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In a World That Is Shaken by an Endless Concussion
Robert A. Drake, Driver of Ambulance on
French Front, Tells of Battle Lines Where
- Blasts Tear Men and Materials Apart.
! 5 By ROBERT A. DRAKE,
Winner of French War Cross.
Bven in the deep bomb-proof dug
outs we could feel distinct jars when
an “arrivee” (a German shell) hit the
ground, whether it exploded or not.
When the shells did explode, the jar
was ' so, violent that dirt and rocks
crumbled down on us, and often rain
ed on the blankets of the wounded in
showers of gravel and debris.
In the very deep dugout of Ferme
Hemeret, despite its well trussed roof,
huge. pieces of sandstone often be
eame dislodged, and whenever I re
turned to the plaece after being else
where for a few days I observed new,
big cxacks in the 30-foot crust of
parth above.
At St. @ils, where big shells ended
heir trip from “Germany” in a field
¥bout 200 yards from the road where
my car was, the heavy ambulance
'was shocked by each thud so that
the stretcher-racks rattled. And when
1 saw the frame of another man’s
aumbulance racked completely out of
true, my respect for the effect of
mere concussion became intense.
The respect was changed almost to
fear after I saw floor boards fastened
down with two-inc¢h screws ripped up
ompletely by the air-compression
rom a shell. Though not the tiniest!
agment touched that car, yet both
s side doors were blown clean off.
Rip ‘Flagg’s ambulance had the
Psheet-metal of its hood battered into
dents as if it had peen panged by a
huge hammer-blow. That same con
ussion tore the inner side of his front
nud-guard away from the numerous
Wstedl rivets that held it—and the piece
vas blown away so far that we never
found it.
Concussions Tear Men’s Limbs.
After witnessing a few examples
lika these, I was able to credit the in- |
formation that occasionally these ter
rific blagts actually tore off the arms
and legs of men near by.
Life amid this endless concussion
brought slecplessness and headache.
The shrieks of the shells made a con
| stant nervous tension of attentiveness.
The sound was unforgettable after it
had been heard a few times, yet it
wak difficult to reproduce after one
had been away from the front for
more than a week or two. When we
| &ame back again, however, we were
L able instantly to recognize again all
the differing sounds made by shells of
different sizes and character.
One of our stations as in a right
v;aniled corner of the line, close to the
‘trenches, with the Germans firing
‘from three sides. The noise was like
g’ hat of a fierce north gale sweeping
[ shrough trees and through the ecracks
“dn a house. There were curious
punds of tearing and ripping in the
r that approached until, for an
nstant, the shells seemed surely to
p driving straight for the dugout.
another instant we heard the noises
himpering away overhead.
Wé timed the courses of shells
en. The time from the first dull
bodim of the German gun to the crash
Eat Less Meat
, If Back Hurts
Take a glass of Salts to flush Kidneys if bladder.
bothers you
Eating meat regularly eventually
aduces kidney trouble in some form
or other, says a well-known author
ity, because the uric acid in meat ex
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causa all sorts of distress, particu
larly backache and misery in the kid
ey region; rheumatic twinges, se
ere backaches, acid stomach, consti
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Phe moment your back hurts or
idneys. aren’'t acting right, or if
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unces of Jad Salts from any good
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lomel crashes into sour bile Hke
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hen you feel that awful nausea and
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that terminated the whistle of its
shell's flight was nearly the same al
ways for each variety of shell shriek
—twenty, twenty-one and twenty
three seconds, according to the kind
of shell. Short as the time was, it
seemed enormously long, for one
could not know if the shell would
land half a mile away or within half
a yard. |
| Waiting for Explosions.
~ During such tense periods of wait
ing, men’s minds beeame so fixed that
they could not, for the moment, re
member even the names of their
comrades, | saw that the strain had
its effect even on the set, sober, un
smiling faces of the silent stretcher
bearers. |
Some of the Americans used to
laugh nervously at first. They soon
stopped, as the undefined fear grew
on them.
