Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1919 — Page 2

TELLS HORRORS OF HUN PRISONS

— 1 \'7r' r ~\~ r . j Operations Without Anesthetics One Method of Torturing British Officers. FED ON ERSATZ RATIONS Captain Gilliland Declare* Many Men Were Driven Mad by Confinement —Wounded Given No Medical Attention for Month*. New York. —Capt. Horace G. Gilliland. British officer and author, now In this country, tells a thrilling story of the cold-blooded treatment accorded him while a prisoner in Germany from October, 1914. until April, 1017, when he escaped. An officer iu the Loyal North Lancashire regiment of the British regular army, Captain Gilliland, landed in France on August 12, 1014, with the .first division of the British expeditionary force. He served with that •division until October when, at the first Ypres battle, in the La Bnssee ■engagement, he was - prisoner. 'His company bad been ordered; 370 strong, to hold a corner in front of La Bassee while the hard-pressed English withdrew before a numerically overpowering German force. They held for 22 hours, and, when the tmn In gray finally stormed, over the trenches held by the khaki-clad troops, there was piily Captain Gilliland and three enlisted men All four were desperately wounded. "We were ordered to the rear.” said Captain Gilliland, "and commenced crawling along as none of us could walk. Our captors were enraged at the resistance we had made against ♦hem and refused us Bed Cross aid. One of the men, unable to crawl fast enough on account of his wounds, was bayoneted by a German soldier a few feet in front of me. Before we got to La Bassee I had become separated from the other two men and I have never heard of them si nee. — Given No Medical Aid. **l was suffering from a bullet wonnd in the ankle and a serious shrapnel wound in the chest which had driven splinters of my ribs into my lungs. ~ln spite of my condition; I did not receive medical aid of any sort; In fact, it was a year and eight months before the Germans even examined my wounds. "From October until December 1 I was in prison in Lille, nnd then I was transported with a batch of other prisoners. British officers and men and French, both regular and colonials, to Munden. in Hanover. That trip, the men that went on it will never forget. "At Munden, which was not the worst prison camp I saw. I was placed In a room. 30 feet by 30. in company with 16 Russian officers, the idea being. you see, that British officers should not have even the small comfort of talking to their countrymen. "We were not allowed to read or to smoke, and man after man went mad. You cannot conceive of the hate that rises in your heart when you »re locked in like that, hate not only for your captors, but also for the men confined with you. I have seen men In my room go stark raving mad bejcause the walls of the room persisted ,tn being square. You can hardly realise that here, can you? “I kept trying to escape but was too weak with wounds,and scurvy. They ■gave me no medical attention, and the food was awful. , “Finally I got a letter home In a secret code that my mother sent to the foreign office and finally It reached the American embassy in Berlin. Ambassador Gerard acted at pnee. His visit to Munden in April. ,1915. resulted In'our being transferred to Bishofswerda in Sasitiy, a fairly decent prison. Used No Anesthetic. "I was transferred half a dozen times after that until April, 1916, found me again at Bishofswerda. There the Swiss Red Cfoss commission saw me and ordered the Germans to give me medical attention. At this time I weighed about 103 pounds, where I had formerly weighed 195. "I was sent to a hospital in Dresden where a surgeon operated; taking

Japanese Wanted to Make Suicide Certain

With a strange, almost demoniacal ritual. Kumatro Sakamoto ended his life at Los Angeles. Cal. Sakamoto, who - came from Japan ten years ago, suffered from tuberculosis. He was thir-ty-nine years old, but was not married, and had no friends nor relatives. He decided to die. •that he might utter no warning cry, he first cut off his tongue. * That faulty might not stop the deed, he cut off his nose. Then he hacked his throat with the razor until he dropped unconscious. V . When found In his room, he was lying In a pool of blood. He died alx hours later in a hospital. v

the hone splinters from my limgs. That. I think, was about the crudest experience I went through as a prisoner. Although there were plenty of anesthetics in that hospital .they re* fitted me any sort of relief. I was tied hand and foot on an operating tahle and for two hours and twenty minutes I lay there while that surgeon worked over me. I had a went*! breakdown when it was all over, but I don’t think you will wonder at that. I will say one tiling—the surgeon knew his business.” Captain Gilliland described how he was sent back to Bishofswerda to recuperate, where things were fairly easy for a few weeks until Roumauia declared war. “I finally escaped from a train with three other men,” Captain Gilliland said. "We leaped from the right-hand side of the car and the guards were unable to shoot at us on that account. We had previously cut the signal cord and they could not get the train stopped. We walked" 140 miles Th five days without food, and finally sneaked across the Dutch border. In getting j across the border German sentries killed two of my comrades and wounded the other.”

