Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-31
SHRAPNEL.
Sidelights on the War
OLIVER OWEN KUHN.

Discussing the kaiser. one-time
resident of Berlin who has FOUND
haven in Sweden says:
~ make bold to doubt whether
even the disasters which have already
hefallen and are yet to befall Ger
many have produced SO profound an
effect upon the emperor as the execra-
| ton which has gathered round the
German name. The emperor knows
that he is not feared. He is despised
J as a coxcomb, cursed as bloody
minded despot, but not feared. The
British and French soldiers sing
ribaid ditties about what they will DO
| with Bill; the Americans are all out
| to can the kaiser He is not. and
never will be, the DOGGY that Ma
poleon was. A babe in arms would
smile in bored fashion if a nurse at
| tempted to brighten it with the kaiser
! will get you if you don't be good.
There is more honest respect in Eng
land today for the humble German
private who dies fighting according
to his lights than for this sinister,
| livid-faced cripple with his everlast-
ing attitudinizihg the biblical allu-
sions borrowed from his grand
| fathers illusions in the Franco
| PruSSian war.
| Men aboard ship sometimes get
careless with their wearing apparel
and leave or hang it in unauthorized
places This is gathered up and at
certain periods the call SCRAP bag is
open on port battery is heard. The
/ men know that they then will have
chance to reclaim their lost belong
ings. but when they do so they must
surrender a piece of soap, which is
i in the nature of fine for their
carelessness. Articles of apparel not
| claimed usually are assigned to petty
J officers to be used in the cleaning or
the ship.
''War today is a young mans game.
| 1t is a war of youth and 1t takes
! youth to win,'' is a remark attributed
| to Field Marshal Haig.
! One Of the strangest adventures &C
| companying the business of flying
for allied armies on the western
front is dropping from a moving air
plane in Il parachute. one MEMBER
of a flying corps described it thus:
! VERY, very gingerly l threw one leg
| over the side, and then the other. The
pilot, from his secure and comfortable
| cockpit, grinned encouragement. we
! were speeding at ninety miles an hour
through still air.
! 81 shut my eyes and let go!
1
| n stone, and then I felt terrific tug
at the harness, which told me that the
parachute had left its casing. 1 could
4 feel the increasing strain on the mar
| swayed in wide, mad arcs in the empty
| air. The earth rushed upward: every
| thing happened with such terrific ra-
pidity that 1 hardly had time to- seize
Impressions, but one field in particular
| doomed up as if to engulf me. CAS- a
matter of fact, 1 landed nearly a quar-
| ter of a mile away from it,
| Il was fully supported now and
| dropping comparatively slowly. Bare
i Iy missing the tops of some big elms,
| came down with a bump, not nearly so
| hard as / had expected. Before I had
! time to get at the release the straining
parachute had dragged me off my feet
momentarily, but l pulled the cotter pin
| out and got clear, little shaken up,
but otherwise none the worse for my
fall of 500 feet"
! A trip through submarine danger
zones is fraught with many dangers,
! but is accompanied by many interesting
! features. The captains of cargo-carry-
i ing vessels are ordered about by con-
| voy masters as if they We're mere
privates in the Army or Navy, for the
| men of the war fleets guarding ocean
lanes know better what is best for the
captain than he does himself. Describ-
ing the vicissitudes of the average cap
! tain, one writer says:
| First. the authorities issued a min
/; ute on the use of running lights. Then
! they gave him new charts with pink
| triangles on them, where he mustn't go !;
they gave him a Morse signal lamp,
which somebody had to- learn how to
use. and they gave him bunker Of
| smokeless coal to fire up with in 'ex-
tremely dangerous Zones.'" Men-of-war,
! instead of giving him their wash, be-
| gan continually bobbing up at sea to
Inquire in a detached sort of way wheth-
er he was quite comfy. And about this
time they added half a crown day to
his pay, and all the papers suddenly
! discovered that he was, .Britain's hope
and pride-the mercantile marine And
from that time on, to Glib. or Genoa, or
Saloniki. or sometimes as far afield as
| Port Said and then home to England,
! he was passed from convoy to convoy,
, the senior escort officer delivering him
| and taking a receipt just as if he were a
parcel in the post Office