A curious thing was when we were
outside, sheltering with our ambu
lances between walls in the open.
On such occasions the stretcher
bearerd often stood at the entrance
of the Yugout, lifting their arms to
signal e coming of shells. It was
strangely as if the flying shrieks
were some unearthly music, and the
bearers were leading the orchestra.
Sometimes the whines of the shells
decrcased as they came nearer. Then
would could see the Frenchmen hesi
tate whether to dive for the dugout or
not. Another decreasing whistle and
one would say in relief: “Ah! Farther
away!” And then, often, a shriek
would hurst overhead and everybody
plunged madly for the cave.
In intervals between bambardments
we ustally wrote letterg, for nobody
wahted to talk. Wh(l); the silence
lasted, the scratching pens seemed
immensely loud. Then, all at once,
the tearing sound would break the
silence. The shadowy forms of the
bearers cringed unconsciously ih an
ticipation of the explosion, accus
tomed though they were t 0 the noise.
Nearer and nearer fell the shells till
there were whistlings that made us
verily believe that the next shell must
burst into the place.
“Voila!” said a stretcher-bearer
sitting on the bench beside a boy with
a broken arm. Owur hearts stopped
beating for two or three seconds.
Another scream, still nearer, seemed
to wipe out our very existence. An
other! “It's nearer!” muttered one.
It was, It woke up a chap who had
been snoring in a corner, and it took
a real noise to stir him! .
“A dud!” exclaimed my partner. “It
hit.in the marsh down by the cross
roads!” (A “dud” is a shell that fails
to explode,)
When the storm of shells seemed
to have lessened greatly, 1 tried to
finish a letter by inserting the word
“Bang!” every time I heard an ar
rivee. “You can tell how often the
shells are coming in,” I wrote, “by
reading these words at a moderate
rate, Bang! and seeing how long it
glass of" water before breakfast for
a few days and your kidneys will
then act fine. This famous salts is
made from the acid of grapes and
lemon juice, combined with lithia,
and has been tted for generations to
flush clogged Kidneys and stimulate
them to normal activity; also to neu
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longer irritates, thus ending bladder
disorders.
Jad Salts can not injure anyone;
makes a delightful effervescent lithia
water drink which millions of men
and women take now and then to
keep the kidneys and urinary organs
clean, thus avoiding serious kidnecy
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each spoonful will clean your slug
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Dodson’s Liver Tone is rea] liver
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Dodson’s Liver Tone is entirely
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‘here,—Advertisement, f
HEAKSI'S SUNDAY AMERICAN — A Newspaper for People Who Think — SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 1918.
takes, you, Bang! between bangs. But
I'm afraid I'm not writing much ‘else
man Bang! Bang! Bang!” I conclud-
Under Fire.
In the midst of it two stretcher
bearers came 'F empty-handed from
the trenches. hey were panting. As
one of them sat down on the lowest
steps and removed his steel helmet,
we could see the perspiration drip
ping from his glistening brow. “To
day is the hottest one for shells since
two months!” sald the other, snatch
ing his breath between words. ‘“Bar
rage everywhere.” .
The flames of the candles and theé
gasoline lamps flickered wildly in
the dugouts, even when the shells
exploded far away. In the open, the
blasts caused dozens of varying dis
asters. The heavy glass of my au
tomobile headlights were insufficient
to withstand the forec of the com
pressed air, Finally the window in
my ambulance was shattered, utter-
L‘m wholly, blasted into a thousand
I stretched a piece of heavy rub
‘ber over the broken window and fas
tened it tightly with tacks driven
deep into hard wood, Rigidly though
it was stretched, it bellied like a sail
whenever an arrivee burst anywhere
near by.
If we were near a French battery
when it began to play, like a gigantic
bunch of vast firecrackers all going
off together, the cars trembled, and
‘the cloth screens, in particular, shiv
ered as if they had palsy.
