The evening world. Newspaper, July 24, 1918, Page 14

WEDNESDAY, What Does t - Mean to the Mothers | Of the Boys in Khaki? JULY 24, 1918 he War What It Has Meant to One Mother Told by Her to Other Mothers of America in New War Book by Della Thompson Lutes. By Marguerite Mooers Marshall IAT the war means to mother—what battles she fights, what treacherous enemies she overcomes, what brief repulses she turns into victory; the passion, pain and pride behind her service flag—these are the things Della Thompson Lutes interprets in her “over here” war book, “My { Boy in Khaki.” It is a true story, told by a little brown-eyed mother with smooth, parted hair, beside whom stands a stanch-looking soldier boy. It is a story dedicated “to all the mothers of all the boys in khaki and in navy blue,” and not one of those mothers should fail to read it. If they are bitter, they will gain understanding; if they are lonely, they will find comfort; if they are proud and brave, they will touch the hand of a soldierly sister. The “boy in khaki" is the only son Sen of his mother and she a widow. Nevertheless, he volunteers, alth ugh he is only nineteen and not even sub- Ject to the draft. His mother has no near relative, no one else for whom “When Boy goes over there to face danger and death, I shall be true to him—truer than steel, Muddy, you know that. And he will be true to me. There will never be anything in to make and keep a home, for whom to live and grow old. But this is how she explains herself to other women: “When we talked this matter over, my boy and I, and saw that our coun- try was going to need the service of its young men—sons, every one of them, of mothers as fond of them and a8 proud of them as I was of my own—I saw a light dawning in his eyes, I felt the spirit of immolation for the sake of something greater than himself or myself glowing out from his eager, brave young heart. And I was glad and proud to step back out of the first place in his life. ‘What could I do but say, ‘Of course, my son, co wherever there is need of you?” “He must not see the white fe. in his mother’s caj is his mother’s creed. So she smiles bravely when he goes away to the big city armory with the other boys from his home town. She opens arms and hoart to the Girl, between whom and hor son the torch of war has kindled a swift romance. He goes further away, to a camp near New York; then further still, to one of the Southern cantonments. ‘There is a moment when, watching a street parade of young khaki-clad figures, she reacts to a mood which scarcely an American woman has es- c@bed altogether. “All at once my blood grew hot and surged, and my fingers clenched, and / swore. I was mad, clean, fighting mad, to think that men like these, young, straight, clean, home-loving, peace-loving men should have to go out there into that raging, hellish, killing fire, to expose their fine young bodies to the devil's guns, to face and gasp and die be- cause a greedy hand wanted to rule the world. And 1 said, ‘God, damn) wer!’” But bravely she knits for the Red Cross, packs boxes of comforts for her own soldier, follows what she comes to think of as his war, with | books, newspapers and maps, and wisely cultivates a certain optimism, | “ZL cannot live and work,” she says simply, “if 1 dwell too much on the horrors, the apprehensions, the de- tailed accounts of all the terrible things that bave come and will yet more come to pass.” Not the least of her nobilities is this world for eithor of us unleas it's together.” And the boy argues, ‘Mother, seems to me I'm honoring her in let- ting her look at this just as I would. If she were going to face any mich danger I should want, moro than| { anything else in the world, to make sure of the right to care for her.” “I should not dare,” comments | mother, “keep from them any senall- | est grain of comfort that they may |f find, ‘This 1s their hour—perhaps | '. their last. Let them have it and|{ blessings at this present thne—upon | / them.” wedding as mother writes it: “As we slipped softly into the warm, sweet, lighted dusk of the church, there came the soft, low tones | of the organ. No wedding march this time, but the throbbing, vibrant tones of ‘America.’ No flowers upon the altar, no bridal bouquet in the girl's hands. Ground-pine and | / branches of evergreen crept over the; ° altar, the Stars and Stripes bent over | their bowed heads as if in conaecra- | | tion, and in her hands Jimsy-Girl—| dressed in gray gown, the gray of the ship that woul! take him away from her—carried a little cluster of silken flags, Our hearts bled for the sweet white faces of this youthful wedded pair as they turned their eyes to their new day, awaiting them out- side, “Six days of joy—of poignant, throbbing joy—deepened and colored | * with the inevitable parting before | them, Then—a rending, a great blur- ring of sight and thought, out ot which came cheerful voices that no one recognized, smiles that were like the grinning of death masks, th shriek of a train rushing headlong | away toward God knows what, and| ; then darkness, When the light came | i {% ‘3 buck to us we were together—his wife and 1." Together they stand once more, when ho leaves the Last Camp for |the transport—the departure foretold by the furlough, during which his wedding took place. | “Women behind and men at the front; that is the line of action,” |the author writes in the last chapter of “My Boy in Khaki." “Guns boom- her generous acceptance of the war wedding desired by her {dolized son Jip 90d sheila: BireUng. slong tte y and the mow sharer of his love desire, [Gene tine: men aweating, | men Little war fiancee, “Jimay-girl.” ‘The | ("008 0E me A AYIDS, latter writes, pathetically enough, |A®¢ behind them, close behind them, “Of course, he ‘may come back’ shat- tered and broken,’ But, Muddy, dear, wouldn't it be a greater happiness to me to give my life nursing him back to health—caring for him, work ing for him—than anything else 1 could give? If he offers himself and gets beaten, could I do less (han to give myself to him? And suppose he never did come back—we would bave had « few, few hours, or days, knowing what it would mean to be- long to each other entirely And Muddy--that might be our only chance in all this world to know ranks upon ranks and file upon fle are women; women feeding, women |nursing, women clothing, women cheering, ‘Theirs must be the fight, but ours must be the spirit with which they gain the victory, “We must send our boys to the front with brave and hopeful hearts, believing they will return to us# stronger and better men for the go | ing, After all, for all of us ét is not a matter of how long can you live, but | how well?” | “My Boy in Khaki" Harper & Brothers 4s published by | Forbidding Their Use Made | Potatoes Popular in France. LTHOUGH potatoes were early A Introduced into Europe by the quantity for many years. The Eng- lish found them in Virginia, but it is Spaniards, they did not come in| planted ones matured it seemed that| believed that the Spaniards brought them to that colony from further south The first attempt to introduce them | known niler into France was due to a we scientific authority named Pars This was in the seventeenth century says Popular 8 Monthly. out in a field near Paris, and by means of learned pamphlets and talk | with the people tried to have the new + Yegetable brougat into cultivation and $ ‘ Aisi He! imported some of the plants, set them | sight, ) But it was all tn vain | not Potatoes did prove attractive, and when the| |they would rot in the ground on ac- | count of the prejudice against them, Then some wise man who knew human nature-a student of pay-| chology, with practical ideas—sug- gested that peasants could not be made to try potatoes by persuasion, | but might be led to adopt them if they were forbidden to eat them His idea was adopted. Many signa were painted and erected in piain forbidding under severe pen- alties any one from taking any po- tatoes from the fleld The peasants «t once begau to raid the hills, and before long most of the ripe tubers were stolen and eaten with rel heaven's bleswing—if heaven has any |: ‘This ts the brief story of the war! / Aces of Allies Who Have Won Lasting Glory THESE STARS OF TiiE SKIES FIGURE BRILLIANTLY IN HUMANITY’S GREATEST DRAMA,}| STAGED ON BATTLEFIELDS OF FRANCE. WILLIAM A, Bishop, 24, =n! CHARLES > WILLIAM THAW, KUNGESSER: ——— AGE 24. . JEAN NAVARRE, AGE 23, 20 PLANES RAOUL LUFBERY, AGE 34, 1@ PLANES j Heat and Herrings Pretty Torrid—-Hens Are Laying Nothing But Hard Boiled Eggs—Rules State That 98 Degrees Is a Quorum on the Thermometer—Still, It Wasn’t Too Hot for the Raincoat Makers to Swindle Uncle Sam on His Cloth Contracts. By