Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, September 25, 1919, Page 7

! i | i | i ‘Washington.—Ecce homo! Behold man! | - “Get ‘'me this man's name so that I ‘can report definitely on the status of - his insurance.” . That, .together with a slip bearing the memo, “James Hall, (3,721,505) McCall, South Carolina. Beneficlarles: . Ella Stalks (wife), Mrs. Fannie 'Stalks (mother),” was handed to a file ‘searcher in the bureau of war risk in- surance. The man’s name was given as Hall, while those of his wife and his mother were . given as Stalks. Patently, something was wrong somewhere. Just what was. wrong, however, was not 8o t,- To find out what and where ' e error was, was the job, Finding the error somebody else made is always the job of the war zisk index file searchers, and it's a itough job if they fail to get at the ?fi_@m of it. | Going into the index files section where are listed the names of nearly five million men who were inducted i into_military service, the young wom- an made s complete Inventory of all | [3 -.\, ¢ ) Girl Sleuths Searching Card Index ], Flles. ‘the thousands of men surnamed Hall. ‘Among them all there was not one who came from McCall, South Carolina, nor yet one who had a wife or mother whose name’ even remotely resembled the “Stalks” given: as the name of the two beneficiaries. {* Calls for Nimble Wit. : This, clearly, was a case for the use ‘of that specially nimble wit and fine | deductive faculty which has character- ized much of the work of the search- ers of the index files, and given them a process of procedure which might be used to add a leaf to the book of the Burnses, the Pinkertons and the Fiynns. | “Well,” remarked the girl charged jwith producing the needed informa- jflon, “this man may be ‘Stalk,’ since ‘that s the name given for his wife and mother.” * ' But search through the “Stalks” brought nothing to identify the case. “8ti),” she persisted, and they al- ways do persist, these girls. “His jname must be some kind of a ‘Stalk,’ but what kind? Corn stalks, bean istalks, and cabbage stalks are the ‘only kind of stalks I know anything * about so I'll just look them up.” . And sure enough, it turned ont that ®is name was “some kind of a Stalk.” 'Cabbage stalks, In fact, and his index card was duly changed to read: [/ “James Cabbagestalks, (8,721,505) (McCall, South Carolina; beneficiaries, Mrs, Ella Cabbagestalks (wife), Mrs. fannie Cabbagestalks (mother).” “You see that girl wearing the blue |sweater over there,” sald one young | "he girl of the blue sweater appear- 80 young she might have just left 0ol. She was searching some in- idex cards, her fingers rapidly running one to another. With each flap lof the card she had taken a mental of the inscription thereon, but to observer she was making a speed rd in touching every card in the e drawer. i Suddenly—Bang! The drawer was telosed. She moved a foot to the right, began another Marathon in card move- 'ments, selected one, made a notation on a slip of paper she carried, placed the card among the others, closed the drawer, and walked toward the man 'who is in charge of the file section. This pantomime was quickly enacted, and as it turned out, it brouxht ‘to a close a remarkable case which had been under investigation for some days. The “Divis Mystery. The title of this strange case might be the “Divis mystery” with Miss Blue. ‘| nearly 40,000 nameg for a man who THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 25, 1919 PROBLEMS IN NOMENCLATURE WHICH WAR RISK BUREAU HAS TO TACKLE Oifficuiics the Burgau Experiences in Answering Letters and Maintaining the Coryect Addresses of Demobilized Men— Many Begsome Transients and Others Give Only Frag- mentary Information. ; 1~h the files and was turned over to,one 1ot the cleverest searchers. Bfnce the ®an’s address was given as North Da- kota, she assumed, in view of the fact that there were many Indians listed from that state, that his must be an Indian name. She immediately added Thunder to his name and found the record eard as Andrew Good Thun- der, in less than three minutes after she had ‘been asked to lend her aid. Oarelessness or unavoidable haste in writing up Insurance applications on the Form 1-B, by which a man enter- ing the service requests or disclaims the bureau from an army camwp, and ended as follows: “Respectfully, . “Private Divis Spruce, Hastings, Pa.” Miss Blue Sweater was assigned to the letter with Instructions to secure the man’s policy number that certain information requested as to the stand- ing of his insurance might be furnish- ed him, i The name of Divis Spruce could not be found in the files.. Then came the time for imagination and deduction. No matter how the name was split to make some other plausible name, the files could not produce results. Finally the young woman decided to address a letter to the man at Hast- ings, Pa,, requesting him to furnish in- formation about himself. In due time the letter was returned to the bureau as unclaimed. This did not put an end to the search by any means. Imagination and deduction again were brought into the case, and a further study of the original letter was made. Divis Spruce, Spruce Division. Of course! The Spruce Division! The Spruce division was a part of the American army. Miss Blue Sweater secured a roster of the Spruce division from the war department and searched through the lived at Hastings, Pa. In this she was rewarded. The list showed only one man from that town. He was Herman Miller. With this in- formation the young woman had mno difficulty in finding the card of Her- man Miller, (policy number 1,877,155; serial number 866,255) of Hastings, Pa. This man was furnished the in- formation he desired, and in thanking the bureau he admitted he had forgot- ten to sign his name to the letter. Searchers From All Sections. Girls from every part of the coun- try are employed as searchers. If a complex case arises involving a man’s identification, and his home is in Maine, a girl from that state is assigned to run down the mystery and she near- 1y always does. Should the state be California, a girl hailing from the “Coast” soon has the correct data care- fully listed in the files. = There are innumerable “wonderful” cases under investigation every day, but these girls are not unlike the he- roes from France who never exploit the “wonderful” things they them- selves did in line of duty. Handwriting experts are employed to determine the identity of many sig- natures, since every conceivable form of- handwriting reaches the bureau. Often the body of a letter will be per- l Checking Names of Soldier Survivors. fectly legible, but the signature will prove to be one of those nonforgeable Jumbles of pen strokes which are the delight and pet hobby of the writer and the despalr of every hopeful reader. Stlent letters in names must always be taken into consideration. The name of Hilynack is a good example where the silent letter is the key letter for searching, but at the same time it is particularly dead fn pronunciation. | This name s pronounced Lynack, and in the hurry of writing, often names are misspelled, when on the surface they appear very simple and correct. Forelgn names are often typed in- correctly because the soldier at the time of making application for insur- ance may have been unfamiliar with English and made a mistcke in re- navy clerk. This is a great source of worry to searchers. .