Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1919 — Page 2

WHAT CAN WE DO?

The following news items, sent out.! by the Red Cross publicity tiepart-; went, will ratify every member of the greatest of organizations -tn America: All male employees at the London receiving and distributing fteadquari tecs of the American Red Cross, are ’Ox-.tohlicrs discharged for In one month they packed 137j>»0 separate articles and shipped 309 kales of supplies to the fronts At the request, of officials of the air service the American Red Cross is providing special comforts for American flying men,oii’.er.sens. Uncle Sam wants his. sky sailors to have every attention. *' ~ifte fact that ijncle Salitf fe ilmut'’ to take Kaiser- Bill to the woodshed has not caused any .letup in Red .CrosS-flctfvlties. Red._Crmss_..worker&. won’t take a day off until Hie last American soldier has been landed on his own doorstep.— ——- Speaking about scraps of paper, the - American Red -Cross lias just handed the British Red Cross a check for $2,585.000. : Mourning brassards as a substitute for regular mourning for'relatives of men lost In the servlce have met with “the approva 1 iff the bervavedfamflies? -Red Cross divisions have asked headquarters for h total of 20,<KM* of the brassards. Parents and wblbws of the men get them free of charge apd otherTrelafives at cost. More than one thousand aged mid infirm Belgians from the front-line areas, many of wbpm were .under shellfire for months, are being cared for by the American Red-Cross, in a massive old -stone building-near Montreal!. Frtihce. The place was -formerly the boose of the t'nnhusian monks. Throe hundred Belgian children are now comfortably situated in a tenbarrack- colony established near I'lnirtreuse by the Atperlcan. Red Cross. Scores of the children were brought from districts that have been leveled by the enemy's guns. Santa Claus, acting as the agent of the American Red Cross, is going to

New blouses that aspire to estab- J fishing themselves in the fashions for, Spring, are now passing in review before the buyers of Southern tourists’ , apparel. This is greatly to the ad vantage of women who <re cle% er enough with the needle to make-,their own blohses, since labor is about the most expensive item that enters into their cost. Well made blouses, including all Those that involve hatid-se.w-lug, are high-priced—an extravagance for the woman of moderate InconM* — but easily within ‘ reach If the sewing is done at home. The new, fine batiste ghd voile hlousev will prove an Inspiration to the i lover of dainty needlework. There, are soipe high-necked models among them in blouses that are airy Interpretations of the original 'shirtwaist. Wash satins in flesh and white appear among blouses of this type, embellished with rich handmade laces anil fine sprays of embroidery. They are as elegant as the sheerest fabrics. Crepe de chine lakes Its place among these models of heavier materials and proves ar practical as any of the cotton •raves. Tba blouss shown in the p<e-

Among the New Blouses.

make a special trip overseas to liver Christmas parcels to those soldiers who have no _one here to remember them. Ait mid fence of French soldiers' who have lost arms or legs was recently entertained at a movie show given by the American Red Cross at Nantes, France. X film showing the way in which disabled soldiers havehocopie self-supporting was the feature of the progrifm. . A one-armed soldier pianist;' for whom a successful future Is predicted by the American Red Cross surgeons, is shortly'to .be discharged from an American Red Cross hospital in Lon- ! don, and will appear on the con cert ds Gwttym Jones, a Welsh private, who lost his arm at Ypres. A Belgian soldier.-vwho Evidently believes that two can starve ns cheaply as one, wrote recently to the Amer- ' lcnn Red Cross commlstjoher for Belgium, invoking matrimonial aid from the American -Red Cross, as follows; “I am on the point of getting married Hext month. I have no relatives tn come to my assistance; they are all In invaded Belgium,,. You would render me a great service in granting Cine-"a little •secour,’ for the only money I have is my pay which Is (55 . cents a week. With that amount it ’is very difficult to save money. My fiancee is a<„poor as 1 am. She Is a refugee at St. Brieuc.”

The Mantle Coat. The main le coat is the coat that has a separate piece fastened on the back in qupe effect. These capes are soiuet lines but loped, oti and sometimes are fa.-tened about halfway down - The sleeve. These coats always have sleeves. The wrap coat may have a doliban sleeve or a deep kimono sleeve. The sleeves of this type are always cut in one with the main part, of the garment. These coats usually have a he.lt across the front. Still another new coat is that one which has no belt at all. has sleeves cut In one with the garment and IS much wider across they hip section than at the feet.

ture Is of this material and is typical of the styles recently presented. It is very plain, turned back at the throat in wide revers, and decidedly bloused about the waist. Parallel embroidered bands at. the neck and cuffs are repeated at each side, where they are extended below the xyaHtline and are finished with silk fringe. Batiste and organdie blouses make opportunities for pretty frills, narrow btwd-run . tucks and embroidery. There are a. few samples with nan row borders of the same materials, in color, hemstitched to the edges of frills. New neck fines and bell sleevea are noticeable changes in style, and the; slip-over blouse is destined tfl continue its popularity in several clever new developments.

