The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, June 18, 1917, Page 3

he |. Mandan, _N. ' ‘MONDAY, JUNE ‘18, 1017 BISMARCK DAILY TRIBUNE: SPLENDID UNITED STATES FLEET PUTS TO SEA; READY TO MINUTE Gouvernéur Morris Visits a Fleet of American Warships “Some- where in American Waters” and Gives a Vivid Picture of Life Aboard a Fighting ' By. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. {International News Staff Correspondent.) Somewhere Near America.—On Fri- day, May 11, I received permission to visit a fleet of United States warships, was told where to find it, how to reach sit, and that until Thursday, the 24th of May, I must not convey to the news- papers which I represent any of the impressions that it should make upon me;' nor all of the impressions until the end of the war. It may be of interest to the public to know that the fleet which I visited 4s somewhere in American waters, and that, backed by the proper authority, it may be reached in several ways. More than this I am not permitted to say, nor may I give the composition of the fleet, nor the names of the ships composing it, nor of any of the officers governing those ships. I must deal in impositives. If I saw faults or virtues I must not particular- ize. In short, I must tell about the fleet Without telling about it, and give a general impression with most of the impressions left out, Battleship a Man. I shall deal, then rather with the ‘humanities of the fleet than with its mechanics; with its aspects rather than its potentialities, And with one particular ship rather than with many. i It has been said that a modern bat- tleship 18 a machine. It is not. It is aman. His eyes may no longer have the vision ‘of youth, but he sees through a hundred pairs, whose vis- ion is twenty-twenty magnified many diameters by lenses exquisitely ad- justed; his hands may not be large or strong, but they have within them ulmost a god’s power to destroy. It is as if his brain had multiplied his: eyes and made telescopes of them, had increased his body to an ominous and beautiful abomination, displacing 30,000 tons, and. had lengthened his arms and strengthened his hands un- til they could reach out clear away over the rim of the world, and there smash and crush and tear and kill, It was twenty years since I had set foot on a battleship. There was some- thing familiar about him and some- thing strange. It was like meeting a prontising friend of your boyhood af- ter he had-grown‘into a man, (I will not be-she warships, nor be-her them. They. are men.) He had grown older, wiser, grayer, stronger, broader, tall- er and swifter.. And.though neither of ué had forgotten the best, nor the worst of those things which we had once! had in common, he eyed me askahce, and I felt embarrassed and shy, Warship Now More Kind. The officer of the deck spoke to & seaman, And hy the tone of the voice I knew that friend battleship had not only: grown stronger and greater, but so sure of himself that he could af- ford to be more courteous and more kind. Things happened. A meal came and went. One threw dice for the cl- gars. One lost. One listened and one talked, and one began to associate in the back of one’s head this face with the rightful name of its owner and that insignia with the office of its wearer, No two faces of the uniformed men | around the long, narrow table of the ward room mess were alike. But they were all fine, clean-cut faces of rigorously educated men in the pink of phyiscal condition. Like all trav- elers, they were broad-minded, and like all men who have been brought up among true values, they were without affectation of any kind. I have said that a battleship Is a man; It fs not. It is a city. That it is a walled city, defended hy terrible cannon, every man knows. So I shall not here and now speak -of the magic eyes with which it sees the approach of the enemy, the thick armor with which it repels his blows, nor of the terrible cannon with which it returns them. The government is the flagship. The admirals are the governors of states and the captains and com- manders are the mayors of cities and towns, It is a complete civilization, a floating country, to which the’. de- votion of its seamen and firemen is fs necessary as that of its admirals, captains and commanders. But to return to our city. It dif- fers from land cities in that it recog- nizes neither night nor day. There are more people awake in the day- time than at night; but the city’s eyes are never closed. And during each minute of his waking hours each citi- zen knows what he must-do, or what he may do. Our Ships at Sea. One day I learned that on the fol- lowing morning we were “going out.” _* Close to my room was one of the steel tubes through which the anchor chains slide, and very. early I was wakened by a sound that was as if, on a dozen adjoining alleys, giants were bowling and making ten-strikes, A little later I felt the first revolutions of the engines. I did not need to look at my watch, The captain had sald that we were going out at 5:15, and I had jearned by now that when the navy says 5:15, it means 5:15 to the second. Ship Men and Ships Fit to Meet Any Foe. I breakfasted at eight and went on deck, There was