Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 136, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1919 — Page 3

GREAT WAR WORK OF PIGEONS ON BATTLEFIELDS AND THE SEA

Carriers of Vital Messages Ever Since Battle of Marne in 1914. U-BOAT IS TRAPPED BY BIRD Hews From Trenches Taken at Full Speed to Headquarters and Supply ' x Lines—lnformation Gained From Captured Pigeons. Paris.—At the Ternes gate of Paris may be seen a memorial, the work of Bartholdi, on which is . Inscribed: “Monument to the Balloonists and Carrier Vlgeons of 1870.” What memorial ■will acknowledge the services of carrier pigeons in the world’s war of 19141918 remains to be seen, but their work amid barrage fire, bursting shrapnel, ithe zip-zip of machine-gun bullets and the death destroying gases was of enormous value. Carrier pigeons were used on all the Ibattlefronts but their best work was on the western front, from the chanpel to the Swiss "border and from the Alps to the Adriatic gulf. They carfried messages at the Marne, when the [Huns were driven back by Marshal Joffre. Hundreds were used in the battle of the'Tset, In Flanders, when the Belgians and the French halted jthe German advance; and they made many and frequent trips in the first battle of Ypres, in the drive on the ■channel ports when the British, French and Belgians stopped the Germans decisively in the final battle at the close of 1914. They aided in the capture of INeuve Chapelle by the British and ’they died in numbers with the British Tommies at the second battle pf Ypres, when the Germans advanced toward jfiie Yser canal using for the first time [poisonous gas. Again the birds did ’valiant service when the French tried Ito break through in the Champagne in the fall of 1915, and in the whole iserles of the Verdun attacks lasting (through July, oftentimes the only communications with men in advanced stations were the dogs that crept through the barrages and the carrier pigeons that returned with messages. Where telephone and wireless broke down, lend men could not survive the storm icf shell fire, it is recorded that 97 per icent of the messages carried by carrier [pigeons came safely through. Told of German Retreat. When the Germans retired to the •“Hindenburg line,” It was carrier pigieons carried forward into the front advance lines that brought back the pews of the retirement long before telephonic communication could be established. Through the whole area, [1,300 square miles, on a front, of 100 miles from Arras to Soissons, carrier pigeons did their work effectively. And (wherever the Americans fought, at Cantlgny, -Chateau-Thlerry, Torcy, fßouresches, Belleau wood, Conde-en-Brie, Buzancy, Jaulgonne, Fere-en-Tar-•denols, Bligne, Oierges, Vlliers-Argron, IFismes, Frapelle, Bazoches, Juvigny, ISt. Mihiel, Argonne forest —carrier pigeons were likewise on the job. A carrier pigeon aided in capturing p U-boat and her crew. A coast watchler on one of the loneliest parts of the Iwest coast at sundown saw the tifi of la periscope arise and tjjen the conning tower of a U-boat. The underwater boat stopped, and the officers and crew fwere seen on deck. The lookout man tied a note bearing the information to the leg of a carrier pigeon and released St from his basket. The next morning la German submarine, which had run |ont of gasoline, and its officers and icrew were taken to a naval sub-base. A British patrol boat, was discovered by a German submarine and torpedoed and shelled. The skipper, having on boar® a carrier, pigeon, wrote a brief message, telling his position and jwhat had happened. As the boat [sank, the skipper began swimming for |eome wreckage to cling to. The pigeon [went up gradually in a spiral, and the [Germans, seeing it, began shooting at the bird. The skipper, drifting on the (wreckage, gave up hope when he saw fthe bird had been hit. Twenty miles -away, however, it lighted on a patrolling destroyer, its silver-gray plumage

RACHEL M’MILLAN BABY CAMP IN ENGLAND

' one of the features at this Ing English nursery, camp Is the out-of-doors sleeping quarters for the children.- Every day that weather permits tbs ! children take tWs healthy way of getting their afternoon nap.