High Collars Appear.

When the dress does not resemfeia a coat tt la quite likely to resemble a suit.. High collars appear num bar bis the models.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

FINLAND the HERMIT NATION of EUROPE

People Are Passive and Unfathomable Yet. Their Love of Inde- / pendence Promises L Bright Future>CSj> V 4 * * WF N 1816 Emperor Alelander I o*V ■_ _Rtjssia wrote' to Stelnheit, then \ governor general of Finland, in the following terms:2 As re ‘ • dglgS gnrds the conditions of Finland, my Intention has been to give this pebple a political existence, s " that they may not feel thetnselves conquered by Russia, but united to her for their own clear advantage; /'therefore not only theircivilbuttlmlrquditicalJaws—iuiisL_he maintained.” Today, a century after those words were written.' there seems at last good hope that Alexander Fs Intent ion may be "permanently fulfilled, writes Rosalind

-FravcTs —Hyiidinnn in New. York Hun. A nice iff Mongolian origin and language, the “Suomihdset” or people of the fens —were Christianized very early In the thirteenth century by the Swedes, who treated them on the whole with equal!tv and justice, and intermarried with them freely, not, h<o\<oer, allowing the Finnish language to be written or spoken to any extent. The result was that in ISOS Russia conquered a people who spoke Swedish and regarded themselves as .independent Swedes; and although the Finns have passed through enormous national changes in the course of the century, Russians of the ruling classes could never get it our of their heads that Finland desired to belong to Sweden again. The governors of Russia, having much vaster affairs in hand, did not realize that the.remarkable development of Finnish nationalism was <ll- - last, against the Swedish language and Finno-Swedish domination. The Finnish language was spoken only by the remote peasantry and Finnish' names even were not legally recognized. , Yet. meanwhile, a great movement was steadily growing up for the revival of Finland's own singularly rich and beautiful tongue. The Finnish people began to think of their country ns “Suomi." something utterly distinct from Sweden or Russia, having a language and literature of its own.- From 1849 onward, when Lonntot published the second edition of the ‘‘Kalevala.” Finland's national epic, educated Finns were beginning to give up Swedish as a means of comniunlcatkln 'and learning to use the strange, difficult. sonorous language which was their birthright. Naturally this development soon cleft the country In two" Many Finns urged, not unreasonably, that it was hardly practicable for so small a people to cut themselves off from Scandinavia, from Russia, from tjie rest of Europe in fact, “by climbing on to a language island” in this way. But natlonalistn triumphed. In 1863 the “nice little Constitution” granted by’ Alexander II left the Finns* free to govern themselves in all internal matters in a fairly representative manner, and from this time the study of Finnish became an L Integral part of the general education. The use of the revived language of Finland grew so fast that Swedish-speaking Finns began to find themselves in a minority, and in 1894 after a very hot debate, the Finnish language was placed t»n an u ith Swedish in the Finland sennte., “Svekoman" (Swede-Finn) and “Fennoman” (Finnish-Finn) became cries oT warfare, and The language conflict fell roughly into line with the divisions of class. The progressive and proletarian elements In the country were Fennoman, while the middle class, conservative and aristocratic fbrees were for a long while by speech and traditions Swede. All this time Finns as a people and as a nation kept Strictly to that policy of detachment and independence which has always marked them'. They took no part at all in Russian affairs and showed little interest in those of Scandinayia; they appeared to Europe generally as self-een-tered as a Chinese colony in the West might be. Finland meant to work out her salvation alone. In literature and art indeed the country was open to influences, for the Finns have always been grreat travelers, wandering about the continent with cold, appraisifig eyeh, selecting and taking back with them such ideas as they considered likely to Ik> of use. They took political ideas also from Scandinavia and from Germany, but they had no desire to riiake propaganda for their own Ideas or their own race. ” A’et inevitably they were bound to be fi growing trouble to the Russian government and a Stumbling block to Pan-Slav policy. Obviously a democratic and almost self-governing province was out of place aiming the folds of the vast autocratic rtjle which covered all the Russias th£n. But a far more important objection was this: The duchy of Finland, alien in language character and administration, was a complete break in that scheme of one vast homogeneous Russia, stretching from the Norwegian coast to the Pacific, one in language, laws, religion and government —that, dream of giant unity, and monotony which seems to have filled the minds'of the directors of Russia for 30 years and more. There seems little doubt that the dei*»sed dynasty cherished this design as the Hohenzollerns did that of “Mittel-Europa.” It was a similar huge. dull, magnificent, mischievous idea, trampling even more widely over the rights of other nations and intended to produce an even more dismal uniformity of rule. So, dispassionately viewed—and the Flim, even when considering his own misfortunes, is eminently dispassionate—Russia's first attack qpon the liberties of Finland in 1899 was Inevitably a catastrophe of nature. There is little need to recall **the bad years” from 1899 to 1906, when the Finnish constitution was suspended and the country was placed under tlte rule of h military dictator. General Bobrikoff. They form a monotonous record of press' censorship, dismissals of native •fldals. Illegal arrests and exile. - " ' The great strike of 1905-1906, however ceaaftd la its main objects, achieved twv things:

THE MARKET SQUARE OF HELSINGFORS

The election of the Russian duina and the temporary restoration of Finland’s constitution. Yet “restored” is hardly the word, for that- restricted, cautious and eminently bourgeois constitution of 1863 was resurrected into something democratic anti terrible—a popular based upon full adult suffrage andj>ropprtlonal representation “wiih an elected house, containing at its first assemblage in April, 1907, 80 social-democrats out of a total of 200. And these were genuine, uncompromising Marxist social democrats, the outcome of a parly which was first formed in 1899. Since then the social democratic representation of Finland has steadily Increased at every election. From the spring of 1907 to.that of 1909 Finland experienced “two crowded years of glorious life” in which the country simply hummed with internal progress and pollfical development. The old feuds of Svekoman and Fefinoman were taken up with renewed vigor, although the Swedish speaking Finns were now only one-ninth of the population ami still decreasing. " We all remember how, in .May, 1910, 120 members of the British parliament signed a memorial to the dtinta expressing the apprehension with which they regarded the proposal to deprive Finlaml of her constitutional rights, while a large number of German, French, Italian, Belgian and Dutch -deputies formed and addressed similar memorials. But all this was in vain, and by July, 1910, the bill for the Russification of Finland became law. It was not immediately and violently put into practice. The landtdag was still assembled at intervals, though it had rather less power than a municipal council. A number of official dimissals took place. Russians were given full Finnish rights in Finland and the usual series of arrests, imprisonments and exilings followed, but until 1912 the Finnish press was only intermittently censored. However, this second series of “bad years” was nuich harder for the Finns than the period of 1899-1906. Soon after the war began Finland was practically cut off from the civilized world. Russification set in with full force and the'most stringent censorship of the press, of correspondence and of all written matter whatever was established. Even the internal business of the country suffered greatly, and the wholejteople were put “under hatches,” as it were, and assuredly on very short rations for an unlimited time. One piece of news only came through in the early days of the, war, to the effect ~agerrejril>f oOtns^ia"had returned from .Denmark by way of Finland and had shown much eotirtesy and common sense on her passage. It was said that she had caused her personal guard to be greatly relaxed,- that she had talked with Finns, everywhere and had taken pains to-create a good impression. But shortly after her return the Finns were specially and officially warned “not to build any false hopes of restored liberty” upon

PAPER FAMINE IN OLD TIMES.

There was a paper famine in Europe in the seventh century. In A. iD. 640 the Saracens conquered Egypt, and at the same time, hy order of Omar, fhldr caliph, the renowned library at Alexandria. consisting of 400.000 volumes, was burned. The paper supply of the then world was derived from the pa bark, a reed which grew only in Egypt. Consequently, the Saracens possession of the country the paper supply was cut off. This led to the adoption of a curious exjiedient. The writing on used papyrus paper was erased and the paper, which was thus made available.- again- brought into use. An obi author has suggested that probably owing tq this many "•valuable contributions from classic writers, Tacitus, Livy and others, were lost to the world.

FAMOUS BRITISH REGIMENT.

The Coldstream guards is a regiment of footguards in the British 'army forming part of the royal household brigade. It is one of the oldest regiments .of the British service, dating from 1659. In that year General Monk, who, after the death of Cromwell, took sides with the parliament and the army, organized the regiment at Co’dstream. a- border town of Berwickshire. Scotland, whence the name o£ the regiment, and marched with it into England. It has seen service tn everv-British campaign of any magnitude, and Ims emblaioned on its regimental colors the names of many of the most brilliant victories of British arms. 3

SLOW PROGRESS.

