Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1919 — HAIL, HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO COMES [ARTICLE]

HAIL, HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO COMES

Camp Merritt, N. J., April 21, 1919. Mr. C. W. Hanley, Rensselaer Indiana. Wire me twenty. See you in ten days' : Mike Wagner. His Honor was much perturbed upon receiving the above message this Monday morning and scratched his head as he was lulled into a deep brown study. Could it be that his star court reporter, the upright Michael, the man free from all staint, the soldier of fortune, had some how or other stepped on the corns of a wrathful New Jersey court? The Honor’s wonder grew as read' and re-read the missive. “Twenty dollars and ten days” is a familiar term to the boss of the local court, and the words could mean but one thing to him—Michael had erred. However, the twenty was soon on its way to the supposedly hapless Make. The judge saw to that for Mike’s his favorite, but it did not dissolve the maze of sorrow which encompassed His Honor. The more he thought of it the more horrible grew the spectre. Then some one. suggested to the judge that perhaps Mike needed the money for traveling purpose and that he was to be discharged within ten days. Then it dawned upon the boss of the bench that he had permitted his thoughts to travel in the wrong channel. Slowly his visage became wreathed in smiles, and now he’s awaiting the day when his star reporter again sets foot upon the soil of his first love. Yep, Mike'si coming, coming from the bloody battlefields, coming back to the quietude of dear old Rensselaer, after a year and a month of absence which he has spent in foreign fields as a member of Uncle Sam’s Unbeatables. It was April last that Mike laid away the pad and pencil of the New-ton-Jasper circuit court to enter his new field of occupation. April third was the day that he was swept from the moorings of civilian life and into the sea of military strife. The first time he toed the mark and doffed his hat to a superior officer was at Camp Mills, bjew York, on the fourth day of April on his arrival at the eastern cantonment with six other Jasper county boys, the smallest quota to be sent from here during the drafting process. He was not to dwell long among Hie effete of the East, however, for it was decided the sinews of the army required his pencil pushing and short-hand proclivities far more' on the other side of the Atlantic than on this side, hence, the decision to place him on a boat and send him over to get a close-up of way modern warfare is conducted. Like Caesar, he went and saw and conquored, his travels talcing him to England, France, Italy and ultimately into Belgium. The greater portion of his time in listening to the roar of the enemy bullets was spent on the Italian front, where he rendered invaluable service along the many important fronts, which were the objectives of the Germans during the great offensive launched last summer and which culminated in their defeat. » And now the home folks wait with open arms for the coming of the conquering hero.