Curious Tricks on Nerves.
There were some humorous effects,
‘too. of the continuous nervous ten
sion. Sometimes, when sleeping in a
dugout on a quiet night, the sudden
buzz of a big blue-bettle fly was
enough to startle men out of a doze.
Occasionally I awoke in the alarming
belief that a fast Austrian “44" was
coming right in at the door, only to
j;iiscover that it was somebody snor
ing. : :
- On such quiet nights we were be
‘ing startled continually by the distant
‘rumble of army supply wagons or the
roar of a motorcycle. If the day had
‘been a particularly hard one, and
‘men’'s nerves were on edge, the mere
rustle of a man turning over in his
blankets, or the falling of a few
crumbs of earth, brought sleepers up
standing.
. One day I bored a hole in the front
of my steel helmet so that I could
ihang it up on a nail. I was driving
‘netx day toward Cuissy when I heard
‘the shriek of a tremendous shell so
close that I threw myself flat. The
helmet fell off, and the shriek stopped
‘instantly. I picked the helmet up to
| put it on and heard the shriek again,
but this time it was strangely faint.
}Then I discovered that the breeze
‘whisumg through the tiny aperture
right above my head had made such
a perfect imitation of an oncoming
shell that even a veteran might have
been decelved. x
“Shell” Noise Deceptive, 1
One night in the dugout in Vailly
I sat up in bed listening to a most
peculiar-shriek coming from 2afar, and
coming closer and closer. “That’'s a
funny one!” said I, in a low voice to
the man next to me, old “Friar Tuck.” |
“What's a funny one?’ asked he.
“That shell,” said I. “Pst! There it
is again!” |
“Shell!” said he disgusted. ‘lt's
me, blowing up my air-pillow! The
damn thing leaks so I have to wake
up every few hours to pump it."”
When a man was in the open, the
first loud whistle of a shell was, ac
cording to unwritten law, the signal
for that man to hurl himself into the
nearest dugout. That is, if he was
not driving. A driver on the road
was not to stop. Anybody who was
merely killing time obeyed the rule
faithfully. Sometimes the French
men were somewhat careless and in
different, but usually they could find
a dugout even more quickly than we
Americans did.
“I know where there are some
trained Frenchmen who can dodge
shells!” Paul Greene said to me one€
day after a trip to Ferme Hemeret.
“l was standing in the doorway of
the duzout when a shrapnel shell
screamed overhead. I never heard it
explode. How could I? Eight flying
Frenchmén sailed into my stomach on
their way into the dugout, and I fell
down thirty steps underneath them!”
If the air was perfectly quiet the
shell could be heard in plenty of
time to get safely under cover, but if
auto trucks or other heavy vehicles
were going over rough roads near by
the warning shriek often .was not
heard til it was too late to run.-
Men 'fell 8o in the habit of listen
ing, that even on quiet days a man
who spoke too loudly was often told
to “shut up,” for fear that his voice
would prevent his comrades from
hearing the deadly warning. There
was good excuse for this objection to
undue falk. One night when every
body was talking in one dugout a
shell shriek was unheard, and the
first thing we knew was that a thick
stone wall near by was brought down
with a rush and a piece of the shell
came into the dugout and- hit the
chef’s dishpan. ¢
The French battery men were so
expert at ‘“reading” shell sounds that
they couvld actually tell whether or
not a shell was going to explode while
it was still in the air. Often when I
was ducking for cover the gunners
would stand calmly in the open, smil
ing. “No good,” they would say—and,
sure cnough, when that shell landed
no exglogion followed.
The next moment, however, they
might yell, “Watch out!” when a shell
whistle not half so loud as the first
one came along overhead. Instantly
the whole trowd would tumble in a
mass into their bomb-nroof. And up
in the air and around there would be
a ripping shower of fragments.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Hasy!” they answergg. “The shells
thta rarely explode are those that sail
end over end; and the whistle they
make is different from the others.”
