davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1915-06-20
MINIATURE TRAINS FOR USE
I'm TRENCHES OF THE ALLIES
kH ~ RGANIZATION of a position"
IL II and terms having a similar
purport are constantly re-

kH~ RGANIZATION of a position
IL u and terms having a similar
purport are constantly re-
curing even in the meager news that
comes from the fighting lines in west
ern Europe. When the French or Brit
ish capture German trench or a series
Of trenches, they Organize the posi-
tion." and when the Germans take
trench they also organize it. though
the phrase seems to appear more fire.
quently In French accounts than in ac-
counts from the German side.
When a German trench Is taken 1t
has, of course. been organized from the
German side. 1t Is co-ordinated with
the other defensive works. routes Tor
relief troops, reinforcements. reserves
and supply. When taken by the Frencn
or British, 1t must be reorganized from
the French or British point OF view.
Its rear must become its front, and its
former front its rear. and 1t must pc
coupled UP and co-ordinated with tne
older French or British posltions ena =
troops may have comparatively
ingress and egress ana tha' euppe
may be carried In. s..
One fact which illustrates the mgr
degree of organization in the trenches
and indicates the still hlgher uSsFee
or organization to which they viii pe
brought is the news peafinS no;r,et eturs
railroad trains, that will carry ammu-
milton right into the French and Brit-
ish trenches, are now under construc,
tion in this country ana Canaoa, anu
that more than 100 OF such trains 10
run on narrow gauge track. will be
ready for shipment within short time.
The little locomotives are being built
in Philadelphia, the miniature tracks In
Evening star., 1915-06-20

Johnstown, Pa, and the tiny cars IN a
foundry in Canada.
It has been given out in the news
that these trains. which will run on
track two feet in width. are expected to
be of great benefit to the allies in
trench warfare. that they will be SO
small that they can run in tunnels or
bitches near the firing line. unseen by
the enemy. right into the trenches. and
that they will be many times moro use
full than automobiles that cannot go
near the trenches and that cannot do
as efficient service by night as by day.
Each of these little engines will haul
a train of two fat cars loaded with am
munition. The locomotives have been
built on the lines of the standard
freight locomotives. but on such a re-
duced scale that they have the appear
ance of large and heavy toys. They
are so much smaller than the standard
that 1t has been necessary
TO finish and At the parts with ex-
treme care and skill.
The building OF the hat cars which
these miniature Moguls will pull and
push has also called for greater care
and nicely than would be demanded IN
the building of the standard size cars.
The steel rails have also been rolled
and the scale reduced proportionally to
the rolling stock and all the various
switches and connecting tracks are
worked out with great exactness by
experts.
This miniature railroad system Of the
French when the war Is over and it's
history written will probably be ap.
praised as one Of the picturesque and
original measures OF the great conhiots
Evening star., 1915-06-20
INDIANS OF THE CHACO.

The Indians also describe a monster
called the iguana-dog. The Indian
name is the u-juagua. They say 1t
does not live now, but the tradition is
that it had the head and tail of an aili-
gator and the body of a dog. They also
speak of bird with phosphorescent
feathers, and an ant-bear that is BIZ
sexual. I hear also of many curious
birds. One is said to so mesmerize
birds of other species that IL can kill
them without their making resistance.
The ypecaha, according to Hudson, the
naturalist, is a little bird that holds
public meetings and has dancing per-
formances. including concert in
which dozen or more will rush into
an open place and scream. raising their
long beaks as they do so.
And then the fish, The Chaco has
some that live in the waters and soma
that live in the mud. There is one CALL
ed the palometa, that grows to an enor-
nous size, and is said to now and then
bite at a bather. The country has also
the small piranha. which Theodore
Roosevelt describes as "a cannibal dsh
that eats men," The piranha is found in
the waters of the Paraguay. 1t grows
to a length of eighteen inches, and is,
if the stories told are correct. about
the most ferocious fish known to man.
1t will attack anything living, Will
tear wild fowl to pieces. and VIII even
attack cows and bite their udders as
they stand in the water. This fish has
teeth as sharp as a razor, and it's Jaw
has muscles SO strong as to drive the
teeth through flesh and bone.
The Chaco has poisonous snakes in
the forests and huge pythons in the
swamps. 1t has also small fish about
two inches long which sometimes drop
down with the rain, and fish OF eight or
ten inches that are found in the pools
formed by heavy downpours. 1t is be-
lieved that the latter fish come from
the mud and that they enter the water
only after a storm. In another letter I
will write of the Indians and tell how
they live. FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Evening star., 1915-06-20