nothing to be seen but water ‘and blue sky, a close-up battleship which resembYed ours as one pea resembles another, and sev- eral far-off battleships that looked a3 if they had been cut out of cardboard. All. the time that we were out 1 kept away from charts and com- passes, Only the sun by day and the stars by night gave me any notion of our whereabouts. It was a restful feeling. We were moving at the rate of 15 knots an hour. There was noth- ing vague about this. speed to the inch and second. It was also the leisurely rate maintained by the close-up battleship, and his dis- That was our) tance from us at the end of a given} hour was within inches of what it had been at the beginning. A marvel of battleships {s the pre-| cision with which they move and keep their distances and mind their man- ners. the mobility of their turrets and their great guns, A turret revolves with- out a sound. It may be turned so fast that 1f you got in the way the business end of the gun would knock your head off, or it may be turned so slowly that to the eye it is not turn- ing at all. That day I attached myself to a group of boys who were learning to be a gun crew and who that after- noon would hear a gun fired for the first’ time in thelr lives, would fire one and would try to hit a target. Although I did none of the hard work, I think that I shared as an equal in all their mental processes and I know that I suffered just as much as they did when, after rehearsals and dress rehearsals, the gun finally and very suddenly and horribly went off. Learning to Shoot. First, they were taught how to load. For this. business a short dum- my gun with a genuine brush, screw box and plug is provided. I am not now speaking of great turret guns, but of lesser guns, whose bark, how- It is only less marvelous than | i ever, is much higher pitched and less! tolerable to the enrs, eyes, nose, spleen, liver, toes, spine and: scalp. I am speaking of a gun which has the highest muzzle velocity. of iany gun in the world, and much the most disagreeable voice: This is how you load it: The plug man: with his right hand swings .a lever, the plug: swings ‘out ‘of the breech or screw box, and to one side. With his left hand the plugman ‘slips into its chamber in the plug a primer (possibly a, .44-caliber blank cartridge) to replace the exploded one which has been automatically extracted. Then the plugman swings his lever again and closes the breech of the gun. That is what the plugman. does. While he is doing it , five ‘other men are doing other -things of equal importance. The moment the gun is open the trayman slaps into the form box a metal contrivance which pro- tects its fine gears and edges from being injured by the sharp point of the heavy wheel, and which guides the shell itself into the bore of the gun. The brush being open and the tray in place, the first shellman with all his might hurls into the opening the shell that he has been holding, the first powderman hurls after it a bag of powder, and then even as the tray comes out and the breech closes, the first shellman has turned, without using‘his feet, and recetved from the second shellman afresh shell, and the first powderman’ has turned and received from the second powderman a fresh bag of powder, That is how the gun is loaded. It is a matter of seconds, In practice the shell and the powder bag (omis- sion by censor?) to keys the junction of two lines that cross each other at a right angle on the exact center of the bull’s-eye. A third pointer does the same thing with another pair of | | crossed lines, but the wheel elevates; the muzzle of the gun end or de- presses’ it. And of all the men in the compartment of that particular gun he Is the luckiest, for he is the only one who knows the exact mo- ment when the bang is coming. He causes it by pressing a button, At } any moment while a certain buzzer is buzzing, and the crossed lines are on the bull’s-eye, he is at liberty to fire the gun. Blast of the Guns. We steamed slowly down the range a number of times, and all the com- partment guns on our side of the ship swung slowly from left to right, as the pointers kept the crossed lines on the bull’s-eye. And we all got a line because we knew that each prac- tice run brought us nearer to that real run when the awful blasts that we anticipated would have to be en- dured somehow. We turned and steamed slowly to- ward the range. We were in the compartment, the guncrew and the officer in charge, myself and twenty or thirty fledgling seamen, who were thereto pick up what they could by eye and ear. I have never in one time or place seen so many forced smiles. One a2 them Was mine, We had been serve with absorbent cotton and had plugged: our ears. The cotton made men’s) voices sound numb and far-off. It had! no effect whatever upon the: voice of the cannon. The steel doors of the compartment had been closed and locked. There was no escape. The range came over the speaking! tube. The first pointer repeated it’ and made an adjustment. There come a voice, even through cotton, a bellowing voice: “Coming - on the | range! Coming on the-range!” There; was a dead silence. Then low, clear, and insistent, like the deadly rattle} of our most