The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-12-20
Only Ono OF Them Felt the Effect Of
Russian Shells While tho
Bomhardment
Was On.
BOILING THE WATEI
shepherd and Other Correspondents
Use Hot Water From locomo-
tives to Take Morn
Ing Bath.
by William G. Shepherd, United

LBy William G.. Shepherd, United
Press Staff Correspondent
PRzEMYSL, Oct 2S.-(By mail to
New York. )-The Russian guns have
teen booming all night, so have the
austrian guns. 1t just happens that
the guns in the Austrian forts have
a longer range than any OF the Rus
sian artillery pieces and so far the
army Of the car has made little I'M
preston on the Przernysl forts. Only
one fort has been damaged in any
way.
But while the battle Is going on out,
side the city there is plenty to oc-
cupy ones time inside the fortAica-
tions. For instance, getting up In the
morning Is no ordinary JOB. FIRST
there's the water to boil for washing
and tooth brushing. You don't trust
anybody to boil your water for you.
You want to know. OF. your own know
ledge, that the water you used mao
been cooked until every germ IN 1t is
dead Otherwise the one little cholera
germ who Ia marked to finish you
may find its way onto your lips an0
into your system and put you in your
grave, so the first thing to do In the
morning is to light your vapor lamp
put the water on 1t and crawl back
into your sleeping sack to wait for
the water to sing There Is big
coffee house in Przemysl where we
have breakfast. The town has long
been a garrison and this good coffee
house has been maintained by the
trade OF officers and soldiers for many
years. You go to the coffee housa ana
among the hundred Or more ofhcers
there you find the members OF your
party-the newspaper sob sister,
who thinks she's doing newspaper
work as man would do it, but who.
in reality gains endless pains with
the chivalrous Austrians and Hungar-
ians because she Is woman; the
Italian journalist who has nothing TO
cook with but lots OF toilet articles;
the Swiss journalist, who Is always
complaining of his food; the New
York correspondents who is always
figuring out by his watch what time
it is in New York; the celebrated
German journalist from Berlin, VINO
is also fighting man, and last, but
not least Helzen, from Denmark VINO
has lust finished a trip around the
world in a gasoline driven boat and
who stopped off at Frisco long enough
TO learn "Alexanders Rag Time Band
and how to tango
Coffee and bread; that's breakfast.
There arc no eggs. Butter you must
NOT eat; cholera. Bacon and ham;
NIGHT.
We all lapse from breakfast into
uniting and were well into our day
stora before the kellner has cleared
away the coffee cups and bread plates.
.I'm writing about boilec' water"
HELEN has just told me. One para
graph which he has written In Dan
ish he translated for me. Here 1t Is:
But of all the difficulty we have in
getting boiled water, the greatest was
during the days our party travelled on
the train Shepherd had his oil stove
and he used to boil water for washing
but one day, had happy thought.
WHY not go ahead to the engine as
soon as the train stops and ask the
engineer to give us some boiled wat
err I suggested. so, at the next stop
we ran ahead with out towels and
soap and stood under the engineers
window and yelled 'wasser lite The
engineer showed his face out of the
window. smiled, reached in and turn
ed a valve and the next moment
blast of white hot steam came rush
Ing out from among the wheels of the
engine Then the steam stopped and
boiling hot water come from the pipe
We dashed our hands into it and, In
spite of its holiness we got our hands,
faces and teeth antiseptcaliy clean
And after that Shepherd put away
his stove and used to be first to reach
the engine in the mornings. Heizen
is right. That's what happened.
JeIlinck. one Of the sub-oficers who
is part of our escort, made a terrific
noise in his room last night. At break
fast he told me about it. huge rat
had been running around mis- room
and he got tired OF the noise, where
upon he took his sabre and slashed
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