specked with blood, its tall feathers shot away, and one of its wings wounded. The commanding officer read the message, the destroyer was rushed at full speed to the place indicated, and within three-quarters of an hour from the time that the pigeon was sent off, the officers and crew of the patrol were picked Up where they clung to the wreckage. Spy With Pigeohs. An American at Liege, in writing of the German advance, told this incident: “As I returned to the city, walking along the River Meuse, I saw one who, oblivious of war and its alarms, was dangling his legs over the water and peacefully fishing. The battle in the air, which he must have witnessed, had not moved him. The certainty that the Germans were only a few miles away had not concerned him. He smoked his pipe and placidly cast his line. It was soothing to overstrained nerves to see that chap, but it was only a few hours later that I learned a German spy had been arrested as he pgsed as a fisherman, with a creel full of carrier pigeons.” Another story reads: “In the cowl, habit and tonsure that mark the monk a young man told his beads aboard the train bound for Antwerp. And a woman, hardly more than a girl,-"kept her eyes fastened on the man of prayers. She studied on the- devotion with which his fingers slipped from decade to decade of the long, well-worn rosary that hung from the cincture about his waist. But, although his lips appeared to move in humble supplication, the woman saw that he had failed to kiss the cross. The lapse was significant. “ 'Spy!’ the girl hissed into the face of the alleged ascetic. In an instant tw’o guards had seized the man and rushed him down the train corridor. The woman examined the small wicker basket behind in the seat. Lifting the lid, she found three pigeons.” , Get German Pigeons.A news dispatch briefly summarized such a find thus: “A German trawler was captured by a British warship near the Orkney islands to the north of Sco’tland. She is believed to- have been engaged in spying, as carrier pigeons were found os bbard.” Reference has already been made to the number of messages carried back to the French lines by carrier pigeons in the defense of Verdun. A pigeon captured by the French conveyed this Information: “The rolling fire of the enemy with guns of the heaviest caliber is such that sectors S., C., and H. are to a great extent leveled. The garrison, including that of sector V., is disorganized completely. Some of it has been obliged to fall back on the Eighty-third and Ninety-eighth regiments, which also had to retire. “Sector V. (von Raun’s) was subjected to such fire that its observation post was put out of order. All sorties are being bombarded and one Is occu l pied constantly in replacing them. “The battalion asks its. immediate

Red Cross Workers Aid Exiled Greeks

Athens. —In its work in the Greek islands the. American Red Cross has the co-operation of the United States navy. Six submarine chasers have been assigned for transporting personnel and supplies.* On the Island of Mytilene are 52,000 Greeks, who fled there from Asia Minor five years ago. Red Cross workers are regularly visiting all the towns and clothing has been given to about 20,000 of the refugees. At tiie outbreak of the war, In 1914, there were 3,000,000 in Asia Minor. More than 500,000 escaped to the islands in the Aegean. Thousands were massacred. Armed bands of Turks roamed the couiftryside, plundering and murdering Greeks wherever

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

rellenhls evening by fresh troops. It can fight no longer. “(Signed) “FIRST LIEUTENANT STEINBRECHT.” Carrier pigeons tell headquarters of the progress of a battle. Here is a typical report when the French army fought along the Alsne: “It Immediately appeared that the destruction of' the German defense had been accomplished with as much success as could be hoped for in so difficult a country. By 7:30 a. m. we learned by carrier pigeon and other means that the Chateau de la Motte on the French left near Allemant had been carried, anfi that at the center Mahnaison Fort was taken. At 8 :45 Allemant village had been occupied, the prisoners numbered a thousand, and the French assault troops were advancing across, the central plateau toward Vaudesson and Mont Parnasse quarry. At 10:30 the news was that they were at the north of Hill li3. the further spur of Malmalson plateau, and in a quarry 220 yards west of the fort. By p. m. the villages of Chavignon and Vaudesson, with several neighboring quarries lying on the northern edge of the Aisne hills, had been occupied. Chavignon was the furthest point contemplated in the plan and represented an advance of one and one-half miles made in the face of the best remaining troops of the German empire,” ' Aided by Camouflage. While many carrier pigeons changed their habits of spiraling, finding it a dangerous practice and learnpd. to fly back and then forward at an altitude comparatively low, camouflage aided birds considerably in getting back to their loft carrying with them messages from troops in front. At Fort VauX, in the battle of Verdun, the crown prince’s army had a special group o men. shooting down carrier pigeons as they left the fort. And another story of Verdun. It was at Thiaumont, sixteen times taken; lost and retaken. Wire! ess and telephones had long ceased to exist. No human being could cross the terrain. The commandant w-as in desperate need of communicating with the rear. Suddenly the glasses revealed a dog, crouching on its bell? 7 , crawling through the flashes, and in a moment of temporary lull leaping forward. On its back was a pannier. Nearer and nearer the dog came, and prayers were involuntarily offered as the beast flattened out here and there in the debris for shelter. Another lull and the dog leaped forward and at last it scampered into Thiaumont with the pigeons safe in the pannier. On the dog’s collar was this message. “We relieve you by attack on Froidterre, 3 p. m.” “Stop the German battery on our left. Here are the elements for pointing,” was the written message of the commandant sent back by one of the pigeons. Another momentary lull and the pigeon is released." Dog and pigeon, faithful and distinguished friends of man, have done their work to save civilization.

