Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, May 07, 1918, Page 12, Image 12

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    XHE BEE: UMAHA, TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1918.
12
'NO SIGN OF END'
CRY DESPERATE
GERMAN PEOPLE
Mail Bags Captured by British
Reveal Plight of Teuton Ci--vflians;
Baited With
: Peace" Promises.
With the British Army in France,
May 6. Interesting comments by
German civilians have been furnished
from an enemy mail bag captured by
the British on a section of the Flan
ders front
Almost without . exception refer
ences are made in the letters to the
stoppage of leave and the parcel post
from the front. The tone is resigned
rMher than recalcitrant. One letter
from Berlin, dated April 25, said:
"Peace does not seem to be. com
ing along as we fondly hoped. All
this in the west is too wicked for any
thing. Four years of it now and no
sign of the end. We hope every day
it will come to a decision and the
British will be driven into the North
e- Itatt tUmxr cf.n4 firm "
: Scarcity of Shoes.
"We hive such a scarcity of shoes
in Ettlingen it is impossible to get
them. If thet& ate any in Belgium
please send me a, pair," says a letter
.'ted in Ettlingen April 26.
"An you not coming home on
leave soon? Hdw much longer is it
gain to last?" reads a third letter.
A ' note from Rbumsfringe, dated
April 23, says:
The mustering of the, 1920 class
tok place here last Friday. Most of
them were accepted." .
' Further , details are now available
frhi 'various sources regarding the
itrw German tanks, several of which
iikdr such a poor showing at Villers
Bretonneux April 24. .
Great, Unwieldly Machines.
1 The armor is ofa poor quality of
steel and varies in thickness up to
30 millimetres. A direct artillery hit
will put one out of action, and they
" are, also vulnerable to machine gun and
rifle fire at various points. The arma
ment consists of a 22-iiich gun forward,
which fires high explosives and case
shot; six heavy michine guns, two on
each side and two in the rear.
IRISH -VICEROY'S
. APPOINTMENT IS
.THREAT ON ERIN
London, May cv-The appointment
oi Field Marshal Viscount French as
viceroy of Ireland comes somewhat
aurprije. f ,
It' ws. known that the government
was experiencing considerable difficul
ty in'L 'finding a successor to Baron
VViniborne and that this was the rea
son for he delay in announcing offi
cially the appointment of Edward
Short as ohicf secretary, which wat
k.iown unofficially many daya ago.
No one, however, anticipated such
. a purely military appointment as the
celebrated field marshal.
Viscount French is of Irish extract
tion. . He has a seat in Ireland, is
colonel of Irish - regiments and a pop
ulnrCsRgure in. the country, but that
is hardly; likely to reconcile the Irish
people to his appointment, for they
will ee in it nothing but a threat to
put conscription into effect
FRENCH HURLED
..BACK AT'KEMMEL,
BERIilN' REPORT
' Berlin, Sunday.May S. (Via Lon
don.) Jlepul&e . of Anglo-French at
tacks , pi 'the Flanders front is re
ported in the official announcement by
the-'wat office today.
More1 than 300 prisoners are re
ported captured in (the fighting. In
creased artillery activity south of the
Sornme is announced in the state-
ent, which reads;
"After the strongest artillery prep-
iration. French divisions attacked our
positions on Kemmel mil and near
Bailleul ." unsuccessfully. . They were
repulsed with heavy losses and left
over 3UQ prisoners in our hands. An
intended attack "by an English divi
sion west of Bailleul failed to develop
because of our fire, v
"South of Hebuterne (north of the
Somme) strong British thrusts failed.
The battle front on both sides of the
' Somme saw a revival of artillery ac
tivity in the evening. It increased es
pecially near Vnlers-Bretonneux and
on the west bank of the Avre."
Dr. Alexis Carrel Hospital at
Front Razed by German Bombs
Paris. May 6. Th hospital estab
lished sear the front by Dr. Alexis
Carrel of the Rockefeller Institute
has been persistently bombed by Ger
man aviators and now is almost en
, tirely destroyed, 'despite the fact that
it constantly flew a flag bearing a
. huge Red Cross and was further iden
tified by an immense white . cross
The wounded, were successfully
removed early in April, the only vic
tims of the bombing being two doc
tors, who were slightly injured. Dr.