Life or Death May Depend.
It. was important to be able to
“read” shell, for often the only warn
ing of zas was from the sound made
by the gas shell. There was an odor
less gas used by the Germans, and
Fight Than Work -
“T suffered for years with stomach
trouble and could not eat and just
hated for anyone to say work to me.
I would rather fight. Since taking a
course of May#'s Wonderful Remedy
I actually want to work; and talk
about eat, I amr the last one to
leave the table now.” It is a simple,
harmless preparation that removes
the catarrhal mucus from the in
testinal tract and allays tlie inflam
mation which causes practically all
stomach, liver and intestinal ail
ments, including appendicitis., One
dose will convince or money refund
ed. J@ * Pharmacy.—Advertiso
ment,
unless one was aware of the noise
made by such a shell one had no way
of being prepared. So we all learned
carefully that the gas shells did not
explode with a loud bang! but cracked
open with a thudding sound much like
that of a dud. /
One most important function of
shrieks was the stimulating effect
that they had on the lethargy that
affected many of the French soldiers.
1f the boches only knew what a
hurry-up effect these shells have on
the munition trains,” saild one Wally
one day, “I bet they wouldn't shell
thefll;nl}l}roads at al!”
“Right!” sald another chap. “Those
French wouldn't fight half so well
without shell screams to spur them
on. Listen to those drivers travel!”
And the teamsters certainly did travel
iwhen they got near a danger zone.
I discovered a curious bit of psy
chology connected with shell. If a
shell scream began to approach, and
just one man in a crowd started on
a run for the dugout, everybody else
piled In behind him instantly. But
‘often. even when a shell was very
‘close, if nobody started to rum, the
whole crowd stayed out in the open.
Unending Concussion.
We did not relish assignments to
posts near the French batteries. This
was not primarily because the Ger
mans shelled such localities more. It
was because the ceaseless noise and
the concussions were so disagreeable.
In time I grew to hate the roar of the
gun—a hatred of the noise as if it
were something horrible and personi
fied. It was especially hard to bear
when one was so tired out that his
nerves were “panicky.” At such times
}\'.ha insistent bellows of the war’s ar
tificial thunder produced effects that
in the end nearly nauseated men.
Loneliness made the noises all but
unendurable. At times, when a man
had to wait in some solitary spot, he
lwould get ipto a condition that made
him almost cut and run—not from
fear, but merely for the sake of reach
ing human companionship. In the
underground dressing stations it was
bad enough when there were only two
of us. “It would be hell up here for
one fellow alone!” said Phil Fisher
to me one depressing evening, near
Ostel. We looked around at the/sl
lent stretcher bearers, who sat along
the wall, and we both agreed that
their company was worse than none
at all.
At home T never kad regarded a
thunderstorm as a pleasant thing. In
France, aftér hearing the roll of the
cannon for weeks at a time, the sud
den crash of genuine thunder was
such a relief as to be more than wel
come.
After a while we worked out a sort
of human bharometer for gauging the
shell weather when we approached an
underground dressing station near the
front. It was like this:
Shell Weather—Fine. Indications
— Frenchmen walking about calmiy
and showing grand disregard for
dugouts. _lnterpretation—Plenty of
time to turn car around and trig
wheels.
Shell Weather—Stormy. Indications
—Utter absence of Frenchmen or a
foew worried-looking ones hunting
dugouts in crouched attitudes. Inter
pretation—Never mind turning your
car. Drive for dugout at top speeds
Problems in Shell Noises. |
There are many questions in re
gard to shell noises that caused hours
of heated but always fruitless discus
sion. One question was: Why does
the whine of some shells detrease. in
volume with its approach, and vice
versa if it was due to overshoot the
target? ‘Most of the men of our sec
tion, however, held that it was all a
question of whether or not, the, shell
traveled swiftly enough to outdis
tance its own noise.
“Sound doesn’t go so very fast’
said one, “and it's perfectly possible
for a shell to beat its own seream.”