found. The others, driven out of their homes and sent inland, are now returning, to find their homes either destroyed or occupied by Turks. The refugees in the Aegean Islands intend to return to Asia Minor as soon as conditions permit. At present the Greek government gives each refugee six cents a day. The Red Cross is devoting much attention to the prevention of further epidemics, such as the typhus scourge, which took such a heavy toll at Mytllene. Food is scanty and costly, and most of the refugees are underfed, even in the Idrge towns.. Nearly all are in rags. The hospitals are short of medicines and other supplies, and have been crowded by Ihfluenza'cases. Clothing, blankets and medicine are needed on all the Islands. Canned meat for broth is wanted in the hospitals. American women run the worshops where clothing is made on the three Islands of Mytilene, Chios and Samos. 22,000 In Town of Mytilene. Of the 52,000 refugees on Mytilene 22,000 are in tlie town of Mytilene and its suburbs; the others are Scattered about in 62 villages. Of the 20,000 refugees on Crlos part are sheltered in old houses and the rest in wooden barracks, divided with bagging and old carpets into “rooms,” each accommodating a family of from five to ten persons. The Islands of Lemnos, Imbros, Tenetjos and Samothrace are served with Red Cross supplies from Mytilene; Olnousa fs served from Chios, and Ucanla from Samos. The American R&d Cross agent* were received at Mytilene with the greatest enthusiasm. The horses were unhitched and the carriage drawn by a cheering crowd tQ the residence of the governor general, who commandeered a private home and placed it at thell disposal. r .

The first I,(XM) men of the army of SO,U(XJ to be sent to relieve the army of occupation tn Germany, photographed on the deck of their liner just before they sailed. The por trait is of Col. Harold Jackson, in command.

WORK OF SIGNAL CORPS IN WAR

Official Reports Show Wonderful Service Rendered During Struggle. HAD 96,000 MILES GF WIRE Special Form of Wire Made and Many Telephone and Telegraph Stations Were Set Up in France. Washington.—Official reports on signal corps equipment for the war, made public, show that one special form of telephone wire, unknown to commer-i cial use before the war, was being turned out at the rate of 26,000 miles a month at a cost of nearly $6,000,000 when the armistice was signed. The American telegraph and telephone system in France totaled 96,000 miles when the fighting ended, this being the semi-permanent installations. When fighting was at its peak the corps was approximating the use of 68,000 miles of outpost wire a month in addition, one development of the war being the necessity of two-wire circuits for front line operations to prevent the

BURGOMASTER OF LOUVAIN

Dr. Alfred Nerinox, burgomaster of Louvain. Belgium when that town was In the hands of the Hun, is here in this country to deliver lectures, telling what frightfulness Belgium suffered.

POSTMASTER 63 YEARS

West Virginia Official Has Great \ . Record. Loves the Work and Expects to Hold Job for Many Years More. Elkins, W. Va. —Many postmasters and other federal office holders cling tenaciously to their Jobs, “but it is doubtful If any can boast of a record that will compare with that of George P? Moore, who has been postmaster at Edray, Pocahontas county, continuously for 63 years. Mr. Moore says he expects to continue handling the mall at Edray for ten or twenty yefcrs longer. He is now eighty-four yearns old. When a post office was established at Edray, in 1853, Mrs. J. K. Moore, mother of the present postmaster, was made postmistress. Three years later

FIRST THOUSAND RELIEF TROOPS ON THE WAY

enemy from “listening” in on the old style single wire equipment. Wire wastage was enormous, as it*had to be abandoned whenever an advance, was made. ■ Of Special Design. There had been set up in France last November 282 American telephone exchanges with 14,956 lines reaching to 8,959 stations. Even the telephone instruments u'Sed were of special design, combining both telephonic and telegraphic communication, and the production of these in the quantity needed was a problem in itself. At the close of hostilities the United States had 133 fully equipped telegraph stations in France,, which were handling a daily average of 43,845 messages of 60 words each during the last days of the fighting, or within about 5,000 of the peak load. An instance of the enormous demand that developed for field glasses, lenses for which before the war largely w’ere obtained from Germany,