Istrain peninsula. with Pola. The trip
from Trieste to Pola by rail requires
only little over four hours, but by
steamer the voyage takes six or eight
hours. The difference in time is de-
pendent upon the weather. At all sea-
sons of the year. but particularly in the
spring and fall, the violent wind known
Adriatic. plays havoc with the sea
traffic. The bora is said to blow from
four points of the compass at once, and
the natives declare that in the gulf of
Quarnero, which is hemmed in by lofty
mountains, the wind shifts many
ten times day. The bora often
blows so furiously that the crests of
the waves lashed by the wind in the
tortuous channels separating the net
work of islands below Pola and Fiume
along the shore rival in height those
encountered in a storm at sea.
The dreaded wind is born in the
mountains around Fiume. and sweep
ing down in terrific gusts from the
head of the gulf the cyclone often car
ries all before it. Even in the Ionian
sea, at the very end of the Adriatic.
hundreds of miles below. where the
Adriatic merges into the Mediterra-
mean, the effects of the tempestuous
sea are still encountered The writer
attic after a typical blow of two days
durat ton, found the sea still so rough
in the harbor of the Island of Corfu
that 1t was dangerous to attempt a
landing, although the Greek sky was
cloudless and the sun shining.
AS recently as the year 1873 the
BORA not only blew over many carts
and carried away buildings, but also
wrecked a train on one Of the dizzy
Evening star., 1915-06-20

the log and a great deal in extract. In
making the extract the wood is ground
into sawdust. and the tannln extracted
Two quebracho trees, Weighing ton,
will yield about 1900 pounds of ex-
tract. which will tan as much leather
as three or four tons of oak bark. The
extract is made into solid cakes, which
are reduced to a liquid as needed
rs there much money employed IN the
quebracho industry" l asked
Yes. the capital invested runs high
into the millions. We have one insti-
tuition known as the Forestal Land
Timber and Railroad Company that has
a capitalization of seven and one-half
million dollars. 1t owns in the Chaco
more than two million acres of forests
has four factories for making quebracho
extract, and uses something like a
quarter of a million tons of logs every
year. 1t supplies 100000 ties annually
to the South American railroads. That
company employs 10000 men in its lum
Der camps and factories and has some
thing like 10000 animals to get out the
logs and for other work. 1t has also
railways and steamships.
There are a half dozen large que
bracho companies in Paraguay, with
capitalizations ranging from quarter
of a million dollars upward. The
Puerta Sastre of Asuncion has almost
$2.000,000 capital, and the Rio de la
Plata Quebracho Company mas ABOUT
S500,000 invested. The quebracho for
ests sell for something like $4,000
square league. Some Of the lands be-
long to the government. and the pres
ent policy is to lease rather than to
sell them"
1 asked Mr.. Curran as to the intro
ductfon of American lumber into the
basin of The Plate He replied that the
most of the lumber now used in this
part of the world comes from the
United States. Some of it is shipped
from Puget sound and the Columbia
river around through the Strait of Ma
gellan, and some comes from New Eng
Evening star., 1915-06-20