“ROOSEVELT LAND” IN ARCTIC

New Polar Discoveries Made by Bartlett to Be Named for For- ' mer President. New York. —The expedition which Capt. Robert A. Bartlett will lead next June to make an aerial survey of the North pole will be known as the Roosevelt memorial expedition, according to an announcement by the Aero Club of America, which is financing the trip. Any land discovered will be named “Roosevelt land.” Officials of the club explained it was fitting that this tribute should be paid the former'president, as it was he who gave Rear Admiral Peary, leave of absence to head the expedition which discovered the pole, and Captain Bartlett commanded Peary's ship, the Roosevelt. Club officials also emphasized the fact that Colonel Roosevelt had been one of the first "patrons of aeronautics.”

CLAIMS LAND IN LORRAINE

Woman Gave Up Her Possessions Three Years Ago When Germans Came. Altoonn, Pa. —When Germany took possession of Alsace-Lorraine 4S years ago, Mrs. Franz Esslluger gave up her possessions rather than submit to German domination and came to Altoona. Establishing a stand in the city market. she hps become well known as “the market woman.” Now that France has regained her lost provinces, Mrs. Esslinger has, through legal channels, presented her claim to a considerable tract of land near Strassburg which belonged to the family and for which she holds the title papers. If her claim is honored she will become Independently rich.

THE PASSING OF HELGOLAND

The dismantling of Helgoland, in accordance with the decision reached by the supreme war council at Paris, marks the passing of the greatest fortress in the North sea and the final elimination of Germany as a contender for sea power. Since 1890. when Great Britaih ceded this square mile of crumbling dmrl and cliffs to Germany fcfr the protectorate of Zanzibar and Witu. the Germans have spent more than $5,000,000 a year in fortifying It. Available records show that Helgoland had a circumference of 120 miles in the year 800, But had crumbled away, at the rate of 100 square miles every century, until the Germans began to dream of world conquest. Large buttresses of granite were put up to protect the cliffs. Rifts and crevices were filled with ferro concrete. Breakwaters were constructed and a naval harbor built and 12 and 16-lnch Krupp guns were installed in steel and CQnCrete casemates and sunken battery positions. The Island was pierced, with a tun-

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IHi>.

Pershing Fulfills Hope of Ancestor

Grmmsburg, Pa. —Gen. John J. Pershing fulfilled the wish of an ancestor that a member of the Pershing family should-suve Al-sace-Lorraina when he led the victorious • American armies against the Germans.. This fact is disclosed by Rev. Justus N. Pershing, a cousin ,of General Pershing, who Ims made public a letter written in Alsace-Lor-raine more than 200 years ago by Frederick Pershing, General Pershing's gremt-great-grand father. In this Tetter the general’s ancestor expressed the hope that his son, Frederick Pershing! Jr., or his descendants, “would come hack some day and redeem the fair lands of AlsaceLorraine ft-om oppression." According to the letter, the Pershings lived In the village of Kehe in Alsace-Lorraine in 1774 and fought under Emperor (’buries against the Magyars. Soon after that, when a law was passed that all able-bodied men between the ages of sixteen and fifty must join the landwehr tc .protect their country from ravages h.v the Austrians, Frederick Pershing, Sr., sent ids son to America. Frederick Pershing, Jr., reached this country in 1749 and, after marrying u Miss Wyant in Baltimore, settled in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. where General Pershing’s grandparents were'born.

TO BOOM ALASKA COAL FIELD

Mission to Be Sent to Plan for Development of the Matanuska Region. Washington.—A commission consisting of three naval officers, a mining engineer and a geologist will he sent to Alaska to plan the development of the Matanuska coal field, the navy department announced, preliminary investigation having led the department to center its efforts upon this field In seeking a supply of navy fuel. The commission will sail from the Bremerton navy yard. The naval members of the commission have not been selected, but Sumner Smith, superintendent of mining in Alaska, and Theodore Chapin, a geologist attached to the Alaskan engineering commission, are to be the civilian commissioners.