ARTHUR The New York Evening World.) AVING loitered around in the corridor for a few months, summer H finally eased by the office boy and flatwheeled right into the office, Although a month late In arriving, it made up for lost time by arriving six times on Monday and eleven times yesterday, It Got here with both feet and it didn’t wear rubber heels, Pretty torrid, Hens are laying nothing but hard dolled eggs. Mercury is flapping up around the attic of the thermometer and citi zens are wearing out their rear collar buttons from ogling the antics of the thin red line which tells us what the heat score is, Monday it was 92 degrees, plus six dozen assorted sizes and shapes of humidity, Tuesday it was 98 degrees, with no discount for wholesale customers, We don't want a thermometer to count the heat. We want aa adding machine. If it gets any hotter we will have to gallop around oll stoves to keep cool, Well, it is some relief to know that we swished the cuckoos up an hour, Summer will be cured that much quicker, Copyright, 1918, by Thy Press Publishing Co All the Kaiser wants {s all, Indicating that the dog In the manger was a dachshund, Law of averages shows that the Kaiser won't get much of an epl- taph after the Yanks pull his palace to pieces for watoh charms, Bis- marck was a twelye<ylinder cheater compared to Billhelm. Yet when Bizzy croaked, they named a herring after him. Which ratio makes Bill one-twelfth of a herring, Bill will get a monument all right, but only to hold him down, When he flattens out permanently on his imperial round-shouldered cadaver, we will put a ten-ton granite wart on his chin to hold him in place, Herrings and heat seem to be twin maladies, heat on herrings. And you can't blame the herrings on heat. But when the thermometer is Jack-on-thebeanstalking up around 100, every pocket seems to have a herring in St, Shaking hands with a fat man in July 4s like juggling a herring with five fingers instead of fins, Travelling in Mr, Shonts's fireless cooker is like being related to the herring’s lii' nephew—the sardine, Yea, bo! Still, might as well accept the nomination. It's bot, even if you You can’t blame the “BUGS”) BAER. | don’t admit it. | mometer., | Uncle Sam on his cloth contracts. ring who carries his patriotism in Rules state that 98 degrees {s a quorum on the ther Still, 1t wasn’t too hot for the raincoat makers to swindle A profiteer is another kind of her- his pocketbook. They say herring {s a brain food. May be so, but can't figure any- thing {s a brain food that hasn't got enough brains to lay off a worm on a bent pin, Think herrings should be hoove ered from the menu as enemy aliens, Don't want any Bismarck fish around when it’s hot enough to boil a potato on your yest buttons, player always wins, one-armed foodery, But poker is Janitor turns on the heat today, squirrels will get there first. conductor a frost bitten atckel. | perspiskating on Central Park Lake | himself to get cool. Same day last year, fair but earlier, TRAGEDY OF YOUTH. Mr, Molter was walking through the park one after- fy noon he noticed ed looking boy seated on one of the benches wit’: his chin resting in his hands, “What is the trouble, my boy?” queried the kind old gentleman | "1 wish 1 was rich,” waa the | answer. “What would you do with your money if you were rich?" asked | Holter, | “I'd buy a great big motor car, sir,” |answered the little chap, “so T could fly my kite outof the back of it with- lout running my legs off,”-—-Harper’s Magazing, ‘ SUEUR They go elbow in elbow, like hay fever and sneezing. Never did lke herrings. They have express!ons on their faces that aren’t of any use except in playing poker. A herring faced poker non-essential, like a high hat in a If the don't blow a police whistle. The Brooklyn passenger hands blonde Red ball up means there will be Man in Bronx gets warm fanning IAN HAY’S FATE, APT, IAN HAY, on one of his war lecture tours, entered a | barber's shop in a small town to have hair cut, | Stranger in town, sir? the bar- der asked, 8, 1 am," Ian Hay replied. “Any- hing going on here to-night?" “Thore's a war lecture by an Eng- |Ush fighter named Hay," said the barber; “but if you go, you'll have to stand, for every seat in the house is sold out.” “Well, now,” said Ian Hay, “isn't that provoking? It's always my luck to have to stand when that chap Hay leotures,"—London