The great amphitheater deserves all
the praise Sir Humphry Davy bestowed
upon IT, and although but seldom visit
ed by the average tourist. antiquarians
agree that it ranks both in proportions
and beauty of design with the world
famous Coliseum at Rome, of which it
Is almost a counterpart. 1t was built
toward the end of the first century and
in the first part of the second by En-
peror Septimus Severus and his son,
Caracalla. It is three stories in height
on the western side, being built against
hill on the east. In height the
amphiteheater is 79 feet. and 345 feet
in diameter, making it capable of seat
ing $4,000 spectators. While the in
terror of the historic building has been
robbed of It's tiers of ancient marble
seats to provide the victorious Vene-
tians with material for building their
palaces. the inclosure is in an excellent
state of preservation, showing two
rows of arches. seventy-two in all, one
above the other. each nineteen feet
high, while the third story contains
square window openings.
Thistles, green creepers and a riot OF
Evening star., 1915-06-20

feet, even those of the largest size.
The approach through the very mar
row and tortuous channel of Porto
delle Rose is said to be readily pro-
tected in war time by torpedoes, which
render it completely impassa BILE, while
extensive fortifications, detached forts
and innumerable batteries erected on
the islands and the heights render
Pola, it is believed, almost invulner-
able.
The arsenal at Pola is a large mod
ern building, not long completed,
and it is in every way completely up
to date. The extensive docks also are
modern and are the work of an in
genious American engineer, a young
Mr. Gilbert, who has acquired fame in
his profession for his ability in con-
structing a unique contrivance which,
by the power of hydraulic machinery,
raises the vessels into the slips
The Pola of today, Austria's great
naval base. with it's numerous fortifi-
cations. immense arsenal. spacious
docks, public parks. cathedral, museum
and other twentieth century features,
makes 1t difficult to realize her an
that the city is still dominated by the
magnificent remains of her wonderful
amphitheater.
Sir Humphry Davy. many years ago
writing of Pola. said:
we entered the harbor In a felucca
s the sun was setting. I know of no
sight more splendid than the amphi-
theater seen in this light from the sea
II appears not as a building in ruins,
but like newly erected work"
Evening star., 1915-06-20

Copyright. 1915, by FrarL G. CarpenterJ
ASUNCION, Paraguay.
q WRITE this morning of one of the
biggest blocks of unexplored land
known to the world. The territory
q has an area four or five times as
large as New England. and three times
that of New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania combined. There is
enough land in it to make seven states
the size of Ohio. five the size of Illinois
and almost forty as big as Massachu-
setts. It contains more than 100000
square miles, and If it could be lifted
up and spread over the United States
1t would hide almost one-tenth of our
country from the light of the sun.
This region is known the Gran
Chaco. Some of 1t belongs to Para
quay, some to Argentina, and it runs
over into Bolivia and Brazil. 1t ex-
tends for Ave or six hundred miles
along the western side of the Parana
and Paraguay rivers and runs back all
most to the foothills of the Andes. The
Paraguayan part of it is opposite where
/ am writing these notes, and it's cap
ital is Asuncion, where this letter is
dated.
The Gran Chaco is vast plain, the
most of which is less than a thousand
feet above the sea. 1t has some great
swamps and lagoons. and it is trav-
ersed by the Pilcomayo and Vermejo
rivers, each of which rises in Bolivia.
and, crossing the Chaco, enters the
Paraguay. The Pilcomayo is about
1900 miles long. and the Vermejo 500.
Attempts have been made to explore
both rivers, with a view to opening a
route to Bolivia, but without success.
Evening star., 1915-06-20
A PARAGJAYAN PINE.