infamous native snake;,| the buzzer. I had forgotten about the gun ini the next compartment. I shall never} forget it again. It went off. | Lifted by the Concussion. I was. sitting at the moment and, my feet were swinging clear of the deck, I had nothing to jump into. But I rose in the alr and came down. Then our gun went. The flash was brighter than sunlight. It was of an’ intolerable brightness, and all but in-} tolerable was the bang that went with{ It. The assault was less upon the) body than upon the soul, My ears); did not suffer at all. I went out to see how many shots; were fired. I did not get used to it.! U know that, for not once did I see the gun recoil and go back into place. Try as I would, that white, hot, deaf, ening flash shut my eyes tight for me.' I watched a second run from the oridge. It was pleasanter. The bang- sticks were even farther off and you’ could see the talt, white splashes of} the ricochetting shells, I got so that | I could keep my eyes open. Hl I have said that a battleship is al man. I have Said that it is a city. It is neither. It is a romance, I re- eall searchlights that searched the heavens and the face of the waters, that crossed and crisscrossed; the starry calls of the bugles and the sea-salt names of things. Have you lived in Arcadia? Well, I have lived ‘in’ the “Junior Officers’ Country.” { I remember a night of firing of shells that gave off fire so that you could watch the long, lovely curves of their flights; and of searchlights which spoke to each other as easily | and as freely as a man speaks to a man. | But what is best in our navy is not the machines, nor the drives, nor the controls, nor any of the death-dealing or life-saving appliances. It is the} spirit of these men who, through dis- | cipline and self-sacrifice, have learned to find the true values of life and the true meaning of that flag for which at any moment they are ready to lay down their lives, I speak not only of admirals and captains, of wardroom officers and junior officers, but of the boatswain’s mate and the enlisted men. ‘ OFFERS HOME FOR HOSPITAL | Mrs. Margarete Sauer of Tompkins- ville, Staten island, has offered her house to the government for a Red Cross hospital and hersglf as a nurse, Mrs. Sauer came to Manhattan thq) other day, and at the ferry entrancg} at the Battery asked a policeman tq direct her to someone whom she could offer her services and her property:) She told him that her husband had/ volunteered in the navy, and she did| not feel like allowing herself to be out: done by him. Mrs. Sauer was referred to Col. Jefferson R. Kane of the Amer; ican National Red Cross society and she immediately wrote a long letter to him. ! The house in which Mr. and Mrs. Sauer live and which she has offered to convert into a hospital,,has a 30: foot front and is nearly double that in depth, and has grounds running back to the next street. Its rooms arq large, light and airy, and there is a large-cupola on top resembling the up: per part of a lighthouse with large win- dows all around, and commanding a view of New Yérk harbor. Mr. and Mrs. Sauer are both Germans and have a twelve-year-old daughter living at Dresden, Saxony. Photo shows Mrs. Margarethe Sauer, Coney Island Boosts Prices, New York.—“On account of the war," Coney Island announces increases in the prices of ali its well-known and in; dispensable commodities. Hot dogs will be ten cents this summer instead of five, popcorn and peanut bags sell- ing for a nickel will be smaller and weight estimates will cost five cents instead of a penny. TEUTONIC TERROR EASY FOR SAINT PAUL HARP | Ds June. 18.—Charles Westerman, the Teutonic Terror of New Salem, proved easy picking here for Billy Ryan of St. Paul, who lammed his bulky opponent to the | mat a half dozen times in a six-round exhibition here. Westerman had 20 pounds the better of Ryan, but the latter’s superior knowledge ofthe game-more than made up for the dif-| claimed: ference in beef. The slaughter finally was stopped by the referee. | Elijah Up to Date. i Little Benny was looking at a pic-| ture of Elijah going to heaven jn a chariot of ‘fire. Pointing to the halo about thé prophet’s head, Benny ex- “See, mamma, he’s curry- ing. an extra tire.’ TO NIGHT TO-MORROW ALICE JOYCE IN “When the Gods Distroy” PARAMOUNT OFFERS © THE DAINTY, IRRESISTIBLE AND MOST POPULAR STAR Marguerite Clark In the novel Romantic Photo-play Feature “SILKS AND SATINS” DISMARC Pee THURSDAY BLANCHE SWEET In “UNPROTECTED” CHANGES OF BEING DRAFTED FIGURED OUT BY GARDNER By GILSON GARDNER. ‘Washington, D. C.. June 18.