called to see Mahfat home or to chat with her In the garden, Miss Powers smiled Indulgently and Mary was flattered and pleased at the attentions of the njanly, good-looking young fellow. Tlfere came about a rapidly occurring series of events. The war came on, Mary was prrtud about her lover when he was the first to enter the service Miss Powers gave him quite a public reception,when he came from encampment, a first lieutenant. Somewhere Abel Morse had learned disci pline, self-control and the power to Ifed men. He and Mary had become engaged. ,He was popular with his comrades, a model to the young men of the town and in direct line for further advancement. % He had just lefMlary one afternoon and was crossing the garden to the street when a hurrying, flushed and "hard-breathing man almost ran into him; Then the latter halted, stared and regarded Morse with a certain insolent, triumphant look. “Double luck! Well, well, Ned Durand ! and*a blooming lieutenant! I’ve heard of you. I saw you before. And transformed into Abel Morse, U. S. A. Some rise in the world, eh, from convict 2244? What is it worth to shut my mouth?” “Hold that man!" burst forth sharply, and Miss Powers came rushing into view. Her direction was to Morse. “He has just entered the house, and has stolen a case of' jewels. There they are, in his pocket Bring him to my father, and we shall see how far his unmanly threat will carry him!” Todd Brewster, ex-convict thief, left Grovedale that evening a cowed skulker, with evidence sufficient behind him to send him back where he belonged, if .he dared even to menace Abel Morse again. Within a week the assumed name of the latter was legalized. To heartbeat and to drtnrorat, • real soldier led his comrades through the little town in farewell. From the Powers automobile Mary Lane kissed her hand to this beloved fiance, and Eva Powers, who alone with her father knew of his buried past, wavedher hand in fervent recognition and encouragement that told him that whatever came, honor and glory were his portion.

HAPPENINGS in the BIG CITIES

Humble “Tabby” Important Feature of Fur Trade BROOKLYN.— “How’s the fur business?” asked one of the passengers on a trolley the other day. "Fine," said bls friend; “I have just got back from St. Louis, where they had the greatest fur auction in the history of the trade.” * >! ... a a _it JI a

“St Louis?” said the othef man; ' “I thought the big fur business was all done in London.” “The war has. changed all that,” said the fur man; “St Louis was i picked as the new fur market because It Is a real center and the furs can be . sent there from all parts of the world with the least trouble.” * “Anything especially Inflresting at the sale?” “Well,, the total reached $6,000,000 and that’s some money, even in

these days. By the way, it may surprise you to learn that the common housecat has become quite ad Important feature-of the fur trade.” * “I have suspected It right along,” said the Inquisitive man; “otherwise how'could every girl you meet, even shopgirls earning $7 a week, wear what looks like a genuine fox around her neckF’ * • “Well, Pm not giving away any of the secrets of the trade,” said the fur dealer, “but the fact remains that at the St. Louis sale no less than 13,000 house-cat skins were sold, and at prices that were 30 per cent higher than those of last spring.” “I kinds thought I hadn’t heard quite so much yowling around my back yard lately.” ' •. Downpour of Wine Shocked Staid Hotel Guedts ■ y- < * " MH, WAUKEE. —Wine flowed from the ceilings of one of Milwaukee’s most domestic and decorous family hostelrles, and its atmosphere was heavy with the odor of Burgundy. It trickled down upon the shining pates of

carpet grew larger and an agitated clerk Mlstened forward with a receptacle to avert disaster. Afterward the thrifty were heard to remark that the wine might better have been caught In tankards and used ass a cure for influenza. Prospective guests about to engage rooms for a season sniffed the air suspiciously; the wine poured down in a larger stream; speculation was rife. Gradually the truth concerning the dripping leaked dut. The family occupying a suite just over the hotel lobby had thought to entertain a few friends, and had bought a gallon of wine for the % purpose. The hostess, preparing for the party, picked up the decanter from the closet floor, where it had been reposing, started to carry it to the table, and dropped ft en route. For a few exciting moments, therefore, wine flowed like water at this e home of the sedate, though the people for whom it had been intended felt that the flow was directed in the jvrong direction. Possibly “Mr. Barnes” Lost the Farmer’s Currency KANSAS CITY. —“Chief, some slickers robbed me of $15,000. Will you help me catch them?” A Swede farmer living in lowa asked the question of Chief of Detectives Robert Phelan at police headquarters. He said he was in

ExcelsiQF<Springs a month ago recovering from an illness. While there he became acquainted with two welldressed young men in a hotel lobby who pointed out .to him a mlddle-pged man, who had just entered the lobby. “That’s Barnes, wheat king,” one. of' the men said. “He’s got several million dollars —made it all speculate’ ing in wheat since the war began. He gets inside dope on which way the market is going.”

“Why, I know him!” the other young man said. “We used to chum together at college. Do you want to meet the wheat king?” . , The lowa, farmer was introduced. He went to dinner that night with the three men. “Barnes" paid all bils, including a visit'to a wine garden and, taxienh expenses. “Barnes” agreed to let the others in on his money-making scheme. “Because you are good guys,” he -added. A meeting at Shawnee, Okla., was arranged for the following week. The farmer cashed a draft for $15,000, which money he gave to “Barnes, with instructions to operate in the wheat market until the money was tripled. “Barnes" told the farmer to meet him Jn two weeks in St. Louis, where the monef obtained from the “killing" would be divided. He "waited at a St. Louis hotel a week after the date of the appointment, but "Barnes” failed to appear. Then he went home, where the sheriff told the farmer he had been Victimized by “con game sharks." Chief Phelan showed the farmer many pictures in the rogues’ gallery at police headquarters. The fanner equid identify none of them., a ■ T-. Spoiled Youngsters’ Dream of Royal Good Time ST. LOUIS.—Two little boys with bristly-haircuts-got off a train at the union depot one day last week. Before they got anywhere at all they had to answer a lot of questions asked by Pat O’Connell, who gets paid for hanging around the depot because he is, bar

boys—brothers they said they were, and they looked the part called at the station and asked Rolitely for their baggage. Pat O’Connell descended upon them frith a cry of triumph. 1 “Here they are again If he shouted. “Pte got a notion. Let’s look in the gUitCfiSG! M The desk ser»-ant did, and found two complete outfits of little girls* clothing. • ’T -* _ * Then the sergeant consulted a telegram from Tulsa, Okla., and wired . hack to Frank Petersen, a consulting engineer, to come on and claim his. daughters. • • Dorothy Petersen, thirteen (the blg “boy” admitted she had cashed a check for >lls, made out to'her mother’s order, and had traveled from Tulsa to St. Louis with her sister, Helen, eight, stopping on the way to get the cut and the clothes that made brothers out of the sisters. . Dorothy had $27.50 left.

- sober-minded gentlemen, enjoying aft-er-dinner momeatsln the lounge. Best bonnets were baptized with the vifi- ‘ tage, and even white ribbons were spattered with its drops. After the sparkling fluid had dripped dowif unregarded for a few moments, guests of the hotel began to sit up and take notice. “Bless my sotjl!” exclaimed ahold gentleman with horn-rimmed glasses, “what’s this, what’s this?” The crimson spot on the velvet

% none, the most Inquisitive policeman I in-the city. * | . The children went to a hotel and I engaged lodging. " : 1 More suspicions were encountered at the hotel and another policeman was called In to ask questions. “We’re' on -our way to see our aunty in Chicago,” said the larger boy. “We’ve never been there, but well i find the way all right. Thanks for bothering.” The next day these same