Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1912-02-01

Ndn Ouo OF Mr. OObetSil oiu1s ~
now he is engaged in engineering
work during a large part OF the day
at Washington barracks. Young Lee
once drilled a troop OF cavalry over at
Fort Myer when the president had
no need of his services. and the other
officers. past and present, did and do
things pertaining to their military
calling when they are not in the midst
of things social.
Bunch of Officers Ordered Away.
Recently an order was issued send
ing away from Washington twenty
i've army officers who had been serv-
ing here four years or more. The
highest ranking officer who received
orders was Brigadier General Wother-
spoon. who for sometime has been
head OF the war college. He Will go
to take command Of a southern de-
partment. General Wotherspoon has
been in Washington for a long time
and so have all the other officers who
with him will take up the march.
Now 1t must not be supposed that
all OF these officers will bemoan their
fate. The bemoaning will be on the
part of their wives and daughters.
who prefer Connecticut avenue as a
promenade and the White House and
cabinet drawing rooms for afternoon
teas and receptions, to the gravel
walk bordering the drill ground and
the small parlors of army quarters for
walking and social functions. The
ladies love Washington and many an
old campaigner has been induced to
get a transfer to this city by the i'm
p~ortunities of his wife or his daugh-
ter, for in many cases army wives
and daughters are the real command
ing officers when it comes to domes-
ti1 affairs.
1t has often been said that Wash
ington has killed more soldiers than
the battlefield, particularly older SOL
diers who after years Of campaigning
and regular life in the open find that
a diet of chicken salad and lobster q
la Newberg. and postponement OF the
sound of taps until long after mid
night, have not been conducive to
health. Many OF the old ones want to
change the office chair for the saddle
and to get back to beef and coffee
as mainstays of food and drink.
There are a few ranking army off,
GERS, however, who. knowing the de-
bilitating Influences of Washington
| life, have made up their minds that
they will get their exercise somewhere
away from the dancing floor and so
they have Joined the country clubs.
where they play golf and follow the
ball as s~trenuously as they ever fol-
lowed the Indian on the western war
path or the bolo man through the rice
jungles of the Philippines.
Sponsors Are Amusing.
A few weeks ago, as was duly
published in the press because OF
this human interest of the occur
renee, the Society Of Naval Spon-
sors, composed Of young women and
women not SO young, who have chris
tened vessels of Uncle Sans navy.
objected to allowing a young Michigan
woman to enter the organization be-
cause the ship which she had chris
tened was a collier and not a war yes
sci. They drew the line at coal, but
why they did no one understood be-
cause the collier Is just as essential
to the success of a feet in a fight as
is the battleship which 1t supplies
with the means of locomotion. light
ing and gun fire.
Everybody thought when the So
ciety was formed that 1t was to be q
democratic affair. Some people have
changed their minds. Washington
was somewhat amused. quietly at
least, when the Society of Naval Spon-
sors was formed. 1t is a sort of a
halfway patriotic, halfway social or
ganization. and it is prepared SEEM
ingly to do its duty at the call, but
no one yet has found out what its
duty is to be.
Can't Help Being National.
One thing is certain. the Naval
Sponsors society is thoroughly ma
tional. The governments policy being
to name Its b~attleships and its
cruisers for states and cities. it be.
comes certain that eventually there
will be representatives in the or
ganization from all parts OF the Union.
This condition will come because 1t
is the rule inviolate to ask some n
tive daughter OF a state or city to
christen the ship which bears the
state or city's name. and the member.
ship in the society Is made up Of the
women and girls who have broken the
bottle on the PROV Of the ships aa
they have gone down to their launch.
ings.
Mrs. John G.. South OF Frankfort,
KY, Is a member of the society. Some
people think she ought to be It's pres
ident, for she is the only member of
the organization who did not break
a bottle of champagne on a vessels
PROV. Mrs. South christened the bat
tleship Kentucky and she christened
It with water drawn from the spring
on the farm on which Abraham Lin
coin was born.
Water was not the only beverage
used at the christening, for several
Kentuckians, who stood at the boats
side as she went sliding into the wa
ter, threw bottles containing whisky
against her armor and baptized her
with something stronger even than
! champagne.
mons. One day the colonel Of militia