The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-07-21
LAST NUMBER
IS DRAWN
Continued from page H.

eight year old son worried around
among the corridors all day long 10
see IL the son had been drawn. he
son bearing q large umbrella ana iooh-
ing worried. accompanied father.
The drawing proceeded sixteen
hours and twenty-eight minutes WITH
out more than few minutes time ouI
for changing blackboards and hunthns
lost pellets.
| 1t probably would have been gong
| yet if a newspaper man had not shs
gested to General Crowder reading
numbers as If they were telephone
numbers.
Sixteen Hour Grind.
[By George Martin, United Press
Staff Correspondent
ROOM 226, SENATE OFFICE
BUILDING, WASHINGTON, July II.
No stony-visage faro king at Monte
Carlo ever dealt more dispasslon-
ate game than Provost Marshal Gen
eral Crowder and his staff In their
great all day ana all night ganple
with the lives of ten million men.
faded and worn, they turned from
their task as cloudy dawn gathered
across the Potomac. Nor was the
sun far up when they met today 10
check UP the proceeds of their six
teen hours play.
Strewn with fragments OF the
broken pellets which told the fate OF
Americas boys, this history making
room this morning was wreck.
At the beginning it presented
never to be forgotten scene.
The great black boards with their
fateful digits blocked the far end or
the room in an inverted V.
Above them was a glittering crys-
tai chandelier, brilliantly lighted de
spite brilliant sun, pouring through
the cathedraled windows.
Beneath the chandelier, the long,
flat table where Crowder and his
men sat facing the number bowl, was
deserted.
Before this, on low mahogany
pedestal with four blocky, ebony legs,
sat the great glass jar. gaping and
empty, filched of it's capsuled secrets.
At this time yesterday that bowl was
the greatest mystery in the nation.
Beyond lay the tumble Of cha rs
where sat the personnel of house and
senate military affairs commit -ces
and to the right, across narrow
aisle, the long wide table where half
hundred members of the press
worked feverishly long, long hours
to tell the world the story Of what
had happened there.
Amid the debris, crumpled and
torn, reposed the film of heavy brown
paper which. nipped to the belled
mouth Of the globe, had held it's
secrets so close.
Beside 1t lay the tough white cord
and next to that, half hidden under
mass of scrubbed note sheets, the
wooden soup ladle which stirred the
ebony pellets in the bowl It's blade
was splintered and the thy rosette of
red. white and blue baby ribobn,
which chung so gayly to it's hilt at
| the drawing, was crump1ed and soiled.
That ladlei
| How many thousands Of men 1t
.scooped from the bottom to within
an ace of the first call, only to send
| them tumb1ing to the bottom again
| with another whirl Of its blade.
Vast and deep as some oaken-
doored room in castle OF Tuscany,
garishly decorated as the palace of
| wonders at village street fair this
great deserted drawing room" was
silent today, save for the whacking
of unmindful janitors' brooms against
| the baseboards.
Missing Number Found.
WASHINGTON, July 21.-Provost
Marshal General Crowder today an
nounced he had located the one
missing number in yesterdays draw
! ing-and with this, Americas great
lottery passed into history.
Checking UP on the sheets has
been completed and the official
lists, in printed and photographed
form, will be on their way to all
exemption boards before nightfall.
The great machinery Of calling the
country's young men for physical
/ examination, will be under way the
| first Of the week.
Where and how the missing num-
Der was located, was not disclosed
and Crowder said he could not recol-
lect what the missing number was.
With it's location, however, every
one went to bed and what number
was hidden in the yagrant pellet will
not be determined. until the officials
awaken.
The department of Justice is delv-
ing into every question touching upon
the appointment and work of exemp-
ton boards to see that absolutely no
charge Of Illegally may be brought
up against the draft
Some of the boards are getting
restless for money. They feel they
should be paid and quickly in view
of the high cost Of living.
Missing Number Was 1864.
WASHINGTON, July H. With the
location today of a inis ing number
in the great draft lottery, Provost
Marshal General Crowder notified
Secretary of War Baler that the first
step toward organizing Americas
armies is complete.
The missing number-4664--was
assigned to the 10,o04th place in the
drawing-the point at which blank
had been picked from the urn.
Crowder's report to Secretary