Woman Rules Relief

Has Charge of Large Activities in Czecho-Slovakia. Lady Muriel Paget Tells of Urgent Food Needs of Millions of People. Paris. —A woman has been entrusted with the big task of organizing and administering relief work in one of Europe’s new states —Czechoslovakia. Lady Muriel Paget, an Englishwoman whose devotion to the Czecho-Slo-vak cause is well known, arriyed here frdm Prague after a month's tout of the new republic, and outlined to the Associated Press correspondent her scheme for the relief of that country. Her plan, which has the approval of the Czecho-Slovak authorities, is to enlist a body of able and willing social workers to train the women of Czechoslovakia in social welfare work. Her ambition is to Interest patriotic Czech women in America in the welfare of their native land. “There are, roughly, 5,000,000 people in Czecho-Slovakia today who have just enough to keep body and soul together,” Lady Muriel said. “Against these who may be described' as the rural population, there are 7,000,000 who are below the line of bare existence. They are, broadly speaking, the industrial and mining population. “Food, most of it from America, is now coming into the country through Trieste at the rate of about a hundred carloads a day; yet 400,000 people in eastern Slovakia are starving, and even in the better-situated paris the flour ration is only three pounds a head per month.”

she was succeeded by her son. who was appointed during the administration of President Franklin Pierce. Mr. Moore has served continuously since that day and has given such satisfaction that patrons of the office say they will not allow him to give up the job Until his physical Condition makes it necessary. Postmaster Moore holds the job because he loves the work and because the people Insist, not because he needs it. He.is engaged in the mercantile business, owns a large farm and is president of the First National bank of Marlinton. All of these enterprises, including the post office, get his personal attention. In addition to his many business affairs, Mr. Moore is the pastor of the Southern Methodist church at Edray and finds time to prepare two sermons a week besides conducting the regular weekly prayer meeting. ’

lies in the work of the Bausch and Lomb company of Rochester, N. Y., which beginning with a capacity of 1,800 pairs of field glasses a year in 1914 had reached an output of 3,500 pairs a week In November, 1918, and was then aiming toward an output of 5,500 pairs a week by January, 1919. Similar expansions of facilities ,were necessary in many other plants. The requirement of the forces in France for the six-power artillery glass alone was approximately 100,000 pairs and 106,000 pairs w’ere shipped from the United States. Motion-Picture Photography. The report devotes considerable space to discussion of the progress made in motion-picture photography during the war. By these means, it is pointed out, the signal corps has created “a new kind of history of the war, a history written entirely In pictures for future generations to scan.” Carrier pigeons, never before employed extensively in the American army, were widely used in France. Jfore than 15,000 were purchased and trained for that service and the report adds that “in actual use on the field the pigeons delivered more than 95 per cent of the messages intrusted to them, flying safely through the heaviest shell and gas barrages.”

Lady Muriel explained how this situation is utilized by the Magyars in Hungary to sow discontent among the Slovaks. “Practically all the intelligent classes have left Slova/kia,” Lady Muriel continued, “and it is during the present crisis and until their own people can be trained to do constructive and administrative work that the Czecho-SloVak government and the people have asked me to organize temporary assistance and provide advice.” Lady Muriel win establish her relief headquarters at Pressburg, from which center the sixteen necessitous Slovakian districts will be fed, clothed and medically assisted.

PAYS COOL $11,500 FOR VASE

Parrish Watson Takes Fancy for Chinese Art of Seventeenth Century. - > New York. —Oriental art treasures from the collection of ’the late Charles Stewart Smith came' to the final session of their sale in the American Art galleries one day recently, and the leading price of $11,500 was paid by Parrish Watson for a tall, brilliant sang-de-boeuf vq.se of the J>ang Yao genre and bearing a seventeenth century date of the K’ank-hsi era. It is said to have been the property of the late Captain Brinkley, U. S. A., a noted connoisseur In Japan, before being bought by Mr. Smith. A tall powderblue vase of the same era went to J. Voiran for $990. J. Goetz paid $750 for a small sang-de-boeuf vase, of the Lang-Yao genre and K'ang-hsl era. The session yielded $22,167 and the whole sale $27,016.

Grand Duke Nicholas Had Rasputin Flogged

London. —Lieut. Col. Napier, formerly attached to the staff of Grand Duke Nicholas, told a story of Rasputin, ‘the hypnotist monk of'the late czar. Rasputin one day bounced into the presence of the grand duke at general headquarters, exclaiming: "Do you know who I am?” "Who are you?” the grand duke replied. ' “Rasputin “Are you?” the grand duke replied. “Well, am going to have you flogged this time, and if you come here again I will have you hanged.” Rasputin was flogged and the grand duke was the only man in Russia who dared to have it done. • . ... ~. - i . V?';-

When in doubt—don’L