Another argument that kept the
section stirred up was caused by the
allegation that the Germans had some
shells that had two explogive effects.
“Pap”’ was a leading exponent of this
theory. “One explosion,” said he, oc
curs while it is still in the air. The
second one. occurs when it strikes. So
you get a combination of shrapnel and
crdinary explosive shell in one.” i
“Don’t you believe it,” objected Pe
tey, who represented the skeptics.
“What you think is a double explo
sion is nothing but the echo of the
noise!”
Another question that kept us
awake was the stock inquiry: “Does
a heavy bombardment cause rain
fal?
“Whenever the French attack! it
rains,’ was a regular saying. One
heard it again and again. 1 noted
that many times it was true.
“But it doesn’t rain when the boches
attack,” said an iconoclast one night,
triumphantly.
The thing that caused the most in
tensely personal interest was the
army slogan about the shells: “You
don’'t hear the one that hits you!”
Strangely enough, pone of our scien
tigts wanted to make a personal ex
periment to test the truth of the the
ory!
The noises from the French bat
teries were infinite in variety accord
ing to the nature of their surround
ings and to their proximity. In one
place the famous 76's were in a huge
battery at the bottom of a natural
amphitheater, The high bluffs that
surrounded it echoed the sharp,
crashing reports of the guns with
such a strange acoustic result that
many times It was recognized by us
all as being identical with the echo
ing of the trap guns near the Harvard
Standium in Cambridge. The reason
v-ae the same. The sound agross the
sea was cauged by the echoes from a
decorative iron fence, instead of, as
in France, by shell-pitted hill tops.
On the road to Ostel the 7i's were
in a battery so near the places where
we drove that they not pnly shook
the cars up and damaged them, as al
ready told, but they fooled us curious
ly. On the way to the Ostel poste
one day, Tommy, my mate, yelled:
“Blow-out!” I, too, was sure that I
had heard the sharp “plop!” of a
bursting tire; and 1 had the digust
ing vision "of running a couple of
miles on the “flat,” for T -Had not the
glightest desire to stop and make re
pairs where we were, That particu
lar part of the road was being care
fully observed just them from three
German balloons!
Tommy looked at the wheels on his
side quickly and sang out' “All right
here!” He steadied the steering
wheel, and T looked at my side. The
tires were intact. :
“Plop!” the sound came again, Then
we knew what it was. It wag a 75
firing from a battery directly behind
the car.
Gunflashes at Night Worse.
Bad as the noise was, there were
times when the flashes were even
worse for nérves. It was worse at
night, and especially if the night was
very - black. Driving along a road
near the front then (with all lights
out, of course) the blinding flashes
from guns near and far made eyve
sight simply nonexistent. The dark
ness was all the more impenetrable
for these momentary, dazzling flashes,
One could do nothing except jusi steer
unseeing Into the black pocket. Oc
casionally, if the road happened to be
in front of a battery, the shells would
pass not B 0 feet overhead. Then we
l';adf bl}ndnee;ln ahd concussion and
eafening nolse all combined A
When the French started ° tHetr
spring drive toward Craonne I whas
just climbing into bed In a house well
in the rear of the active zone. My
roommate, ‘“Wally,” sang out:
“Come and see the gunfire!" 14
Through the open sloping skylight
of the garret I saw, for a moment, by
straining my eyes, a far, black hori
zon. All at once that whole immense
ly long stretch of black sky lighted
up with monstrous pulsations of flame
like the Northern Lights—but, like the
Northern Lights, magnified a thou
sand times.
. Then rain began to patter on the
roof, as if the storm that grumbled
and roared on that far distant sky
' were, indeed, a storm in the clouds.
| All through that night of gentle rain
‘the thundering guns continued, never
'slackening, till morning, Then, sud
denly, a single sharp boom sounded
through the steady roll of noise, and
at that first single sound that made
itself audible we said: “Aha! It's
letting up now!®
After Battle for Craonne.
