Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1920 — Page 7

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1920.

With the Salvation Army On Home Service

By SUSAN K. SHAFFER

This is just one ol the many cases of misery which comes to the daily notice and receives relief from the Salvation Army. During May 10 to 20. a committee of leading citizens of this state, headed by Major Arthur R. Robinson, of Indianapolis, will conduct an organized appeal for funds to turn over to the Salvation Army to be used in giving relief to just such cases of distress as are here portrayed.—Editor’s Note.

CHAPTER I. For a week and a day I have worn the Salvation Army bonnet and have glimpsed the misery, the poverty, ihe distress of the world through Salvation Army eyes. And I have seen the lighted faces that come with immediate relief of that distress, relief not red-taped but reaching directly to the need; without bureaucratic Inquiry in that spirit that John Boyle O’Reilly so vividly phrased in his lines: “Organized charity, skimped and iced; “In the name of a cautious, statistical Christ.” I have seen homes where, except for the Salvation Army, misery, hunger, want, privation and dirt are the only visitors. I have seen old people, their rest long earned through days of toil, still struggling to keep a roof over their heads, and doomed finally to failure—except for the tieaven-sent aid of the Salvation krmy. I have seen mothers, soon to be confined, sitting in hovels of unspeakable disorder, patiently waiting their time, too wan and worn to make ihe intimate preparations for themselves and the coming child that means health and strength for both. I have seen women, soon to become mothers, dull and apathetic in their Sodden surroundings; top inured to hardships to count their condition Cad, too unused to joy to anticipate he ineffable happiness that comes Ito most women with the approach of |their first-born. Sees Misery and Poverty. > From the energetic mother of fifteen children, willing but unable to make the provider’s weekly $lB pay check cover their wants and needs, (to the paralytic of thirty-eight years, iunable to move from his bed, tortured by dreams of better days, and Of a splendid vitality snapped off (without warning, I have learned of misery as only the Salvation Armj tmows it, from the impoverished amlly kept in coal and groceries all winter, to the sorry little group just In from a distant city, utterly penniless and friendless. I have learned Es relief as only the Salvation Army nows how to administer it. From visiting the settlement Sunday school where come the ragged urchins of West Washington street, (the "little mothers” of the slums, the bld grandmothers broken down in body and spirit, I have seen the Saltation Army cohorts tactfully, dramatically and with absolute sincerity Interpret the' poor man’s classic—the Bible. _ With each visit and each new fclimpse of misery allayed and a deBree of happiness restored, my admlration for the Army whose infeignia I was wearing changed from Admiration to awe. My blue-bonnet-ed companion, Commandant Prurience Denton, who had seemed plain And humble as we walked along the busy city street, underwent a metafcnorphosls in the wretched homes we Alsited. Instead of a quiet unobtrusive woman in not too becoming costume, I saw her as a veritable angel 0f mercy, clothed in raiment that exstressesf tresses her life—humility and servoe. Her personality, submerged under an exterior of passivity on the street, rose like flame to the spark of the heed of her services in those wretchI places of misery. Her life apared to me what it is—a tribute to b cause of humanity and to the hi formulated seventy years ago in s little attic room of a London uning house when the struggling vivallst preacher received the visi that was tb save millions from, ath and disgrace, close thousands drunkards’ graves yawning for sir victipis, snatch countless numrs of little children from starvation And a life worse than death, and tnake the term “human derelict” an Unnecessary one in any country. Boys Without Shoos In Winter, Our first call under the Salvation Army flag led out to the edge of the pity where streets are unpaved-?-* rivers of mud in the spring, swelters M dust in the summer and drifts of mow in the winter. Here dwellings Are squat and drab, with windows Inamodestly uncurtained. Our destination was the back room of a wretched two-room shack. The littered yard And offensive but houses gave only

