Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 185, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1919 — Round the World With the Marines [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Round the World With the Marines

the English and the Irish and ■ I the ’owlln’ Scotties, too, The Canucks and Austrilee’uns, and the ’airy French pollu; The only thing that bothered us don't bother us no more, It’s only w’y in ’ell we didn’t know the Yanks before.” "Well, Joe, I asked them guys what the globe and anchor stood for on their caps and one guy speaks up and says it means that the marines fight all over the world.” “It’s a cute little thing, the marines’ insignia. Looks something like a boiled huckleberry pudding with a couple of fishhooks run through It, or like a lady hen hawk trying to hatch out a fractured door knob. I’m sure you get me Gladys. Also, the marines may be identified by their motto. Just where they wear that I’ve forgotten for the moment, but you’re sure to find it somewhere about them if you look close. It is ‘Semper Fidelis.’ No, It has nothing to do with fiddles. One *d,‘ Gladys. It is a phrase taken from the 61oux dialect, I think, meaning literally, •Where do we go from here?’ "

The story of “Bluebeard” and his seven wives, which many will recall having read long ago, Is still going the rounds. - The fable appears to have originated In France, but It has turned up almost everywhere In the wide world. Now It appears that the Virgin islands have a “Bluebeard” of their own, whom they claim as the original dyed-fn-the-wool villain of child-lore. Corporal Lester F. Scott of the Thirty-fifth company, United States marines, who is stationed at CharlotteAmalie in the little Island reeently acquired by the United States, writes as follows of the people and their beliefs : “On the west shore of the bay Iles a settlement of French people called Cha-Chas. These people came originally from the Dutch and French Leeward Islands. They have not married with the negroes, and they live to themselves, resenting any -outaide interference with their affairs., “They are a hard drinking race, yet they are the most Industrious people on the Island, and are especially good canoemen. Their boats are long, narrow affairs made out of scraps of wood. They supply the town with fish and the women make straw hats that find a ready sale among the negroes. “They will never rise any higher than the true beach-comber, because the race has degenerated, due to intermarriage In so small a colony. With their ruddy faces, stiffly starched blue tight white trousers and broadbrimmed hats, they present a curious and unusual appearance. “On the crest of two of the three hills of Charlotte-Amalie nestles the famous old castles of ‘Bluebeard’ and •Blackbeard.’ These are the two places of interest on the island. The old buccaneers were alike as two peas in their habits, but the castles are in no way similar. Bluebeard’s castle is the more massive and is separated from Blackbeard’s by a distance of a half-mile. After the death of the two pirates, a secret tunnel was found connecting the two castles. “It is reported that it was through this secret tunnel the two exchanged the women they had captured on ships.”

How Germany Looks to Them.

How Germany looks to a marine who was one of the first to cross the Rhine is told In a letter from Lieut. Carrol J. Single of the Sixth regiment of marines, to his parents who live in Stockton, Cal. From somewhere in Germany he wrote the following: "The people near the border were

Just plain squareheads, dumb looking, stolid, and unusually stupid. But two days ago we penetrated into the wonderful Rhineland and it is glorious here. We saw for the first time what we had not thought to find—pretty girls and mothers. There is nothing so restful to tired feet as the sight of a pretty girk No, sir I “The country we are in is more like America than anything I’ve seen since Paris. They have fine stone houses and many beautiful mansions and hotels here. This is the country of those famous German baden, or baths, where the sick come to drink of that magic elixir of life that Ponce De Leon failed to find in Florida.” Lieut. Single journeyed to Neuenahr and then visited the "Wienbergen” or wine mountains and finally reached Brohl, which he describes as follows: "I am now in Brohl, a small town. The Rhine flows two hundred yards from my window. In front of us are mountains and in back are mountains terraced for grapes and on the river at the foot of the mountains huddle the small towns. The rlvej here is about 600 yards across and flows restfully along into the distance. All is in true German order and big dredgers are working to make a harbor. "Last night I met Captain Stone, one of the best friends I have known in the service. He would have naught but that I should dine with him. We climbed to a big castle on a hill back here overlooking the Rhine. I stepped in the door and started (like the movies have it) from a realistic armored man on my left only to find a worse scoundrel on my right. In the great master’s den were mkny stuffed foxes and birds, also deer horns. Captain Stone had roast chicken, and it was a real meal, right in the castle of some former German baron.”

On Duty In Guam.

Something of the life' of a marine on duty in the Island of Guam is told in.a letter from Corp. Fred G. Taylor, who Is stationed on this American insular possession in the South sea. “When the last transport was here I had a very interesting excursion out to it on official business,” Corporal Taylor writes. “A corporal and I went aboard to check the baggage of the ‘homeward-bounders,’ and then waited several hours for the captain quartermaster of the vessel to return from a social affair on shore to sign the manifest He failed to appear, so we

ate a swell feed aboard and then returned by launch across the harbor in the moonlight, and back by auto through the coconut groves to town. “The next morning we again visited the vessel, this time getting our business done and saying good-by to our friends on the ship, bound for the Philippines and the States. “Last Sunday another fellow and I took a hike out into the jungles, walking around one of the beaches and climbing out onto the coral reef that guards the harbor, at low tide. We took some pictures and started back to town, after spying some of the most beautifully colored fish we had ever seen. “We took a road that we thought led to the main road, but after several miles found we had discovered a deserted Spanish highway leading through the jungles. In a few minutes we found ourselves at the leper colony at one end of the Island. “There we saw the walls of an old Spanish prison and looked into the •Devil’s Punchbowl,’ which is a contraption in the ground about 20 feet across at the top and bottom, but bulging in the center and about 100 to 160 feet deep. Then we returned to town, took some pictures of native women collecting ‘tody,’ the juice of the coconut tree, from which liquor is made, and returned to camp.”