Both streams are crooked and shallow
and obstructed by sand bars. There
are small boats on the Pilcomayo. and
navigation is being opened up on the
Nermejo. on account of the lumber
interests and plantations along it's
banks. 1t is now possible to go several
hundred miles up the Vermejo, and
small steamboats,, which have a speed
of about seven miles an hour, travel
upon it. The boats are fitted with
ca bins and are lighted by electricity.
They do not move during the night.
The Chaco in general is we'll watered,
although some parts are semi-arid. 1t
has millions of acres of uplands COW
cred with grass, and undeveloped forests
of large extent. The only part of the
country that is now being brought into
use is the Argentine Chaco and some
spots here and there in the Paraguayan
Chaco. The Argentine Chaco, which is
as big as Illinois. has a population
of about $4,000 whites 1t has some
large estates and it's ranches have
more than half million cattle, $4,000
horses. 10000 sheep and 5000 goats. 1t
has something like $4,000 acres in corn
and 5000 acres in sugar cane. There
are no stock statistics of the Para
guayan Chaco, and none as to the lands
which extend across into Bolivia and
Brazil. 1t is known, however, that
the soil is generally fertile. and that
1t will raise corn, sugar cane, toba eco
and cotton. Some cotton has already
been planted in the far south. The seed
came from the United States, and the
product is of superior quality.
AS to the pasture lands Of the Chaco,
they are large enough to fill the meat
baskets of millions. The regions that
have been explored have shown vast
plains covered with rich grass, and in
wild In the northern part of the Para
guayan Chaco are the ranches belong
ing to the Americans, of which Tex
Rickard is the managing director.
Evening star., 1915-06-20

fragrant herbs have long run riot over
the deserted arena, but the exquisite
view through the arches of the amphl-
theater of the blue sea dotted with
islands. lofty promontories and olive
clad hills, is one of striking beauty,
long remembered by those fortunate
enough to see it. The very size OF the
splendid old antiquity. it is feared.
will at this time lead to its destruction
as it is known to be one Of the great
landmarks easily locating Pola for the
rading airmen's bombs.
Another famous antiquity in Pola is
the Temple of Augustus and Roma. ad-
joining the Municipio. 1t has beauti-
full corinthian portico upheld by six
columns twenty-three feet high. with an
ornamental frieze in an excellent state Of
preservation. The inscription originally
upon the temple has been gathered from
the position Of the holes which secured
the ancient letters to the wall. The temple
was dedicated to Augustus during his
lifetime, but it is narrated that he
modestly insisted that the word Rome
be added to the inscription
Within the temple is a heterogeneous
Evening star., 1915-06-20

land and our southern states. The cost
of getting out the native woods is such
that this can be done at a profit The
lumber comes in shiploads of two or
three million feet. 1t is landed at Bue-
nos Aires and thence exported to all
parts of the country. Our common
pine sells for about 10 cents a foot,
oak brings Il cents, and other wood
in proportion. These prices are
less than those at which the native
woods can be sold. One reason for the
high cost of the native timber is the
lack of railroads, and another the
primitive methods of getting the timber
to the market. Many Of the logs are
hauled by animals on carts to the
streams, and thence shipped on boats
to the market. The axes used are of
a we'll known New England make. The
handles are of hickory. They also come
from the United States
In some places the lumber is sawed
out by hand. In this case the log is
propped up and one man stands on the
top of it while another is below. Some
of the trees are very crooked, and 1t
is almost impossible to get straight
boards from them.
I find great difference of opinion here
as to the future of the Chaco. Some say
that the country has so much swamp
that it cannot be valuab BILE, but others
describe vast tracts of lowlands COW
cred with grass and of highlands that
can be turned into farms There is no
doubt that the Argentine Chaco has
some excellent soil. and it is known
that the lands nearer Bolivia are fitted
for grazing and farming. The Ameri-
cans who have settled in the northern
part of the Paraguay Chaco are enthu-
siastic as to the fertility fthe soil. In
recent interview TEX" Rickard says
that family can easily be supported
on ten acres of land. He declares that
bananas. oranges and pineapples grow
with but slight cultivation, and that
Evening star., 1915-06-20