slight promise of the disorder tnslde. Two steps lead up to the door, one rotting away and the other broken. Our knock aroused a sound of scuffling within, and a minute later two bright eyes peeped through two jagged holes in the rags that covered the pane of glass in the door. A cautious scraping of the key followed and the door opened as fast as the dirty sacking stuffed under it would permit. x These rags under the door, impeding Its progress in opening, attracted my attentioffn to the floor of the room first, and consequently to the feet of the occupants. There were four small feet, innocent of shoes but well swathed in old rags and stockings; and two large ones in shoes that bulged heavily at the sides. The small feet belonged to Charley and Billie Griffith, two bright-eyed little boys with black faces and clothes in tatters. The large ones were their mother’s, Mrs. Griffith, a huge woman dressed more cleanly in gingham,’her hair parted and plaited down her back. It was evident that a third child was soon to be added to the family. Mrs. Griffith had been crying when we knocked. My companion asked the woman if she needed immediate attention of a physician. “No,” sobbed the woman, trying to calm herself, “but my baby is coming, and I haven’t any clothes, not even a clean towel to wrap it in.”

Army Lassie Promises Clothes. Our promise to send things for the coming little one and shoes for the two boys helped the 'woman to regain her composure. Littie by little she confided her story to us. Lured by the hope of more work and better wages, they had left their home in Danville, Ky. They had sold everything to buy tickets for Indianapolis. But work was hard to get and now they are alone and friendless in a strange city. They can barely afford the $2.00 a month for the wretched place where they live. The four of them, two active boys and herself and husband do not get much sleep in the one bed that the room contains. Sometimes Mr. Griffith, after shoveling coal all .day, sits up or lies on the floor all night. The children go to sleep on the bed with their clothes on to keep warm, early at night and after they are tight asleep their father lifts them off onto a pile of dirty clothes gathered in one corner. There they spend the rest of the night and the parents occupy the bed. When there is food enough on hand to be cooked, it is served for all on the two china plates they own, and eaten with four tin spoons or with the fingers.

No Water and Little Light. W’hile my companion was getting this information in halting sentences from Mrs. Griffith, I made mental inventory of the room. The stench, noticeable the moment the door closed behind us, is almost overpowering. It tells its own story of filth and dirt, lack of ventilation and lack of personal cleanliness. Cleanliness is made almost Impossible because of the great distance to the nearest point of obtaining water. The only light comes through the glass pane in the door. v Patches of worn-out linoleum cover spots on the floor. Cracks in the wall paper are pockets for years’ accumulation of dirt. Grimy clothes and dirty rags litter the floor. The bed, three quarter size, with two soiled pillows and a single coverlet, sheds straw from its mattress every time °a gust of wind shakes the house. Confused voices and fretful walls from the inhabitants of the other room fn the shack are heard constantly. A movement from my companion told me it was tiipe to go. I was glad of the stiff March wind that rushed against us as we stepped out of that room, cleansing our clothes of the heavy smell of dirt and human odors. But no wind that blows will ever purge my memory of the scene of the poor helpless mother facing deepest physical misery in dirt, poverty and alone. Her one friend is the Salvation Army.

This is just one of the many cases of misery which comes to the dally notice and receives relief from the Salvation Army. During May 10 to 20 a committee of leading citizens of the state, headed by Major Arthur R. Robinson, of Indianapolis, will conduct an organized appeal for funds to turn over to the Salvation Army to be used in giving relief to just such cases of distress as are here portrayed. —Editor’s Note.

NOTICE TO FARMERS We handle the Rumely line tractors, threshing machines and farming implements; also Mid-West Utilitor, one-horse tractor, at White Front Garage.—KUBOSKE & - WALTER. ts

OSBORNE’S GREENHOUSE 502 Merritt Street For Cut Flowers, Potted Plants and all kinds of Floral Designs. TELEPHONE 439

