Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1917-10-19

of the day, the count claimed TO have
ian inside tip" that mir. Lansing was
about to resign and as one of the cor
respondents who was present on that
occasion now puts it, "he sought to
have US print it for all that it was
worth"
II is perhaps tribute to the shrewd-
ness of most of those who were pres
ent that day TO say that all of them
except one had suspicion that the
German ambassador was trying to put
something over whieh would injure the
American secretary of state and there
fore the well-beiI>g of this country in
a critical time.
With one sole exception the news
paper men present refused TO print the
| "tir" One of them, however, did
frint 1t aud the res4;t was that il be
came necessary for Mr.. Lansing to IS
sue an official denial from the state de-
parment of any intention ON his part
TO resign. OF course when a story
like this is printed not everybody reads
the denial. 1t is hard TO overtake lie
with the truth and so 1t was that Won
Bernstorff partly succeeded in his de-
sign to stir up trouble for The admin
i6tration and, therefore, nj that criti-
cal time. for the American people.
Won Bernstorff found out generally
all that he wanted to know about what
government officials had said concern
ing this thing or that thing, for there
was no great attempt in those days to
hide things under a bushel. From the
German embassy there We're running
| many paths leading to places where in
| formation might be obtained. Into the
| German embassy went the gossip of
the day and out of the gossip Won
Bernstorff succeeded in getting many
golden grains of information.
Artists Learning Camouflage.
Every day recruits are coming
in for the battalion of American
artists, enlisted or commissioned as
part of the United States engi-
neers for the purpose of using brush.
color, and every ingenious artistic de-
| sign to fool the German enemy IN the
| lines in France.
The work which these soldier artists
do is called by the French camouflage,
which is an old slang word of the
| French stage intended to be descrip-
| tive of the makeup of the actors. In
| its military sense the term refers to
| the work of so concealing or Disgusting
an object that the enemy cannot
| recognize 1t for what 1t is.
The endeavor of the artist runs along
| lines like these: The enemy discOv-
ers when too late that peaceful rock
| is a death dealing gun; hedge not
grown by nature but constructed by
the artists, c0nceals a regiment;
sharp-shooter, after the artist gets
through with his uniform. coloring 1t
| here and there, melts so into the back
ground that the enemy cannot see him;
! that which appears to be a mound of
earth really may be a row of helmets
| with a rifleman behind each-and so
| the work of the camoufeurs runs.
| A company of artists now commits
stoned or enlisted as Company A,
Twenty-Fifth United States engineers,
! is encamped in the city of Washing
ton. A goodly gathering of artists,
sculptors, architects, civil engineers
and others who have won fame with
brush and ehisel, and many Of them
men who have earned large fortunes,
are now drilling and experimenting
in this camp at the capital. They must
be soldiers as well as artists for no
one who goes upon a foreign battle
| field in the uniform of the United
States is permitted to be there until
| he has learned how TO take care of
himself.
Some of Our camoufIeurs.
This company of artists which is 10
go abroad to fool the Germans by
making things seem what the- are
not" is commanded by Captain Nixon
| Miller, who for more than seven years
was a member of the Pennsylvania
| National Guard, and who was employ
ed as a civil engineer in the Panama
Canal construction.
A first lieutenant of the company is
Homer Saint-Gaudens a son of the
man generally acknowledged to be the
| greatest American sculptor. Lieu
tenant Saint -Gaudens is stage d.
rector of note. 1t was he who pro-
duced the wonderful effects and illu
sions in "Peter Pan" and other plays
which held the eye as well as the
mind The second lieutenant is VIII
! fred S. Conrow, the landscape painter.
The company contains many men of
the highest standing in their profess
sion. Fry is a pupil of MacMonnies,
dorado Taft and other distinguished
sculptors and like two others Of the
company, Faulkner and Harry Thrash
er, has taken the PriX de Rome.