Carrel , will install ,the hospital in
Paris or the suburbs.
Berlin Aroused at Lynching
; l v Of German Prajjer
- Amsterdam, May 6. -The lynching
at-Collinsville, 111., last month of
Robert . P. Prager, a German, who
was accused by the mob which hanged
him of disloyalty, has infuriated Ger
man editors. . v .
The Zeitung Am Mittag of Berlin
calls upon the German government to
make strong representations to Wash
ington, reminding the American gov
ernment that Germany holds a num
ber of American prisoners upon whom
reprisals might be taken, "so as -to
prevent the lynching of Germans in
America from becoming a fashionable,
port :;: , ' .,
.:S."
: -ADanaon war summary .
Washington, May 6. The War de
partment's, weekly review of the mili
tary situation , bit been abandoned
' and announcement 1 of . Secretary
r iter's new plan for furnishing the
'on with adequate and authentic
- - "of American troops in France
u ejected jhjprtlt
SHELLPROOF
A Common Soldier's
Recital of Thrilling
Adventures in the
Terrific Struggle for
World Democracy
By ARTHURJAMES M'KAY.
(Copyright. Ill, by Small, Maynard Co..
Inc.)
Arthur Jam McKay, "Rhellproof Mark,'
m dmtinrd b, parrnti for tho priesthood.
Being of n rdventurous spirit, be enlisted
la one of the English bantam reclmente
after the sinking of tbe Lnsltanla and the
fall are of this country to Immediately de
clare war npoii Ciermany.
On hie first trip ever the top he was
wounded and, applied for discharge on ac
count of belnf an American cltlirn. lilt re
quest was granted but Mack tore up his
application and went back to the front when
an officer aboard tho need for hie services,
After being wounded three more times
Mack was still on the firing line and on
Christmas Eve, 181. told a story to his
mates of his eiprrle.iees the previous t'brlst
mas on which Mcasioa he received the title
"Old Bhellproo." from officers and men.
The f'ruMlans were opposite when the
men went In tu the front for their 10-day
spell and iwty time was looked forward
to. Things quirted down for a few days and
the men spent the time in telling or tneir
wonderfal Christmas dinner In letters to
the home folk. Tbe dinner was compose!
of bully beef, hardtack and tea. Mack said
tba Prussians are not the Deal rigiitere 01
the German army, being quitters la tbe face
of a hopeless fight.
Tbe expected bombardment started at 4
'clock the day before Christmas and Mack
was burled by 15 e explosion of one shefl and
oncavered with the force of second ex
plosion. Bis failure to suffer shell shock
was the cause nt his being christened "Old
ghcllproof.". lis was one of three men left
out of it In Bis section wbea the bombard
ment was over. Another section relieved the
on which had undergone the bombardment
and Mack and his two comrades ate the
Christmas dlnrer provided for the entire
section.
Mack explalus the preparations for the bat
tle of Messlne Bldge and tho undermining
of BUI SO, whl. h waM blown up with 1,000,000
pounds of high explosives, frlor to the
opening of the battle tbe section of which
Mack was member was taken to a training
field 60 miles la the rear and the attnrk
was enacted la an exact replica of the
Herman trend! es. i
In bis dally association with the Tommies
Hhellproof Mark finds they consider all
Americans possessed of "swank" and they
will not believe the stories told of the size
,f the country or Its tall buildings. In pass
ing along road one day wltU his battalion
he mat young lieutenant la the llritlsh
army who had called him by name and
asked If he were not from North Hampton,
Mass. In a few minutes Mack finds that
the lieutenant was a babe whom he trundled
In a go-cart. lie tells of the countermining
by both armies and the Ingenious methods
by which these operations are discovered.
The Hermans are about to blow up the
trenches on the . sector In which he is
posted.
The British, who had planted 1,000,000
pounds of ammonal In their mine, beat .the
linns to It. The great mass of expioslve was
touched off on the morning of June tttb. The
explosion was heard In .London, ISO miles
away, by Lloyd George, shortly after i
o'clock. They afterwards learned that the
Germans had planned to blow np their
mince oa June 9, hearliur that the great
llritlsh offensive was to start on the 10th,
The Tommies had gotten their first word
f the tanks Just as the Messlnes offensive
was to start and thry began looking back
ward toward Ypree for the monsters that
were to assist them la their crawl over the
top.