—Now that we have registered for selective service, what next? This question is in the minds of about 10,000,000 young men and their 30,060,000 relatives. The answer in some of its details will be delayed for several days. It is contained in regulations now being worked out by Provost Marshal Gen- eral Crowder and it must have the final approval of the secretary of war and the president. supporting his dependent mother than casual earnings in industry or his pro- ion. It is expected that about one man in three will measure up to the physical requirements. These requirements will necessarily be relaxed from thegsevere tests ap- plied to the regular army and will come nearer to those applied to the state militia. If it should happen that exemptions for occupation, physical defects and dependent relatives reduced the num- Some of the questions, however, can ber in any community below the num- be answered. For instance, how are the men to be chosen? What are the chances of being selected by lottery and by exemption boards? In round numbers a million and a half names will be taken by lot from the ten million registered The chances are about one in and a half of being selected in this lottery. Then will follow exemptions on the ground of occupation. dependent rela tives or physical defects. This cut the number down to 500,000, 80; that the chance is ove in three of being’ selected from the list’ chosen by lot. ‘Will married men !e excused? At this writing this question is unanswer- ed. It may be covered by the regula- tions which will before long be pub-} lished. ‘Probably it will be left large- ly to the judgment of the local ex- emption boards. Will sons’ with dependent mothers be excused? Again the answer is to be found in. the regulations and the judgment of the local exemption boards. Broadly .speaking, it may ‘be that those having dependent relat will be excused. Not. all, how will be excused. to be excused, however, if their o pation is important to industry, a for instance, if they are in a mf&chan: ical trade or farming. If it should happen that the man with a dependent relative be a lawyer or have no regular profession he might still be selected on the theory that the $30 a month to be paid him as a soldier would go farther toward ver, ‘They are more likely ber required from that community an- other drawing would be made from the registration list and new candi- dates woyld appear before the exemp- tion ‘boards. These exemption boards will be in many s the same officials who did the registering. It is not necessary, however, that they be the same offi- cials. | Nominations for board duty are now being sent to the president and by him forwarded to the war department, where they are investigated to discover their qualifi- cations to serve on such boards Appeal is allowed fron the decision of exemption boards and one of the big jobs now faced by the war de- partment is the creation of these ba 5 of appeal, one in judicial distri Judicial districts are quite large and such appeal boards will be very, busy after the exemption boards have done their work, hearing! cases brought. to them on appeal. It is not necessary to have a lawyer to make this appeal. The purpose: is to have everything in- formal. If a candidate fecls that he is not being fairly dealt with by his local exemption board and that he has a proper ground to be excused he may come before the appeal board and tell his story. The work of sel ng from the reg- istered men is ted to occupy nearly two months. By that time the government will have a roster of a half million or more able-bodied and more or less foot-loose young men. These young men will not be called until the cantonment barre are FU) FIGHTER 1S OFF FOR THE FRONT Britain is sending F ijians to France to act as stevedores and other- wise assist the soldiers behind the fighting lines. This Fijian, snapped in Canada on his way to Europe, is in army service as a noncommissioned officer, as seen by ring and swagger stick. the stripes on his arm. ‘Notice, too, his wrist watch, exemption j federal | This will not be be- 1, according to the | ready for them. fore September present prospect. It will take from 60 to 90 days to | build the: antonment cities, — but. when they are ready the men will be ‘ordered to assemble and will be put under the command of officers now | being trained in the various camps of the officers’ reserve corps. These offi- cers will teach the 590,000 rookies the first principles of soldiering. Pay will begin for each man from the time he gets orders to report or takes the formal oath as a soldier. It will begin whether h wally is or- dered to camp or begins drilling or remains at home. He will be issued his uniform and shoes and when he has put them on he will resemble in all respects a soldier in the national guard or regular army. There is nothing distinctive about the uniform of the selective service army unless a button on the collar be used to designate as the militia ana regulars are designated. In assembling and organizing the men an effort will be made to hold | localities together. The boys from Chicago, for instance, will not be mixed up with those from St. Louis pr New York, although they may be if the war department later decides to mix them. The law directs that so far as it may be practicable men from the same communities be kept to- gether. Men in the selective service army will be eligible to affice commands, and it is announced that the third series of officers’ camps will be made ; Up of men chosen from the selectea soldiers. The second camp is to be August 27 and the third will probably come in October or November. In official circles it is privately admitted that the chief purpose of this selective service army is for the defense of this country. Much has been said and written avout sending men to the trenches in