used for paving blocks. large part Of
Buenos Aires is paved with it. This tree
grows only about thirty feet high. and
the common log is not more than three
or four feet long, although it may be
thirty inches in diameter The lapacho
is another hard wood. 1t has much the
same properties as hickory and can be
used for spokes and wagon rims and for
grain and takes fine polish. We have a
red cedar which grows largely In Para
quay. 1t is used for cigar boxes We have
also woods that are fitted for pulp. We have
altogether five hundred different kinds
or species of woods. but so far the only
one that has been of great commercial
profit has been the quebracho.'
Tell me something about the quebracho
industry" said I.
The quebracho is one Of the most
valuable woods of the world" said Mr.
Curran. 1T is used for railroad ties
fence posts and telegraph poles, and more
than anything else for tanning and to
make tannin extracts. Nearly all OF the
with quebracho. 1t gives the leather
finer color than can be gotten from any
other tanning material, and is now used
in most parts of Europe
Where is the tree found?'
ut is scattered throughout the forests
of the Chaco.' was the reply. "A forest
of quebracho looks somewhat like forest
of oak. The trees grow upon the level
lands and upon those which are over
flowed for a part of the year Quebracho
is exceedingly hard. 1t will turn the edge
of an ak, and. in fact. the word quebracho
means AK breaker When used for rail-
road ties holes have to be bored for the
spikes, for they cannot be driven in as
is done with some Of the ties in our coun-
try.
The quebracho trees are cut down in
the forests and carried on narrow
gauge railways to the ports or the fac
tories where the extract is made. A
great deal of the wood is exported in
Evening star., 1915-06-20
TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS, POLA.

collection of Roman antiquities. prin..
cipally architectural debris, parts OF
columns and marbles bearing frag-
mentary inscriptions which lose much
OF their value from being unclasslned
In the ancient wall of the town.
which was known as Pietas Julia, Au-
gustus having dedicated the city to
his daughter. excavations have brought
to light two old gateways. One is known
cules. from the fact that a huge head
and club were discovered adjoining the
keystone. The other 10 the Porta Gem
ina, the entrance to the ancient Roman
Evening star., 1915-06-20
An Unexploree1 Empire in Heart Of South

The Gran Chaco Continent Be Opened Frank c. CentA Ter
-Four Times Large New England With Pastures Farm Lands and FoA
Owned RaIoadGreat and the
Qubacho- Being Eoed-A
the Couds.
Evening star., 1915-06-20

capitol believed to have been erected
about the year $50 A. D. The site Of
the capitol has been occupied since the
seventeenth century by a castle built
for its beautiful view. but visitors are
rarely admitted to the castle. They
must content themselves with tho view
from the grounds below.
X
In times Of peace the Austrian-Hun-
garian Lloyd line of steamers connect
Trieste, Austria's principal seaport and
thriving business city at the top OF the
Evening star., 1915-06-20

some kafflr corn will yield twice as
much as in America. He says that hogs
thrive. They begin breeding at a year
old. and feed themselves until they
are ready for market.
The climate of the Chaco is described
as being healthy and agreeable. 1t is
tropical, but on the warmest days there
is a light breeze from the south which
makes the summer nights fresh. The
winters are pleasant. There is but
little frost and 1t never SHOWS.
On the other hand, some say that the
Chaco is all that is bad. John Foster
Fraser declares when our ancestors
invented hell they had no knowledge
of the Chaco." He says that it is all
swamp and forest, mosquitoes and fe-
yer, and in addition there are Indians
who will put a spear into the back of
the white man whenever they can get
a chance. There are about 100000 In
dians in the Chaco and among them
some of the widest tribes of the con-
tinent.
AS to the wild animals Of the Chaco,
they consist of alligators. jaguars. ta-
pirs and peccaries or wild hogs. From
a book given me by the state depart
ment of Paraguay I have descriptions
of certain traditional beasts and birds
that are unknown to natural history.
One is the dog-snake, which the In
dians say has a head like dog and a
cry like a puppy. The end of its tail is
hooked in order that it may hold its
prey more securely. This creature is
said to exist in the Great Laguna 1bere
in the Argentine and in parts of the
Chaco
Evening star., 1915-06-20

Austrian for Italian Aead
quarters Her Hold Venice 185OThe
Modern Arsenal Extensive Doc-Pubhc
Ahtheat Seldom Visited by Other
Famou