CHAPTER XI.
(Continued.)
Messlnes Ridge.
My company occupied the part of
R'cnnie street near tho support tun
nel. We weren't there long, but it
was time enough to work up a cor
dial dread for the , slow march w
had to make serosa the shell-swept
open to the trenches. It is the hor
rible part of any prepared long ad
vance that it goes so slow. There is
so much waiting under fire and to
little chance to get at the enemy and
have it over with.
We saw the .smoke barrage begin
in front of our front line at about
a minute of zero. This was a curtain
Potter Palmer's Widow
7 Dies in Home in Florida
Sarasota, Fla May 6. Mrs. Potter
Palmer of Chicago -is dead at her
winter hqme here. .
. Mrs. Palmer was bom In Louisville
and was the widow of Potter Palmer
of Chicago, where she was a social
leader. She died last night. The body
will be taken to Chicago for burial.
During the World's Columbian ex
position Mrs. Palmer was president
of the board of women, managers and
and visited Europe for the purpose of
interesting , foreign governments.
Later she was appointed by the presi
dent of the United States as the only
woman . member of the American
commission to the Paris exposition.
She was the possessor of a member
ship in the Legion of Honor awarded
by the .French government.
Foryears Mrs. Palmer had passed
her winters at her home here, which
is considered one of the most beauti
ful in Florida, v
BRIDAL BELLS
Bride Seeks Divorce ;
Hubby Gets 30 Days
JAZZ WITH JAG
'Thomas, Day's bride of a few
months reached into her handbag and
drew, forth a flask half filled with red
liquor and pushed it over the desk in
front of Police Judge Madden in court
Monday. Day and his wife are ne
groes "My husband mixed this with his
disposition, which ain't sweet any
time, judge, on Saturday night, and
hi promised to kill me and then brok
up most all of the furniture.
The husband, arrested for disturb
ing the "peace, gazed at the flask with
distended eyes, and then exclaimed.
"Oh, baby, ain't you ashamed of
yourself?"
"No, I ain't, she retorted. "We
were married in October and every
Saturday night you gets drunk an'
promises to kill me."
1 11 give you a divorce, suggested
friend husband. '
"I'll beat you to it, and no more
wedding bells for met" exclaimed the
wife.
"To help you out, I'll give Thomas
a 30-day jail sentence," said Judge
Madden, as he amended the complaint
to include illegal possession of liquor.
m J. C. BIXBY
STEAM. VAPOR AND HOT WATER
HEATING MODERN PLUMBING
Douglas 3463. . .. 324 South 19th St.
of shells that shook out great lumpy
clouds of sooty black smoke in front
of our men and effectually screened
them from rifle fire and machine guns
That is, it concealed them from the
enemy, but as the smoke barrage
works out the enemy only had to
pump his lead into the cloud low
down to be effective enough.
At zero, that is at 3:15, we saw
the front waves, two of them, go over
from the front trench and follow the
barrage. About three minutes later
we got our orders and out we went
We had left our packs behind and
were flying light. We had each two
bandoliers slung across our shoulders,
a haversack with two days' rations, a
water bottle and the rifle slung across
the back. We carried six bombs each
in our pockets
Just before we went over I lit my pipe
and started the match forward with
my hands in my pockets about the
way I would if I was strolling across
Boston common on a bright Sunday
morning. This attitude of unconcern
wasn't swank it wasn't what the pa
pers call bravado. I lit the pipe be
cause I never smoke cigarettes; and
I put my hands in my pockets be
cause there wasn't any other place to
put them. As a matter of fact, I was
scared stiff and didn't think for a min
ute that I would get across the first
200 yards of the advance. I said so
between my teeth to a mate of mine
named Baggot, who was keeping
touch with me at my left. "Baggsie"
was another bantam. He had enlisted
with me and was smaller than I, be
ing only five feet two inches. Baggot
was so short in the legs that he never
could get pants to fit. The smallest
lize would kind of ooze out over
his putties and slop around in
wrinkles down near his ankles. He
was always hitching them up. Baggot
was a pipe smoker, too, and when I
started to growl he grinned at me
and puffed his little black clay and
says:
"Cheerio, Macksiel T' ,'el wif the'
shells, So I keeps th' cutty alight
and thf trousies up, wot do I .care?"