THE TWICE-A-WEEK DEMOCRAT

MEMORIES OF MEMORIAL DAY

Written by One Who Thinks With Fondness of the Old Home Town’s Observances. While Memorial day has become a national holiday, observed as such In every city in the land, it is in the small town —the old home town —that one gets the proper conception of the spirit of the day, remarks the Kansas City Times. In the big cities there will be the hush of noise, the rest from the hurly-burly of the daily grind, and there will be gatherings in public places and in various cemeteries, and speeches, and the formal decorating of the graves of the veterans who fell In battles fighting for their country, and there will be an unusual number of informal visitors, too, who will scatter flowers upon the resting places of their dead. But the big city is a crowded place, full of strangers. Even the names on the marble stones in the cemetery are strange to us. There is no sympathy in the big city, save the common sympathy that binds those who sorrow. Out in the small towns our hearts turn to them for this day as naturally as they turn to the old home town and the old home folks at Christmastide. One’s Thoughts Go Back. It is one of the facts that has impressed itself upon the Industrial world that the rush Is out of, not into, the big cities on Decoration day. In that it is different from all other holidays. Travel takes the same course on this day that the feet of sorrow tread when the family chain is broken. We follow our dead to the old home towns and lay them to rest in the quiet cemeteries on the hills. Today we are taking the pilgrimage of love to the hill where they sleep. We know what is going on In the old home town today, even though we are shut up in the city. It Is much the same program we witnessed when, as lads, we learned to distinguish between Decoration day and any other holiday. Programs haven’t changed much. The parade In the morning, which never starts on time; the service at the graves of the soldiers who sleep there on Woodlawn hill, the salute to the dead by the firing squad of comrades from the G. A. R. —how the Une has thinned, and how feeble those remaining among them are becoming—and afterward, the address by the orator of the day. The parades and the program are Incidents of the day that make It appear like old .times to you, but that Is not the thing that takes you to the old home town today, nor takes your thoughts then;. If you cannot be “present in the body,” as ’Squire Woodbury will say, as chairman of the day—he is always chairman of this day, in the old home town —when he speaks of those who are not there to hear the speaking. That Remembered Parade. As you recall, or as you will see it, the parade is rather a simple one, compared to the big-parades you see in the cities. It is not a long procession, and there does not seem to be much order about IL The old home-town cornet band, which always leads the parade, is not the best band you ever heard, either. It needs tuning up, you judge by the discordant notes, but, for all that, you want to see the Decoration day procession. It is the old home-town’s way of doing things, and you have come to associate it as a part of Memorial day. But that scene at the cemetery: There’s a big bouquet of-flowers on every grave. Aunt Maggie Snow has arranged for that, bless her, for she has been president of the committee on decoration as long as ’Squire Woodbury has been president of the day.

Memorial Day

IET silver-throated bugles sing V | . With reveille I Let people fragrant tributes bring This mom tn May. O dreamless heads, O hearts »O still You rech no more Of sentry's wild alarm, so shrill The voice of war! The midnight marches of the star* Above each head. And lurid torch of fiery Mars ,< , Shall cause no dread. In swtfl procession Night and Day Pass in review, And act as escorts on the way To cheer the true. The Boys tn Blue, who yet remain Of armies grand. Once camped o'er Freedom's bright domain Lihe ocean's sand. The dust returns again to dusti The elements Shall tarnish trappings ■ swords shall rust. And fall the tents. But you. the warriors.who fought For deathless Right, ■Who left the civtc fields which brought You honors bright. Your names lihe stars that circle 'round The camp above. Shine glorious o'er Fame's camping ground, Sparhled with love. And here today a nation's pride And love shine clear. As lovely tributes fall and hide Each grave so dear.

Aunt Maggie has flowers hauled to the cemetery in wagonloads, and she knows the location of every grave on Woodlawn hill. “Now here Is a basket of flowers for the ‘Jap’ Burson lot; you know where it is, right over there by the Nickleson monument. Take these over,” Aunt Maggie says to a member of her committee, “for goodness knows the poor dears will have no one to remember them today, and ‘Kit’ Burson never neglected anybody when she was with us.” Day of Sweet Memories. And while Aunt Maggie and her committee are scattering flowers on every neglected grave, there is a stream of people coming and going, with their offerings of love — Well, it is a day of revival of memories worth while, a recalling of old friends who were worth recalling. You pass by and read the names on the stones, and you get a glimpse of a year that has gone forever, and yeL here’s some one at this grave scattering flowers, whose life is linked with that other year. And in some way that life and that year touched you for some lasting influence. For in the old home town no man llveth unto himself and no man dieth unto himself. It is that picture that drives your thoughts back to the old home towns everywhere, for dll old home towns are alike. The day will be the same in the one as in the other. It is the memorial day of a nation; it is the memorial day for the community ; it is the memorial day for the home. It does not belong to any one city, or state, or section, for now, thank God, no Mason and Dixon line divides the day between the North and the South. In the South wherever a once blue-clad soldier rests, his grave is decorated along with the graves of those who wore the gray. It is a day to be observed, “an holy day forever In all your generations.”