Twenty-four hours later I was rest
ing on a stretcher insid® of my am
bulanae, near the front, trying to
sleep. The rain was pattering still,
and my brain, instead of yielding to
weariness, was busily reviewing again
the wild, dighevelled hair and the tired
eyes of the thousands of soldiers
whom I had seen tramping through
the mud that day. |
“T will eat dinner at Craonne before
I come back,” the French general had
said, “or 1 will not come back at all!”
And these were the men who had
faced death to make his declaration
good. 1
Under usual conditions the artillery
fire became desultory after daybreak.
However cruelly the big shells might
have been pounding the roads during
the night, morning generally found
the front so quiet that cars ven
tured well toward the trenches and
officers .on {inspection tours often
walked across the flelds from battery
to battery. The artillery gen came
out of their holes for a morning
promenade, and for the time being the
war seemd to be stopped completeiy.
Sometimes, however, this routine
was rudely broken by one side or the
other. One morning about eleven the
Germans snddenly opened a tremen
ous fire. Within a few moments the
heavens seemed rent. All the roads
were whipped by the flery curtain.
Hour after hour passed and there was
no lessening of the vast attack.
Poilus Cut Off by Barrage.
As I drove along a road just out
gide o fthe sweep of that hurtle of
shell, T. came upon a group of sol
diers sitting beside the road. Their
insignia showed that they belonged
to a regiment that was then in the
trenches.
“Bonjour!” I said. “It's a little
warm up there, isn’t it?” By “up
there” one meant the trenches,
“Oui!’ they replied in unison, “Tts
so warm that only five men out ot&ne
150 of one company are left, we hear!
We have just come back from leave,
from Paris. We hear that our divi
sion' is to he relleved tonight. Did
vou hear that rumor, also? There
fore, we wait here. If our regiment
comes out, there is no time for us to
go to the trenches at alll”
1 said nothing in answer. I pitied
the men, and understood. I saw
sworry written on their faces. too. It
their division were not relieved-—and
the chances were altogether that it
would not be—then these men would
be subject to court-martial for not
reporting. Yet, fresh from the gay
eties of Paris, what human being
could have wanted deliberately to go
into that thundering, fearful, devast
ating barrage?
Seven-Year-Olds of
Most Value Here
i
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26.—Sclentific
statistics on the gamble of life in the
United States were announced by the
Internal Revenue Bureau.
The American having the greatest
gromlse of long life is the 7-year-old
oy, who may reasonably hope to live
2969 years. The individual with the
goorest chance {s that man or woman of
9 years, with only six months remain
ing life to their credit! /
This means that in trust funds $1 is
worth $19.62 to the 7-year-old lad and
94 cents to the man of 98 years. At 99
$1 has no value.
Recruit Accepted
After Sixth Test
HARRISBURG, PA., Jan 26.—Joseph
Strouse, son of a prominent business
man here, has enlisted in the naval re
serves, It was his sixth attempt to
get in the service.
On five occaslons Strouse was found
to be underweight. At last the scales
showed the required avoirdupols.
7
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All Germany Excited
Over Preparation for
Final Blow in West
Troops From Russian Front Paraded Through
Berlin to Hearten Public.
By THEODORE VAN DER KLUTE )
An Amsterdam Journa list Returned From Berlin.
There {8 now only one topiec of Inter
est in Berlin and other large German
cities, and it s the forthcoming German
offensive in the west. Belief in the pos
sibility of ending the war by a crushng
blow against the French and RBritish
lines is widespread and growing.
The visions of forcing a peace in this
mannper are founded upon the chaos In
Russia and the withdrawal of all the
best troops fro mthe eastern front.
For some time this process has been
conducted In a piecemeal fashion, the
fittest men from each division on the
eastern front being - withdrawn and
formed into new divisons; now the pro
ces of removal of whole divisons has
begun,
The transferrence has been accom
plished with a good deal of ostentation,
and scenes of some enthusiasm have
marked the passage through Berlin of
the trops coming from east to west.
