Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-11-13

Tense or in other newly formed
branches of the government have taken
houses in Washington, there to live
until the war is over. If these resi-
dence leasers thought they were to Sc
cure privacy and all the delights of
domestic life they We're mistaken. All
their friends who want to come TO
Washington and who have difficulty in
getting hotel accommodations natu-
rally turn to the new householder to
ask that they be allotted bed and
board.
1t is 40 miles to the city of Bal
timore and yet hundreds of Washing
ton workers commute" to Baltimore
and back, sleeping in the Monumental
city and working in the Capital city.
By the fastest trains it is an hour to
Baltimore, and therefore the commu-
tiers must spend two hours a day In
railroad travelling in order to meet the
requirements of their positions In the
capital.
OoeSnt Expect TO Relapse.
Washington does not believe it is
ever going to relapse into the old state
of quiet which characterized it in the
elder days of peace. 1t believes that
the government activities will be con-
tinued after the war to considerable
extent and that with a largely in
creased army and navy and PERTAINS
with universal military training in
stalled, there will be occupation here
for almost as many persons as are now
at the desk or at the workshop bench
within the walls of the town.
Therefore Washington is going ahead
with its building operations and other
activities necessary to take care of the
multitude. OF course it may be that
later on there will be slump and that
the city will feel the effects, but there
seems to be optimism here among men
who are given to a conservatism
which is only another name in their
case for caution.
De Polignac Comes to America.
The fiiers have come to town,
French, Italian and British, to re-en-
force the Americans who in this time
of war make the air through many
hours of the day their home.
AS a member of the contingent of
the aviatOrs of the Republic of France
there has come here one man in whom
the people of his own country take a
deep personal interest and in whom
the American people also probably
may take an interest when they learn
the facts concerning his efforts in
life. This man is Corporal de Polig
nae, not long ago promoted from the
grade of private, but who in civil life
is the Marquis de Polignac, the head
of French family whose history has
occupied a place in the annals of
France for many centuries.
The home of the Marquis de >Polig
nae is at Reims, a city which the Ger
mans have bOmbarded a thousand
times. The home of the marquis, his
business, properties, and what hurts
him more than all, perhaps, the insti-
tutions which he had created to be
models for the rest of France, are in
ruins. The German guns have worked
destruction.
De POlignac always was interested
in athletics. He was one of the rep
resentatives of the French at the great
international contests among the ath-
letes of all nations. He realized that
the French boys and girls We're not
getting the athletic instruction which
he believed was necessary for their
strength and their happiness. So it
was that he proposed to the French
government some years ago that phys
ical training should be introduced into
the schools. The plan at first was not
looked upon kindly.
The marquis decided that he would
start things himself. AT Reims he
created a park and into it he put all
kinds of athletic apparatus. He en-
plOyed thousands of WOrkmen in his
business and he threw open the park
to them in order thar they might have
a place of recreation which would take
them away from the temptations Of
the cabarets. The plan worked to per-
lection. The morale of the wOrkmen
and their families was improved great
ly.
Then De POlignac started with the
children. He studied American meth
DDS and soon had classes in athletics
composed of virtually all the children
of the Reims district. The French
government became interested, and
lust as the war broke out it had prom
ised the Marquis de Polignac that ath-
Ietic instruction would be started in
all the primary schools of France and
that the American playground system
would be introduced.
Plans Disrupted by the War.
Then on came the war. The Mar
quis de Polignac left his villa, his busi-
ness, his educational work and his
Fairgrounds and entered the French
army as private. He served side by
side with MS own workmen in all the
fights which took place between the
French and the Germans when the lat
ter invaded France. He fought from
the Belgian border back TO the Marine
and then when the French armies
struck back he followed, fighting with
his workmen regiment, and finally had
the satisfaction of re-entering his home
town with a victorious army. Since
then Reims has been in possession of
the French, but the Germans With
their heavy guns have been almost al
it's doors.
The French military authorities
made Marquis de Polignac corporal
and 1t is said he was much prouder of