America had her first Memorial day in Europe last year. While military salutes were fired in honor of the dead, an American flag was placed over the grave of every American soldier in Europe. In the United States many service flag* are surrounded with laurel or flowers, in honor of American heroes who paid the price of democracy, and who sleep beneath the soil of France.

First to “Die" in Civil War. The first man “killed in action” in the Civil war Isn’t dead at all. He is very much alive and Is working every day in the Inquiry section of the Atlanta, Ga., post office. He recovered from his wounds, lived through the war and Is now eighty years old and in good health. This man is “Uncle” George H. Hammond, one of the three surviving members of the “Atlanta Greys,” known officially as company F of the eighth Georgia infantry, says an exchange. He enlisted May 1, 1861, and July 21 of the same year was reported officially as the first man to fall at the battle of Manassas. Only a youngster, he was shot through the shoulder and left on the battlefield as dead. Mistakes In casualty lists were made then as well as now, and when he returned home a few weeks later his mother was mourning his death. He read his own obituary in the papers. Hammond didn’t mind being considered officially dead, but what bothered him then was not being able to fight again, his wound preventing further service. He was an ardent patriot in the war against Germany and won many enlistments through his fervent speeches at the Atlanta recruiting stations.

COLLECT RELICS OF LOST RACE

Interesting Material Unearthed in Ruins Near Aztec, New Mexico. LIVED IN COMMUNITY HOUSE Custom* of Prehistoric People Are Learned From the Variou* Object* Discovered —Ornament* Practically Untouched by Time. New York. —Temi>orarlly displayed in the west corridor of the American Museum of Natural History, on the first tloor, can be seen some Interesting relics of a lost race —the prehistoric people who built and lived In the great community dwelling, now in ruins, near Aztec, N. M., which Mr. Earl H. Morris has for the past three years been exploring and restoring for the American museum. Mr. Morris has gathered a great deal of material which will in time be placed on permanent exhibition. But the six shelves in the corridor give an idea of the nature of the objects which have been found and of the customs to which they testify. Relic* of Lost Race. Here, outlasting their wearers by centuries, are sandals woven of yucca leaf, yucca fiber and cotton, and here the very pattern boards over which the sandals were made. Here, practically untouched by time, are ornaments of shell cut Into disks, and beads of turquoise and of shell. There are arrow points of Jasper, bone awls and needles and fragments of painted wood —ceremonial boards, doubtless. The basketry Is of two types—colled and twilled —some of it in an excellent state of preservation. Then there are cylindrical netted disks padded with corn husks. These are a puzzle to tiie museum’s investigators. Some one advanced the theory that they might have been used as snow shoes, but the small size and unsuitable shape of some of the specimens seem to refute that supposition. A wooden cradleboard with its curiously placed headpiece accounts for the flattened skulls typical of all the skeletons of this ancient civilization which have been recovered. A pillow of matting stuffed with corn husks, and some human remains wrapped In matting and showing the method of burial complete the miscellaneous portion of the collection. Specimen* of Pottery. The rest of the exhibit Is given over to pottery. The specimens are of white, red and black, and include cooking and eating utensils. The designs—not as advanced in conception us some other of our antique southwestern pottery, are, however, frequently skillfully executed. For the most part painted in black, or, less often, In red, they are sometimes clearly taken from textile designs, sometimes made up of free-hapd curved lines such as would not have been practicable in textiles, or, occasionally consist of crude animal representations. An interesting broken mug shows a hollow bottom in which little pellets of clay had been placed so as to produce a rattle. The cross-markings on the edges of the bowls and drinking vessels are very characteristic of the pottery taken from this vicinity. Most interesting among these relics is the colled pottery—made by rolling long strips of clay and winding them round and round in the desired shape, as Is done in coiled basketry. In the pottery of this sort the mark of the shaping thumb can be plainly seen, and was frequently used to produce a wave pattern which often attained to a very pleasing development

French Youngsters Dance on “Volcano”

Brest. —Young people of this city have been greatly enjoying dances given at one of the large American barracks near town and have just been apprised of the fact they were literally “dancing upon a volcano.” The building was deserted after American forces departed, but they left behind them a large number of cases which were piled along the walls. On these boxes were words In English, but the dancers, not understanding that language, did not know the words were “dynamite,” “Lyddite,” “guncotton” and “detonators.”