Opinion, i ya, \ WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1918 Of Daredevi Youth Is the Driving Force ls in the Air Now World-F amous as Aces D’Artagnans of the Clouds Are for the Most Part Mere Lads, Who Play the Game of War With Dashing Recklessness and Skill, Eagerly Risking the Supreme Stake—Sporting With Death, They Keep Up a Keen Rivalry in the Scores They Make Against German Machines and Are Ready to Fight at the Drop of a Hat. N his latest exploit of bringing down his fifty-sixth enemy airplane, that French ace of aces, Lieut. Rene Fonck, twenty-three, furnishes fresh evidence of the triumph of youth in the most daring, dangerous and fascinating game of war. } It 1g the devil-may-care spirit of youth that counts most of all with ‘these D'Artagnans of the air. Willing to take any chance, ready to fight at | the drop of a hat, they take on a peculiarly sportsmaniike aspect—in fact, jthey often lay wagers as to which of them will bag the greatest number | of Boches in one of their lifeanddeath flights. There is a keen rivalry, ‘among them, the sort of rivalry that is found in college athletes, ‘Their training has made them as, ———————— oe keen and quick and sensitive as the; hemer was wounded several times | machines that answer to their touch.) but he never lost his nerve. He at- |Immensely proud of thelr achieve-| tributed his success to waiting and |ments, they are withal so modest| Watching for an opportunity. Once |that it is dificult to get a word out) he was rescued by French eoldiers | of them. Boasting is not in the bright| When he fell with his machine into | importance, | fring |lexicon of their youth; they leave) no man’s land. that to the German flyers and find a quiet satisfaction in silencing it with | machine guns, We hear of them si |ting on the benches of their head-/ jquarters’ sheds like so many hotel} Be iihaps” waiting for orders and| | making room for a comrade who has'| a |Just dropped from the skies to make his report and then borrow a cigar- | ette, | But their recklessness ts balance just as their machines are balanced, by scientific principles. And their) |vision is clear and bright because| | they live in the morning of life. They | pring on nerves that are quick as a| steel trap, tempered by training and| |steadied by healthful living. A ciga-| |rette, as a rule, is their wildest dissi-| |pation, Let one of them stray Into} \the vineyard or the primrose path |while on leave and he may revurn to |pay for this digression with his life | an older head, that of the command- | ing officer ofa squadron, watches over his boys” with the care of a father, | "rt is the quicksilver of youth that runs through the list of famous aces. Among these young heroes of war aviation are many glorious names, |wirst of all is that of Fonck. This |wizard of the air started climbing linto the Germans with the advantage mechanical engi- lof having studied {neering for five ye He had also Jariven racing automobiles, It was he who avenged Capt. Georges Guyne- mer’s death by killing Wisseman after that German had boasted: ‘Now that Guynemer is dead, I fear | nothing more. Manoeuvring a machine is of first in Fonck’s opinion. Though a crack shot, he holds that is secondary to getting Into) rs, novice | position. He advises American avia-| tors to learn their machine and engine thoroughly before giving their attention to other things. But above all he urges: “Avoid all excesses and train as for a prize fight,” ad- ding: “Being trained to the top- notch 1g etter than trusting to luck.” It ts his luck to be the young- est officer of the Legion of Honor, and he also wears the War Cross and | the Military Medal. His greatest feat has been to fight eight German machines. A year ago he was unknown as an air fighter. To-day he is the champion ace of 1918, with a record of bringing dowo | six planes in one encounter. Idolized, above all other French atr- men, because of his dashing boldness, | was George Guynemer, who met the ‘tate he had foretold in an aerial bat- | ue in September last. He, like Fonck, | was twenty-three years ok. He had lbeen an invalid all his life, with a tendency toward tuberculosis, and he was rejected five times because of his |}health when he tried to enlist as a private in the French Army. Then he volunteered for work in an aeroplane factory, and there his work