“You have been trying to deceive me for years, Henry." \ f - “Oh. eome now. my dear.” - - • , “It IS snldbpraetlce makes perfect.” “What has that to do with me?” "I was just thinking that' yon don’t succeed better now than you did when we were first married."— Age-Herald.

the friendly demeanor of the dowager empress. Naturally ' this ill-advised policy has had very had results. At the beginning of the war many Finns were in favor of the allies, chiefly by reason of their English trade connections and English sympathies.—But when Russia’s most powerful • nfl neces§flFy ally forbode to *say~ one "word in favor of a reasonable treatment of Finland, and when the English press by its undiscrlminatlng praise of all things Russian actually gave jnore strength to the powers of reaction, then the Finns cannot be blamed for looking elsewhere. Their exiles flocked to Germany in great numbers, qnd it is said that more than 3,000 Finns took up their residence there. The Germans are further credited with making active propaganda for their cause among the professors and students of Finland, but it seems doubtful whether they would really have found it worth while, when the allies themselves were unconsciously doing so much to spread pro-German sympathies there. If —but no one can say more than if—Finland was occasionally used as a channel for communication between Germany and the traitorous party in Russia the allies have only themselves to blftrne. However this may be, It seems pretty clear that there were several German agencies in more than one part of Finland trying to stir the people up to an armed revolt. / Since our reactionary press at one time took upon itself to repeat tile Venerable and discredited cliches about Finland’s desire for independence or for union with Sweden, it is well to say once more that Finland’s great nationalist movement .was fill directed against Swedish influence, and that there are not five wiseacres in the whole country who would dream of the possibility of such a union. Nor has the fiercest advocate of Finnish freedom ever contemplated absolute independence. The position of the country and its very small population wholly forbid it. Surely this tiny nation has a magnificent future! It may .even be possible for them, highly trained and politically qualified as they are, Io hurry through the intervening stages of their economic development and show to Europe the working model of a co-operative commonwealth. They are in the main Mongolians, patient, passive, secret and unfathomable, and their kinsmen in Japan and China have done equally' marvelous things. Yet a 1 ien from us as they are racially, their development* is so western that no Englishman who has spent much time in Finland has any sense of a race barrier. Q# pftffitgiry. they seem, once know'll', curiously appealing and synipathetici this brave, ugly little people, with their high cheekbones, great foreheads and deep-set eyes. Their literature, like their landscape, is extraordinarily varied and beautiful and there runs through it a sense of the. timeless forests and the unbounded North. It haunts you; no one who has felt the chann of Finland is really content till he sees the Land of Thousand Lakes again.

ICE AS A SWEETMEAT.

We Americans eat more Jce cream and similar frozen desserts than the people of any other nation, but the Japanese hqye us heaten as eaters — .of ice. According to me Tokyo Advertiser, one of their favorite dishes is .small cakes of ice broken into tiny pebbly pieces and eaten with sugar and lemon, or any other mixture that they may fancy. The commonest way of eating Ice in Japan, however, is to shave it into snowy flakes and to swallow it with sweetened water into which various appetizers, such as fruit jufce or -- sweetmeats, have been thrown. Ice creaih, milk and eggs shaken with ice and other kinds of . cooling beverages are sold tn an ever-increasing quantity, but the old style of eating ‘‘raw” ice, in what the Japanese call the korimlzu fashion, is still in. the greatest vogue*— Youtli’s Companion.

TATTOOING ANCIENT CUSTOM.

The antiquity of tattooing is evidenced , by Its almost universal employment among primitive peoples. In New Guinea the young women are ; tattooed all over their bodies, their faces being after marriage. In the Solomon islands a girl Is not eligible for marriage unless she has been tattooed. The girls of Borneo are thus, adorned from waist to. knees in most elaborate fashion; 1 likewise their hands, feet and ankles. • . In Burmah, under the last king, every male Was required by royal edict to be tattooed from waist to knees; and it was customary for the gtrlsjp have their tongues tattooed with charms to attract the men.' '

SUCH AN INQUISITIVE WOMAN.

Hub—Who Is that letter from? iv ■ • Wise —What do you want to- know for? Hub —There you goT “What do I want to know for?” I declare If you aren’t the most Inquisitive woman I aver met.—Boston Transcript.