- Names Spelled Many Ways. Frequently one man’s name may be spelled in four or five ways. If rela- tives, parents or someone interested in his welfare inquires about his insur- ance, each will gpell it in their way. Girl searchers must determine which is the correct spelling and then ver- ify it from the man’s original signa- ture. peating the spelling to the army or | government allowance to dependents, and failure to include complete identl: fying information in a letter of in-' quiry, constitute the largest single cause in the bureau’s delay in answer- ing mail, Any letter addressed to the bureau on any matter pertaining to a service man should contain his name in full— first, last, and middle; it should state his rank and organization at the time “Form 1-B” was filed, or at the time insurance application was made; his present home address and former ad- dress if the address has been changed; the first, middle and last name of his beneficiary, 'and present and former address, if the address has been changed. s The names of the nearly five mil- lion men who were inducted uader the selective draft, and those who have Joined up since the armistice, are om cards in filing eabinets, which, placed one after the other, would make a line more than five miles. long. Just what complications may arise when there is failure to include this identifying data, may be imagined from the fact that a comparison shows ‘that the repetition of pames in the files of the burean is far greater than the repetition of names carried in card indexes of commercial companies. Many Bear Same Name. Fifty-three thousand two hundred Johnsons were called into active mili- tary service. The Smiths were not far behind numerically, coming up to the considerable figure of 51,950. The “Brown” family with 48,000 is next. More than half the letters inquiring about insurance come from men who either fail to give their Identifying number, or their address. In thou- sands of cases they give their address, but due to the fact that there are oth- ers with similar names who live in the same city. and have moved this infor- mation is of little value te the girl searchers, Actual figures show that more than half the soldiers, sailors and marines have moved since leaving the service. Few forwarded a notice of a change of address. This left the bureau with only the name of the man for record, but through its system of tracing men, large numbers have been located by the girl sleuths and their correct ad- dresses have been listed. Many amazing discoveries have been made in names, and the number of ways they can be spelled. One young woman has tabulated 49 ways, so far discovered to spell Aloysius. Another has specialized in the spell- ing of Ignatz. She has found 18 ways to spell this name. St another has found that John can be spelled 24 ways. To Bartholdt Otto Aabel, (policy number 3,263,838) of Minden, Neb., be- longs the distinction of having his name the first in all the card Index files. The last card in the file bears the name of Wladyslaus Charles Zyzes, policy number 1,802,689) of 421 Maury street, Rome, N. Y. Constant combiffg is necessary to keep the files up to date. U. S. LOSES 4,480 CAPTURED Eighth Army Division Makes Low Rec- ord With Only One Man Captured. ‘Washington, D. C.—A rechecking hy the war department of the figures up to June 3 shows the total number of Americans captured by the enemy in France was 4,480, of whom 316 were officers. The Twenty-elghth division was the heaviest loser with 18 offi- cers and 714 men, and the Twenty- sixth next with 19 officers and 438 men. The Bighth division reported one man captured. Of the divisions earliest in line, the Pirst lost no officers and 152 men and the Second division five officers and 162 men. Georgian Too Tired to Crank Up His Auto Atlanta, Ga.—And now the laziest man! Lawson Collier, an autoist, was coming into Atlanta, when he overtook an old car stopped by the roadside. The occupants were in animated conversation. Thinking he might be of assist- ance, Colller stopped and asked if he could help. “You might pull us down the road a plece to start my auto,” gald the tired-looking owner. Oollter backed up, pulled out a plece of rope, and pulled the auto about 50 yards, and then asked what the trouble was. “Oh, nothing at all,” said his neighbor. “I just didn't want to take the trouble to crank it.” Find Missing Soldier on Farm. South Norwalk, Conn—Clayton E, Hope, a discharged private of the 69th | Balloon company, who disappeared after leaving New York for his home ! in Willimantic, Conn., was found, A clever piece of deduction was that in the case of Andrew Good of North Sweater as the detective heroine. A typewritten letter was received by Dalota. His name could not be found { working on a farm near here. He 1 will go home. fiawxwmmmmmm TO READERS Many ads appear in the elassified column of th HOW blind ads and those wishing to answer them should do so by mail, addressed as directed in thg ads. Many persons call up this office and ask who the ad- vertiser is. In several instances H this paper has no knowledge of the advertiser's identity and if 4 the party is known we have no authority to give out any in- formation. AN KOPPER ~ZOKE FOR EVERY HEATING PURPOSE - much of your coal do you carry to the ash pile in the form of clinkers and slate? [KOFPERS Y COKE produces only a small amount of powdery ash—— not worth sifting. ASK YOUR FUEL DEALER Manufactured by . Minnesota By Product Coke Co. St. Paul, Minn. All Heat No Smoke No Slate * No Waste Aches, pams, nervousness, diffi- culty in urinating, often mean gerious disorders. The ' world’s standard reiaedy for kidney, liver, bladder and wuric acid troubles— bring quick relief and often ward off deadly diseases. Known as the national remedy of Holland for more than 200 yoars. All druggists, in three sizes. 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