Omaha daily bee., 1918-09-08

service emblem which The Bee carries in its
flagstaff. making 81 Altogether. These stars rep
resent one Of the finest groups contributed to
the countrys war work by any similar estab-
lishment-young men, alert, Intelligent, in
tensely loyal, There are two who have
earned commissions as captains, several lieu
tenants, and quite few non-commissioned
officers. They are in nearly all branches OF
the service; army, navy, and marines. They
are giving good account of themselves wher-
ever they are called and whatever duty is
assigned to them. They are perhaps not en-
titled to special credit any more than the hNn-
dreds of thousands of others, but they carry
with them the continued personal interest
of their former associates and fellow news
paper workers.
Someone has asked me where we got the
idea of printing our service flag in the paper
day by day and how we make sure it pre-
sents the precise number of stars, changing
with every new addition to the list. As to
the idea, the frank admission must be made
that it came from Minneapolis paper which
had adopted it, whether as an original or a
| borrowed device | do not know. At first
we had a drawing and cut made containing
stars in the exact number of our service men
and new one every time the number
changed. Studying the picture one day, the
thought suggested itself that this re-making
of the cut could be avoided by drawing a
flag containing as many stars as the frame
would hold and then through the process of
stereotyping and routing out regulate the
number of stars up to the maximum. The
next step was to have flag drawn and etched
with four full rows of II stars each, or 48
| altogether, and enough routed out to reduce
to &c. which was then the number. This per-
mtted gradual increase up to 48, which came
sooner than expected, and the present larger
cut was made containing "a, although as
already explained, only 81 OF them shine in
the printed service flag. If our service repre-
| sentation grows in excess of "a we will have
another and larger flag made.
An ancient but interesting document re-
Gently came into my possession, being a
copy OF the Carriers New Years Address
issued by The Bee for the year 1878 Old
time subscribers will remember that it used
to be the practice of the favored family
newspaper to send New Years greeting to the
subscribers through the delivery boys, who in
return for the souvenir were usually gener-
ously remembered by the readers whom they
served so faithfully in sunshiny and stormy
weather. This particular card of greeting
was turned up among some old papers and
brought to me by Mrs. Getzschmann and
the resume OF the years events which it
carries, captioned Retrospective" can read
lily be identified by its characteristic language
as the personal composition Of my father,
who had founded The Bee seven years before
This review / am here reproducing:
'The appointment of Nebraska's
Shakespeare to the consul generalshp at
Paris deprives The Bee of its machine
poet, and forces us, against our inclina,
ton. into commonplace prose.
THE year 1877 was ushered in amidst
the most discordant political din. The
| factional strife between Hitchcock and
his regulars" and the irregular volunteers
that rallied under the banner of anti-Hitch.
| The battle-ground was at Lincoln, where,
on January II, after two weeks desperate
| fighting, during which the regulars ex-
hausted all their ammunition, the cele-
brated Adams-O' Flanagan hand grenade
was exploded as last resort, and Alvin
SAUNDERS was declared entitled to the
capital prize. g.. -.-
While this desperate conflict was dis
tracing Nebras ka the rest of the country
was in distraction and distress over the
electoral miscount-Cronins nose, Eliza
Pinkston's palpitators. Gobble Grover, the
New Orleans octoroon ball. Chamberlain's
legislature, the Louisiana returning board
and Doctor Miler's patriotic appeals for
T:lden or "blud" On the fifth of March
this agoniZing suspense was relieved by
Rutherford's inaugural. And few days
later there was another rumpus about the
Cancellation cabinet, and Hayes uncivil
service order. To relieve the monotony
of the reconciliation war at Washington,
war was declared between the Russians
and the Turks to the undloyed satisfac-
ton of American gunsmiths, cartridge
factories and hoperaisers
Meantime Sitting Bull broke loose,
while his pierced-snouted brethren went
on the war-path, with General Howard
always 20 miles in the rear. And then
MacMahon put on his war paint and Or
gained signal defeat by sentencing Gam
BETA to Imprisonment. Just about the
time MacMahon was bulldozing the French
republicans, DR.. Miller asked Jay Gould
to bulldoze Omaha by threatening to re-
move the machine shops And while the
excitement was at its height a cyclone
swept over the Missouri river, reversed
the United States supreme court decision
about the Union Pacific terminus and put
an end to the machine shop scare. A few
weeks later terrific explosion was heard
near Mount Ararat, on the spot where
Noah's ark had stopped after the flood
Kars had fallen into the hands of the
Russians. Another explosion followed;
oSAioH dSSud anu MS army were prlS-
ocnerss and Plevna was in the hands OF the
Russians.
But we have put the cart before the
horse, we fear. and skipped altogether too
7 fast over the old year. While all these
bloody battles and bloodless squabbles
I, were going on, Omaha, full of its ener-
getic men and women, kept moving for
S ward on the high road to prosperity.
. Every month saw some enterprise begun
or some new house finished.
| And thus, while all the other towns