And that shows that it's a fine
thing in times of action to have some
thing to keep your mind off the
danger.
We paddled out across those 500
yards that lay between us and No
Man's Land, and I'll swear that we
didn't go more than a mile an hour.
We reached our trenches and stopped
there a while, unslung the rifles, fixed
bayonets, and then went along over.
In the German trenches we found
nothing but dead Fritzies and several
squads of prisoners, each 20 or 30
guarded by a lone Tommy. On from
there we slewed around on a right in
cline as per the instructions learned
in rehearsals and hit the canal.
This was about SO feet wide and
there was no bridge. We hesitated
for a bit on the near side, because
we didn't know how deep the water
was and there was a lot of bodies
in it. There was an argument of a
few seconds among the officers as to
whether the place was fordable. And
then in we went
Colonel Kemble went down at this
Fioint, hit inthe stomach by a shell
ragment Two stretcher-bearers car
ried him off to the rear and along
with him two more officers who had
gone down. The colonel was very
popular with both officers and men.
He was much more democratic than
most English officers. Perhaps this
was because he had been before the
war the principal of one of the largest
private schools in England. I am in
clined to think that he knew soldiers
because he knew boys.'for the Tom
my is only a grown-up kid when you
come right down to facts.
We sloshed, into the canaf, and I
thought before I reached the far side
"I can fix it but T
don't know how
long it will last"
That's what the "plumber will
telljyoa. Ha meant that some
lima, probably aoon, th re
pairs will have to be made all
over again. And every time
that happens, you add the
cost of those wom-out plumb.
ing antiquities.
Come in and look ever the
Thomas Maddock line of mod
em, sanitary bathroom fixtures
nd find out how litde it costs
and how much you save in
the end when you install this
first-cost-last-cost equipment
Ask us to tell you about the
Maddock way.
See Your Plumbtr o
y United States Supply Co.
Ninth SC Fernam Streets
& SON CO. Slll
MACK
that I wouldn't make it. The water
was up to my armpits, and when I
was in the middle I began to wish that
I was more than fiveeet three. We
made it across all right, and as we
clambered up the bank we ran slam
bang into a palling machine gun fire.
Off a few hundred yards to the right
and up a slight rise were tbe iremains
of an old wood. There was a lot of
fairly big stumps and some piled-up
wreckage of smashed trees, and every
spot in this tangle had a typewriter,
and they were simply spewing bullets
at us. For some reason the British
troops from the right of our line, who
were supposed to have come up and
silenced this bunch of Huns in the
wood, had not arrived, and the
Heinies were free to give it to us
good and plenty.
. We started to charge the wood, but
our officers chased us back, and along
we went on the route that had been
laid out for us in the battle plans.
You see, we couldn't vary from the
schedule, no matter what came up;
and we walked through that rain of
bullets with out heads down, cursing
the luck and the orders that wouldn't
let us strike back. '
The activity of those guns in the
wood cost us a good deal before the
day was over. Just beyond the wood
we met a lot of our wounded going
back. They had to go through the
machine gun fire, too. At the top of
You Musi Vote
v
Gang Lies Have
Deceived You in the Past
SMITH
x RINGER
ZIMMAN
the canal bank they were perfect
marks, and as the barrage smoke was
lifted the Germans simply took their
time and . slaughtered the returning
wounded. There must be hundreds
of reported missing men resting in
the bottom of the Yser canal at the
point where our batt crossed.
Beyond the wood we ran into a
heavy German shell fire. There was
supposed to be a double line of Ger
man trenches here, and it was in the
orders that we should rest in them for
a short time before going on. Baggot
and another chap and I had fallen be
hind our company, and when we hit
the trench we tumbled in. There were
a good many dead and wounded Ger
mans there, and some of our men,
also dead. The first wave had evi
dently had a good deal of a job in
taking this place.
The three of us hunted up a dug
out that was serviceable and crawled
into it. There were three dead Ger
mans in there and we shoved them
out and fell on the floor exhausted.
