The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1916-01-26
Won Hindenburq'S
Cousin At Wanda
Friedrich Benz, Redwood COup-
ty Citizen, Is Relative of Fam
; Gus Field Marshal
WISHED TO RETURN
Effort to Get Ticket for Father
land Fails; Interest in War
Never WeakeenS

In little room back of a pool
hall and lunch stand at Wanda,
Redwood county, there sits
rugged old man these days who
follows the European war as
closely perhaps as any person in
America.
Besides the few simple pieces
of furniture necessary for habi-
tation, and the memory valued
relics that man holds about
him past his SEVENTEEN year, a
map of Europe and a stubby
pencil are the most ESSENTIAL OBJ
jects in the room.
Each day, when the papers
arrive, things are pushed aside
and the map goes down on the
table and the aging man traces
the movements of the contend
ing armies.
It is a stronger tie than ma
tionality that causes the old man
to voice his pleasure at Won
Hindenburg's achievements, for
the gnarled old man who sits
and smokes in the back room of
the Wanda poolhall is Frederick
\ benz, blood cousin to the great
field marshall, and companion in
arms with "The Old Man of the
Lakes" in the Franco-Prussian
war Of 1870.
1t is a long tale that binds the
old world with the new, and runs
the gamut of patriotism, love,
homehunger and wanderlust,
want and comfortableness, youth
and old age, and hate that links
the old village character in Min
nesota to the greatest name war
has produced in Germany.
Paul Knows His Business
paul, he knows his business,
said Friedrich Benz, with the
justifable pride of a cousin. He
has been soldier always, and
he knew the lakes. How could
a Russ hope to beat him."
When the first news of the
great war that swept over Eu-
rope came to Wanda, the Ger
man colony there became as ex-
cited almost as village in
Prussia.
+ what can we do?" they Won
dered; but not Friedrich Benz.
/, He was a soldier. He would go
back. But not to fight. He was
too old for that, he knew; but
he was still man and able to
work, and Prussia was calling
her sons.
Into the office of a steamship
company in Minneapolis, on
Third street S, in the early days
of the first winter of the war he
made his way. He was STABILITY
clothed and shook with cold. His
face was deeply lined with the
toll and sorrows of his 70 years.
Pours Money on Counter
His hands trembled a bit as
he drew forth a leather bag and
poured it's contents of silver and
bills on the counter. He smiled
at the clerk and, pointing to the
pile, said in German:
\ ct is all there and it is to
Stake me to the Fatherland after
thirty-three years. | go back
once more. You give me ticket
and say how long it takes me
to get to Magdeburg."
Could Not Go Back
He was told everything would
be fixed; but it couldn't be. The
German consul said Friedrich
Benz. who wore three medals
his kaiser had given him fol
valor at Sedan and Gravelotte
\ and before Paris, would be use
~ less now. :.
When the old soldier was tole
that he could not realize his aopt
he sat down, rather dazed Fer
moment.
"But I will harm nobody" h
said in protesting German: g.
want only to go back and di'
with my old friends, in my iath
erland. And my cousin, he il
the greatest man in Germany to
day, next to the kaiser. @
"Who is your cousin" he wa
n asked.
"Von Hindenburg" he sait
proudly. General Paul Won Hin
denburg. He is my cousin.
The Striking Resemblance
The most characteristic re
CONTINUED on last paeal