Transferred Men Uneasy.
Not m‘ll"’n have these men been divert
ed from thelr shortest route in order to
display them in Berlin, but the times of
their arrival and departure have been
made public.
The object of this unusual publicity
is two-fold. The first end accomplished
is the restoration of confidence among
the Berliners, who are.contemplating a
wm;twimer with no great amount of se
renity.
The second purpose is to hearten the
troops going west by displays of enthusi
asm and confidence.
The western front has no ullurlnf rep
utation among any German soldiers,
least of all among those accustomed to
the much easler conditions on the east
ern front; and many so transferred have
made no secret of their uneasiness at
the change.
For the same reason great piblicity is
given to the half-undertaking made by
Count Czernin, the Austrian: Premfier,
that Austrian troops should also be sent
to the western front. They promise,
however, is not taken very seriously in
Berlin.
No Time to Arouse Austria.
Apart from the fact that Austria has
no war aims lin the west, there is a
large body of Y‘uhuc opinion, especially
in nungnlr_?. which cleavegs to the {dea
that Austria {8 a mere Gérman catspaw.
Any open act likely to illustrate the
corectness of this idea would be pe
culiarly unpalatable to the Pan-Ger
:nian's hand can safely be shown in Aus
ria.
More ominous for the cause of the Al.
lied Powers than the prospect of Aus-
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Are You Feeding Horses or -
Sparrows?
Do you know why the sparrows are hovering around this team?
They are waiting for a nice meal at your expense.
The horses are eating whole
grain and like many men they are
bolting their meal. They spill some
on the ground and swallow nearly a’
third of the grain whole without
chewing' it.
The fibrous hulls cannot be
broken up in the stomach of the
horse. Your expensive grain goes
through the intestines undigested
and is eaten by the birds. Prove this
by examining the manure,
Stop this waste by feeding a
swoet, crushed-grain balanced ration.
You will d‘:t better results with 12 to,
14 J;oun of sweet, crushed-grain
feed than you now obtain with 16 to
20 pounds of whole grain.
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trian troops fighting along the wutaml
line i{s the very real augmentation of
German aerfal forces.
It may be safely predicted that any
offensive in the west will at once reveal
a remarkable increase in the aerial
strength of the German army.
It 1s popularly believed in Berlin that
500 men have been taken into training
as pilots In every week since last May,
and that as many trained and efficiet
ruotn are at present emerging from the
raining camps each week.
Airplanes on Big Scale,
Airplane construction has been aug
mented on even a more sensational
scale, and the usual mysterious hints
of overwhelming surprfses in store for
Great Britain are heard on every side.
These rumors may rest, for the great.
er part, upon the blind faith every Ger
man cherishes in the inventive capacity
of his own race. There is reason to he
lieve, however, thgi several new (yges‘
of machines have been evolved and de-
Iliberately reservd for the contemplated
demonstration of German force. |
One large machine, which has been
seen very often in the neighborhood of
Johannisthal, is reputed to be specially
designed for fighting with machine guny
against Infantry, after the fashion first
demonstrated to the Germans by British
alrmen in the battle of Arras.
For another machine, small and very
swift, climbing qualities never before
developed are claimed.
‘ Holding Russia in Check.
~ The real menace, however, lies not so
much in these new types as in the
enormous amount of fresh material both
in machines and men, which Germany
has been preparing for her offensive.
‘ In Berlin it has been made clear that
the ohject of the peace talk with Russia
is not 80 much to establish a basis on
which peace may be declared as to kee
Russia out of action while the l're‘g
blow is striuck in the west,
For that reason the German side of
the peace negotiations with Russia has
been entrusted to Hindenburg and his
military colleagues.
A rising in Belgium, in.the neighbor
‘hood of Alost, is reported to have been
repressed by General Falkenhausen with
“exemplary’ severity,
~ The number of persons killed in this
affair, ang those executed afterwhrd for
taking part in it, is being carefufly con
;cenleg. because the total is a staggering
one.