Sorrowing Parents Missing.

Charleston, W. Va.—D. C. Hall of Athens, W. Va., Is searching cities of this state hoping to find trace of his parents. Hall served with the Sixth marines in France. He was reported killed in action, and when his parents moved from Athens they failed to let anyone know where they were going. Now Hall is looking for them.

Laziest Man Admits It.

London. —A “very lazy man’’ advertises as follows: “Absolute horror of work of any description; lives for sport; but uncomfortably hard up, owing to late lamented war, keeks means to live comfortably and comparatively luxuriously with minimum exertion. Any suggestions?"

LITTLE WOMAN CAINS 35 POUNDS

Was in Bed Three Month* and Weighed Only 80 Pound* Before Tanlac Restored Her. , “I had been down in bed for three months when 1 started taking Tanlac but in one week after I had taken my first dose I was able to be up and about,” was the statement, made the other day by Mrs. O. T. Ponder, 327 East Second St., Galesburg, 111., in telling of her remarkable recovery since taking Tanlac. “Only my neighbors can tell you the misery I have gone through during the past seven years, why. I have suffered a thousand deaths,” she continued. “Wien 1 would study about my condition and the small chance I had of ever seeing another well day I would almost go into hysterics. My nerves were almost completely shattered and I would become excited at the least little unexpected thing. I had indigestion so bad that I was almost afraid to eat anything because of the agony I would be in from the cramps and gas. I would got so deathly sick at my stomach sometimes that I would faint. At nights I would lie awake for hours ami 1 kept losing in weight until I was down to about eighty pounds. I was scarcely more than a frame and finally I got so weak that I gave away completely and had to take to my bed. “This was the condition I was in when I was persuaded by a friend to try Tanlac, but as I had but little hope of ever getting out of bed again, I took it more to please her than any tiling else. Well, you can imagine how happy I felt when I began to improve—my nerves eased up and I began to relax and get more sleep, and in a day or two I was able to eat a little something. All this encouraged me so that 1 did not allow myself to miss a dose and In less than a week from the time I started taking Tanlac I wee out of bed. And by the time I had taken four bottles I was able to do all my housework and take care of my five little children. And now I am in perfect health and can eat anything I please without it ever troubling me in the least. I am not one bit nervous and sleep sound all night long. I have gained back all my lost strength and energy and weigh one hundred fifteen pound*. My friends and neighbors are simply amazed at the way Tanlac ha* brought me out and I can hardly realize myself the well and happy condition I am in. I will praia* Tanlac the longest day I live for giving me back my long lost health.” Tanlac is sold in Rensselaer by Lursh & Hopkins, and in Remington by Frank L. Peck; in Wheatfield by Simon Fendlg.—Advt.

TO FRIENDS OF THE DEMOCRAT

Instruct your attorneys to bring all legal notices in which you are Interested a\id will have the paying to do, to The Democrat, and thereby save money and do us a favor that will be duly appreciated. All notices of appointment—of administrator, executor or guardian; survey, sale of real estate, ditch or road petitions, notices to non-resl-dence, etc., the clients themselves control, and your attorneys will take them to the paper you desire, for publication, if you so direct them; while, if you fall to do so, they will give them where it suits their pleasure most and where you may least expect or desire ft. So, please bear this In mind when you have any of these notices to have published.

Duplicate order books, Fairbanks scale books, etc., carried in stock in The Democrat’s Fancy Stationery and Office Supply department.

Try a want ad in The Democrat.

1 Walker Township, Jasper Co., Ind. Polled Herefords and Poland China Hogs Hereford herd headed by Transmitter 759172, by King Jewel 20th, out of Bullion 4th dam. Young Stock for sale at all times. iilO® TEFFT,

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