None of us was able to talk. He had
come not more than three-quarters of
a mile and hadn't run a step, and yet
I was panting and wheezing. But I
was hanging on to the old pipe. Bag
got had his, too the stem of it A
bullet or something had carried away
the bowl. I remember his taking the
bit of clay stem out of his mouth and
looking at it very silly and saying
over and over to himself, "Gwad
lumme. She'a gone. She's gone."
And then he'd giggle.
We lay there in the dugout quite
a while I don't know how long and
after a bit pulled ourselves together
some and had a drag out of the water-
Don't let business, bad weather or anything else
keep you from voting, Tuesday.
VOTING is your MOST IMPORTANT BUSI
NESS on ELECTION DAY.
; The machine will get ALL its men to the polls.
The gang has LAUGHED AT YOU in the past,
because it knows that many of you good citizens neg
lect to vote.
Don't let them "give you the laugh" this time.
VOTE EARLY. See to it that your'friends vote.
If you ALL vote, the gang will be cleaned out of the
i
city hall.
They have waged a campaign of vicious lies this
time. It's an ugly word, but expressive.
( They uttered the RIDICULOUS lie about stopping
Sunday amusements. The city commissioners couldn't
stop Sunday amusements even if they wanted to; they
are legal. The supreme court has said so.
They uttered the UNPATRIOTIC lie about honor
tablemen serving on the Exemption Board and Red
Cross. This alone makes it a duty for all patriotic men
to rebuke such mendacity by their votes.
They uttered many other falsehoods, all of them
insults to your intelligence.
YOU can DEFEAT this MACHINE on
Election Day. 7
YOUR VOTE may decide.
Until you remove, by COMPLETE CHANGE OF CONTROL, ,
the influence dominating your.city government, you cannot afford
to vote for a friend just because he is a friend.
DON'T SCATTER YOUR VOTE.
i . j
VOTE FOR THE SIX ALLIED CANDIDATES:
POLLS OPEN 8 A.
bottles. There was an awful din of
smashing shells and the scream of
others going over, and there was a
wounded German out in the bay that
kept hollering from time to time. As
we got our wind back and worked
around into a little more sane frame
of mind we began to talk about get
ting on. We all of us knew we hadn't
any business stopping where we were,
but we didn': want to get out of the
shelter. We were trying to convince
ourselves that we had a good right to
stay when a couple of shells hit right
near us judging from the sound, in
the same traverse and a lot of mud
came down the stairs. With that we
crawled out and started to hunt up
the rest of the company.
, Out of the trench we ran into an
other hail of bullets. They were
knocking up the dirt all about and I'll
swear that I felt several graze my
legs. We couldn't see a single Ger
man anywhere to shoot at, and
couldn't make out where the fire was
coming from. Probably the bulk of it
was from the wood which was now
behind us and to the right. v
We fell into a shell-hole after a
very few steps and lay lpw. Then
some wounded came along and told
us that our company was in a stretch
of trench about sixty yards ahead.
We got out and legged it. Boggot
never got there. He went down hit
in three or four places, the worst in
the shoulder. We dragged him into a
shell-hole and left him. I never saw
him again, but afterwards heard that
he came through and got Blightly on
the wounds. "
My other mate, Cowles, and I made
TOWL
WULF
URE
M. TO 8 P.M.
the trench and found our company;
there. They told us that the casual
ties had been light so far. That didn't
seem reasonable after what we had
been through, and I asked a sergeant'
what was meant bv light. He said
we had lost about 20 per cent
(Continued Tomorrow.)
On Hands and ace, So Disfig
ured Could Not Go Out. x
Cuticura Healed.
"I suffered for months with a very
severe case of eczema which affected my
hands and face. It first ap
peared in spots of very small
pimples, but it finally broke
out in blisters. The erup
tion spread until my face was
so disfigured I could not go
out The itching and burn
ing was intense.
"The trouble lasted eight months
before I used Cuticura Soap and Oint
ment. When I used one cake of Cuti
cura Soap and one box of Ointment I
was healed." (Signed) Mrs. Wells C
Ham, Griggsville, 111., June S, 1917.
Cuticura Soap and Ointment prevent
pimples or Other eruptions.
Sample Each Free by Mali. Address poet
card: "Cntieure.Dept. H.Boston." Sold
everywhere. Soap 25c. Ointment 25 and 50c.
i
SUFFERED MONTHS
Willi ECZEMA