180.000 Bclqllm Disciplined,
Tt {8 recorded in the “Pester Llovd"
that the punishment inflicted on Bel~
gians by the German military authori-
Better still, you will get a
truly balanced ration—which makes
strong muscle, sound bone and
work-energy. You can’t get such
results from whole grain or mixed
feeds of low digestibility.
Fifty feed manufacturers have
qualified to make sweet, crushed
grain feeds under the high standards
of this association. The mark that
identifies and places these feeds
aheag of all others is the Pilot Wheel
emblem., 4
Pilot Wheel feeds will help you
solve the problem of the rising cost
of hauling. They will cut your feeding
costs, and increase your profits per
ton mile. Be sure the Pilot Wheel is
on ‘every bag of feed you buy.
Write today for a list of our
members. Any one of them will
quote you prices or refer you to a
local dealer. it ; . )
Sweet Feed Manufacturers
v TASsocißtion
Memphis - -~ Tenn.
: : No. 3 s4m.
\ P : v A
tles rose to 180,000 last year, as against
I°°-o°°ugl the grdreding year.
L samte period the number of
}.Bu?tm -eoktn! to uoaf)o and meeting
their death on the frontier, either from
the electrified wire or the rifles of the
sentries, rose to an average of 35 a
week, against ten in the preceding
twelve mor};hu.
While Hindenburg is rushing forwuifl'
his preparations for a great attack
the weat, Erzberger, the great peace |
leits‘ler. is similarly active in swlm'r'f
Once again the German press is "
publicity to extraordlnarly ‘progosa
made by this man and denying that th
have any official German sanction. :
The most original of these Erzberger
suggestions is one for guarding against
an economic war by extinguishing mili
tary rivalry between British -ni Ger
man shipping Interests, L
Crimes by Women Increase, ~'.
To this end he would make one g;aco
condition that 40 per cent of the sharem
in British shipping companies must bé
acquired by similar concerns in Ger
maßnyl;land vl‘cj? :ersa. 1 ;‘
erlin moralists are deqply conce .
At the trapid incréase of gin\eu of Tio‘-’
lence among women. This developmex{
is particularly noticeable among womeh
who have udurted since the war occupa -
tions * formerly considered essentiall¥
masculine. 4
The new outbreak of feminine cr‘lmi
shows a remarkable number of robber
jles acocmpanied by violence, a thi
practically novel in feminine erimino
ogy.
z'Vornen burglars, .who go about th&
business armed and prepared for thie
most desperate resistance, have coms
pletely taken the place of the male sumg
of Berlin. 4
i
. . kS,
Has Artificial Legs *
:
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'
And Skull; Hands 0.5
) X
KENOSHA, WIS, Jan. zs.—wuzi
Wilson, of Oshkosh, has two stee
rods in place of legs, two steel feet
where his regular feet once were an@
a silver plate where part of his skull
is lacking. .But his hands are as
right, ks
Today he pleaded guilty to forgerd
in the Municipal Court here, and wa¥
sentenced to three years in prisoW
He is alleged to have representefl
himself as a Federal inspector and si
ganed entrance to the plant of thé
Hercules Powder Company, where h#
stole several blank checks. ':
RN P
lowa Engineers Have
Nést Rorverir G
oo P
COUNCIL, BLUFFS, IOWA, Jan. 26 £
The former onglneering instruments Mt
Major General G. M. Dodge, 1. 8. An
and used by him “;l the construction of
the Union Pacific_ Railroad, are now iy
the possession of Company B, 109th In,
gineers, formerly . Company B, Firsi
lowa Enginers.
The instruments include the transif
which ran the first line across the Can
tinent, the level and the case of draftsl
man's instruments, and the colors, The
medicine and army chests used by t
General in the Civil War were also pr
sented 1o the company. 3
9D