DIG UP BOMBS 45 YEARS OLD

Zinc Container Found in Brazil Was Wrapped in a New York Newspaper. —- Buenos Aires. —During the making of the excavation for a building at Bahia, Brazil, a zinc box containing four dynamite bombs was unearthed, says a dispatch to the Razon from Bahia. The bombs apparently had been buried nearly a half century, as they were wrapped in a copy of the New York Weekly Bulletin of the year 1874. c/ A 12-inch gun disposes of half a bale of cotton at every shot,

nel through which ammunition and other stores could be safely taken during a bombardment. During- the war sufficient stores and munitions were> maintained to withstand a three years’ siege by Its garrison of 2,200 men. The North sea for a radius of more than twenty-five miles was mapped in squares, each gun having ltSHSquare or squares upon which it could be trained Instantly should a hostile ship enter that little space of sea. " During the war Helgoland was further protected by wide mine fields stretching toward the possible approaches of Britain’s grand fleet. Behind these sea barriers, of which Helgoland was the center* Germany maintained naval, submarine, Zeppelin and airplane teases for the four years df~the wap. By the dismantling of Helgoland and the internationalization of the Riel canal the German “North sea porta and those of the nations bordering on the Baltic will be opened to the unrestricted coinmerce of the world.

“WOW” BECKETT, ENGLISH HEAVYWEIGHT, CHALLENGES WINNER Of BIG TITLE BOUT

W. Ck vV. Beckett, recent recruit to the regiment of pugilists who have knocked out Bombardier Wells, has cabled Tex Rickard that he wants to meet the winner of the Willard-Demp-sey fight. “Wow” evidently has had it explained to him that Rickard is paying Willard 20,000 guineas, quid or pounds for one bout. Doesn't Worry Rickard. Rickard does not consider that knocking out Wells puts anybody in line for the heavyweight championship, writes W. O. McGeehan in New York Tribune. Beaning the Bombardier has been one of the most popular sports indulged in by various French, British and American heavyweights.

WELCOME FOR FRANK KRAMER

Australians Take Kindly to Proposed Yankee Cyclone Invasion During Next Autumn.

-dlohn M. Chapman’s proposal to take a team of American cyclists on an Australian tour next autumn is received favorably in the antipodes, according to recent exchanges. Commenting upon the tour the Sydney referee says: “The Australian sporting public have read so much of Frank Kramer that they will flock to see this great rider in action. He has won the American championship in 17 out of the last 18 years. He is still a comparatively young man at thirty-eight, and as the Australian climate agrees with American athletes, he would shape at his (jest, for Kramer is a very clean living man, neither drinks nor smokes, and unlike most successful athletes retires to bed early. “Just imagine the Sydney Cricket ground, illuminated as It was in the good old Sydney Tho® and days, and Kramer, Spears, Spencer and other crack sprinters tearing for the line. It makes one’s mouth water. Cycling In

Frank Kramer.

the Sydney Thousand days was good, but it will be better still if John M. Chapman, Frank Kramer, Spencer, Spears and company arrive in October, 1919, as seems practically certain."

GIANT RECRUIT HOME AGAIN

Paul Burry Returns to States Suffering From Shell Shock—Captured German Guns.

Paul Burry, former Notre Dame university pitcher, who signed with the NeW York Giants for trial, but concluded he preferred fighting in France to baseball as a profession, has returned tq the States a sufferer; from shell shock. A story is told of how Burry and a comrade a German machine gun nest, located 1n a steel-lined hollow tree, killed or captured the gunners and turned the guns on the Germans- Both got special mention for this stunt. ' -

It always has been considered a safe and sane pastime to hang one on the Bombardier’s jaw. The Bombardier lias dusted the rosin from his trunks more often than any heavyweight in the world with the possible exception of Arthur Pelky. Beckett's Backers Serious. Beckett’s backers take him very seriously, however, and the chances are that he will be flitting over this way very soon. The news of the $127,500 purse has caused some feverish excitement in the ranks of the British boxers and enough pugilistic immigrants will soon be on the wmy to take the places of the emigrants who have beat It through Ambrose channel to evade the long, dry spell to come.