France. Men are going to France now and it will not be long before General Pershing has a couple of divisions there, but it probably will be a long time before the men now about to begin their training will see active service of any kind. This does not mean that America It merely means that one of the most important tasks this country faces is the preparation of a large reserve army, mobilized, equipped and trained | to be used, if n ry, to defend! this country from foreign aggression As much-as we would like to send large ‘bodies of troops abroad, the shortage of transports makes this an almost impossible task in the near future. Feeding the people in Fran and England is already a tremendoi by the United States, and every man Sent over there from the United States is another man to be fed, clothed, munitioned and transported by the workers at home. disappointed if they do not s ve fighting at once will do well to enlt in the navy, the marine corps or éven the regulars. ‘ All of these will go before the selective service army. This army may in the end all go. That is for the future to determine. FIGHT OR GIVE: SLOGAN IN RED CROSS CAMPAIGN ‘Continued from Pags One) Sixth street from Main to Boule- vard, Mrs. J. P. French. vard, Mrs. W. C. Cashman. Eighth street from Main to Boule- vard, Mrs. Burt Finney. 7 Ninth street from Main Boulevard, Mrs. R. Mobley. Tenth street from Main to Boule- vard, Mrs. F. B. Strauss. vard, Mrs. R. S. Towne. If you are sick did not receive is not to take its full part in the war. ; burden which must be shared at once! Selective service men who will be; Seventh street from Main to Poule-| street to] liquor habit Eleventh street from iain to Boule-! R. S. ENGE Graduate, Licensed and Experienced Adjustments and get well. Consultation Suite 14, Lucas Block ! ‘Twelfth street from Main to Boule- vard, Mrs. ‘Frank Swanke. Thirteenth street from ‘Main to Boulevard, Mrs. L. A. Schipfer. Fourteenth street from Main to Boulevard, Mrs. W. F. Crewe. Fifteenth street from Main to Boulevard, Mrs. A. W. Snow. eenth street from Main to Boul- Mrs. William A. IFalconer. 8 eenth street from Main to Boulevard and all east of Seventeenth and north of Main, Mrs. P. J. Meyers. Thayer street from Sixth west to Washington avenue, Mrs. O. N. Dun- ham. Thayer street from Sixth strect east, Mrs. I. i. McCurdy. Rosser street from ‘Sixth — street west to Washington, Mrs. A. P. Len- hart. Rosser street from Sixth east, Mrs. LL. HH. Richmond. Aveine A from Sixth street west to Washington, Mrs. J. A. Haney. Avenue A from Sixth street east, Mrs. ©. M. H. Hollst. Avenue B from Sixth street west to Washington, Mrs. Charles Staley. Avenue L' from Sixth street east, Miss Jessie Ramp. Avenue © from Sixth west to Wash- ington, ‘Mrs. B. C. Marks. Avenue © from Sixth street east, Mrs. G. B. Allen. Avenuc D from Sixth strect west to Washington, Mrs. G. L. Price. Avenue D from Sixth street east, Mrs. A. S. Hoffman. Avenue E, Mrs. W. C. Taylor. Avenue F, Mrs. J. W. Bliss. Capital y women _ responded heartily to the call of Mrs. W. C. Taylor, local chairman of the gov- ernment service department, for as- sistants in the campaign for funds for the National Red Cross society. At the called meeting Saturday af- ternoon in Commercial club rooms, Mrs. ‘Taylor named captains for the various districts to be canvassed this week. The women will be guests at the dinner this evening at the Grand Pacific, given by the men in charge of the campaign. At noon each day the teams in the business district will met at luncheon, compare notes and .discuss matters pertinent to the campaign. Features are planned for the va- rious days. The band will appear at least once and arrangements are be- ing made for the soldiers on duty to {parade in order to arouse enthusiasm. Probably a soldier will be assigned to each team. The Salvation Army, will participate in the drive, too. Cap- tain Murphy has not announced his jplans, but the members of the army are vitally interested in the success of the campaign. Bunker Hill Day. Several of the ministers yesterday referred to the campaign. Sunday {was the anniversary of the Battle of Lunker Hill and furnished a patriotic tting for the prelude to the Red 1 Cross campaign | & dollar contributed to the Red Cross fund of $10,000,000 will be a blow at Germany, and a help to our allies. The people of Bismarck have ‘a great opportunity to strike a blow for liberty by giving to the Red Cross ' liberally. Just remember this admonition: |The army and navy ‘will represent the will of the people, but the Red | Cros represents the American heart..” Of Course. “You can fool all of the people some of the time,” began the man who | likes to quote the sayings of the great. “That's enough,” said the other chap. “You-want a vacation occasionally.” To the Wife of One Who Drinks I have an “jmportant confidential | message for you. It will come in a plain envelope. How to conquer the in 3 days and make Wonderful, safe, last- ing, reliable, inexpensive method, Woodsguaranteed. Write to Edw. J. Woods, 1423N, Station E, New York, N. Y. Show this to others, home hanpy. r Chiropractor and have tried everything and help, try Chiropractio—Spinal free. Phone 260 Bismardll