The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-06-17
ProinIIouineiinlgJ= War Names.

Prono,unein1glJ= Wa.
4 ss! adam Bede, the Minnesota Com
ttgressmrran has been a close student
/ fs of the war news since the Beginning
Eof the present conaict Naturally
the strain OF wrestling with Z ne FL Russ5
sian and japanese names has has been:
Iconsf derab1e. and he has evolved a
plan for Simplifying matters ssS
Folks are going to lose interest
| in this war he said TO friend the
other day, unless something is done
to make it. possible for US to talk
about it. With the Russians using
nothing but consonants, and the jap
anese putting their whole independ-s
ence on the novels, there's no use
in trying to talk intelligently about
the situation. The names of the
places and officers are worse than
the names of our sleeping cars.
Nov what l propose is that num-
bers be substituted for these awful
chunks of alphabet. Give the places
simple numbers, beginning with
yladivostok and calling it No. 1. and
running on through the less impor-
| tant towns and forts. Let the Off
GERS have numbers, with ] or r at
| tached as they are Japs or Russians.
The ships can be lettered. Then
news dispatch viii be reduced to IN
tellisent terms, and we can talk
about it. Under my improved sys-
tenn a report will read something
like this:
"'To-day the Japanese made a
combined assault by sea and land on
IA. The forces We're under the COM
mand of Admiral J, the army d1vl-
sion was led by Gen. 21 J. The garrison
at IA was commanded by Gen. 4 Z,
and the fleet in the harbor by wee
Admiral 27 R. Gen. ~21 was re-
pulsed with considerable loss.
| Among the officers killed were Gen.
"a r and Col. 81 r. Maj. 121 K is
also reported missing. In the ma
val action the Japs were more sue
cessful, sinking X, Y, T and w, and
damaging z. Capt "A r, of the V,
was killed. The japanese loss in
cluded A and B, while the smoke
stacks of D were carried away. Capt.
IS ] was killed on the G by shell
| Z l.
command of Lieut-Col. 275 R, broth
er-in-law of Grand Duke 80, who has
recently arrived from IS as an aide
de-camp to Field Marshal q
THE newspaper correspondents
confined in hospitals with lockjaw
from trying to pronounce the various
generals names have been dis
charged since the introduction of the
simple numerical Bede system
Stories Of Places.
A trader in ivory and rubber
writes as follows of sport on the Ku-
fue river, in Africa: Every morn
ing at daybreak we got up and
scanned the plains with our glasses
for game. Often our boys called us
first to say that a heard of water
sight, especially if the camp was out
of meat The river was full OF fish
-barbel, Dream, pike and tigar fish.
The Dream were by far the best eat
ing, but the tigar fish and big barbel
gave the best sport. Spoon bait,
with strong pike tackle and a stiff
bamboo rod, was all that was re-
quired, and trolling behind dugout
| DadQleu by NATIVES We Sould ''oci
| make a bag. The tiger fish fight
! gamely, and, breaking water repeat
| edly, very often succeed in shaking
the hook from their mouths. Bar
bel run up to eighty pounds weight,
| and q heavy one can tow canoe
along the surface at some speed.
Jerome Hart writes: 'In Jaffa and