INTERESTING SPORT PARAGRAPHS

The Toronto Canoe club will erect a clubhouse this year, * * * Roscoe Troxler is about to begin his twenty-first year as a jockey. * * * English championship track and field sports will take place in London July 5. * * * Harvard university boasts 614 men taking daily exercise with the various athletic squads. * * * Jim Jeffries, once heavyweight pugilistic champion, is now a breeder of Holsteins in California. • * * Canadian Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic association plans a revival of all branches of sport this season. * * * Tris Speaker Is all set for his usual campaign In the American league. He may be with a pennant winner this year. * • * Six schools of the New York Public Schools Athletic league wilL play lacrosse for a championship emblem this summer. 1 » * * George Gibson, manager of the Toronto club, and some of his hired men are working out with the Giants this spring. ** # „ -i • " George R. Hodson, champion swimmer, has returned to Montreal after three years’ service In the English forces overseas, * * * Peter the Great, 2:07 1 ,4, Is the sire of 302 trotters In the 2:03 list. In addition, 51 of them are in the 2:10 list, and 10 are in the 2 :Q5 list. • * • The Patergbn (N: J.) soccer team, holders of the National league cup, one of the strongest teams in the East, may tour Europe next summer. • * • Charley (Chltfk) Artman. though deposed as manager of the Binghamton team of the International league, will remain with It as second baseman. * * * If Carl Wellman comes back this season he will surprise St. Louis fans pleasantly. Reverse English goes on that for the other cities on the circuit. s • i • Arthur Irwin will have three boys on his Rbchester team this year who learned their baseball on the Brooklyn lots. They are Jack, grady, Hank Hagan and Waite Hoyt. / • •• Brooklyn has signed an Inflelder named Brazil. Pittsburgh will shortly sign Pitcher Chile; the Giants are after Catcher Ecuador, and the Reds will probably engage the fapous battery of Paraguay and Uruguay.

JOHN M’GRAW TALKS ON SPORTS AT YALE

College Scribe Interviews Vice President of Giants. Expresses Satisfaction Over Re-estab-lishment of Former Annual Game —Comments on Athletics at University. When Interviewed in regard to the university game with the New York Giants on April 22, John J. McGraw, the vice president and manager of the New York Ball club, expressed great satisfaction over the re : establlshment of the formerly annual game. He also commented on and discussed the university athletic policy and the general condition of college sports. Mr. McGraw said In part: am very glad on my part that the game with Yale has been re-estab-lished. It is always an interesting game and gives us all some good practice. To open the season at tha Polo grounds is a privilege and a prestige that we are glad to give to such a worthy institution as Yale. I am delighted.” When the new athletic policy of the university was explained to Mr. McGraw he replied: “That seems to me to be a good policy to follow. The university teams encourage general athletics, and «s a re-

John McGraw.

suit of the general athletics you are able to get better athletes and better ball players on your university teams. ‘‘As regards training tables they are helpful in many cases, where a man is preparing for one big push, as a boxing match or a track meet, or even for a game of football, but they are not vital assets of a ball player who goes through a long season. It Is the same for both college and professional ers, although the college season is riot so long. • “However, no matter what they do. I h,ope to see the old college game come back. Let's see things as they were in the good old days before the war. Every year men try to modify baseball rules, but every year when we come back we are still playing under the same rules, so I hope that when this period has passed with all Its benefits we will be back again as It was In former times. “Above all, when they are making vital changes in athletics policy, they should take the word of those men who have been through the game, and not let outside men working on theory dictate to them."

CARL CASHION QUITS GAME

Minneapolis Outfielder and Leading Batsman Sees No Future in Baseball for Him. Carl Cashion, Minneapolis outfielder and leading batsman of the American association last season, has quit baseball for good. Cashion is employed in

Carl Cashion.

a shipyard at Superior, Wis., and has returned his contract to Manager Cantlllofi without, signing, stating that he has a splendid position, no future in baseball for him and thinks hp had better get out while he is young.

Phils Take Munch.

Jake'Munch, a failure at first base with the Mackiuen last year; signed With -he Phillies.