so Im- was permitted to enlist as a student aviator. He made his first flight as al sergeant In January, 1916, and in less | |than three weeks became an ace by bringing down his fifth enemy plane. | |He was made a lieutenant for rising \to the defense of a comrade battling with five German Fokkers and drop-} ping two of the enemy machines! within thirty seconds of each other, He was pursuing two more when a | shell tore away one wing of his plane. “{ felt myself dropping,” he said “1 was 10,000 feet to the earth, and, like a flash, I saw my own funeral, with my saddened comrades marching Dehind the gun carriage to the ceme- tery. Five thousand feet from the Jearth the wrecked machine began to turn somersaults, but I was strapped into the seat, Suddenly there was a tremendous crash, and when I recov- ered my senses I had been taken from the wreckage and was all right.” Before he became @ captain Guy- | preased the officers In charge that he| He had a way of laughing at death that made him a popular hero. When he marched in the Paris parade on the national hol- iday he was cheered by men, show- ered with flowers and kissed by wom- en. His picture is in nearly every French home, and hundreds of babies were named for him. He was offi- cially credited with defeating fifty- two German aviators. This master of the skies met his death in Flanders fighting against immense odds. Another boy wonder who was a rival of Guynemer when both were twenty, is Adjt. Jean Navarre, This jad, called “The Gypsy of the Air,” has been wounded many times, but he is still one of those who fly and fight alone, He has a twin brother, Pierre, who has likewise won fame in the clouds. Adjt. Jean Navarre has fought over forty battles and brought dewn a score of German machines. One day he was lying ill id bed with a fever. when he learned that enemy airmen were approaching his sector. He sprang up, got into his mono- plane and started in pursuit. He was a target for bullets from two machines, but he forced them to come down tn the Valley of the Marne and then returned to his sick bed. Major Raoul Lufbery was the great- est of American airmen and seventh on the list of French aces, with a rec- ord of eighteen German machines to his cred His history is one of bravery to inspire all fighting Am- ericans, He came to his death last ‘May, when he jumped from his flam- ing machine and fell In a flower gar- den after he had attacked a big Ger~ man triplane, Lufbery’s life was one of adven« ture. Though born in France, the son of a French mother and an American father, he lived as a boy in the little town of Wallingford, Conn, There he was a factory worker, but at the age of fifteen he left home and for several years roamed through Europe trying bis hand at one job after another. In French Indo-China he met Maro Pourpe, @ young French aviator who, was giving exhibitions there and be- came his mechanictan, The two friends went to France in 1914, where Lufbery enlisted in the Foreign Le- sion and was trained as an airplane | pilot. Two years later he brought down his first enemy plane. Absolutely fearless and possessed of the greatest skill in handling his ma~ chine, Lufbery, after avenging the death of his comrade, Pourpe, made himself a terror to German flyers, He went to the front with the American | Escadrille and was soon given the Military Meda! and the French Wer Cross, Lieut. Bert Hall, himself a courage- ous and skilled American aviator, has added a glowing tribute to the memory of “Luft,” as bis comrades a him, This eagle of the air wore the rfp- bon of the Legion of Honor on his breast when he was buried beneath the flowers of France. William Thaw of Pittsburgh, at the ave of twenty-five, has distin- guished himself by bringing down eight planes and won the coveted decoration of the Legion of Honor, After downing the unprecedented number of German airplanes, Major William A. Bishop of Toronto, twenty-four years old, has been transferred from the Canadian active force at the front the office of the British Chief of the Air Stam, One of the noted air hawks of France is Lieut, Charies Etienne Nungesser. At the age of twenty-four he is victor over thirty-four enemy machines and Paris knows him as “Prince of Pilots.” Dally the list of triumphs grows, and always in the roll of honor may be read the glorification of daumt- less intrepid youth, e