Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-07

TT YOUR adversary continues to laugh
L at you In a fight it is the part of wis
dom to wigwag for the lodge brothers or
your next Of kin. Some of the disrnay that
is spreading like an epidemic in Germany
may be explainable by this axiom. 1t may
be that the boche has been reading the
newspapers and periodicals Issued regu-
iarly by our soldiers in France Blithe
contempt for the enemy, gay good humor
and a disdain Of any passion so common
place as bitterness characterize the jour-
nalism of the American expeditionary
force. And some of the best humor OF
the war was written by reporters in khaki
who functioned light-heartedly amid the
fire and smoke of the recent Rheims.
Scissors advance for the Stars and Stripes.
the official journal of the 100000 soldiers
now abroad.
TINE Stars and Stripes. with staff that
l. works for the most part In or imme.
diately behind the lines, is without ques-
ton one of the bestedited newspapers in
the English language. The men who write
for ii write with ease. They have none
of the ponderous mannerisms which some
newspapers still cherish rass inheritances
from the sixties, when an editorial article
was deemed unworthy unless it resounded
like a speech. In the Stars and Stripes
not long ago the editors announced that
the big league baseball scores would no
longer be printed. This was at the time
when the men abroad were disgusted with
the eyasions Of some of the players on this
side. who were seemingly afraid of miliy
tary service. The soidier-editors para
graph wasn't abusive. 1t was quietly in
sulting. It had all the effect of a cigarette
butt Tipped into mans face.
TIME account in the Stars and Stripes
i of the part played by the American
troops in the recent drive is gayly written
1t reveals an unbelievable panorama Of
guns and smoke and moving cannon and
soldiers and a glittering welter of Huns
privates, colonels, majors. counts-moving
always backward to the prisoners cages
And to the writer's the boche, even the
boche in a coloners uniform, before whom
the ordinary Hun soldier would instantly
goose-step or click his heels, is never any
thing but funny.
TNOwARD the end of the vivid narrative
l. the unnamed soldier reporter writes:
l. You can never make a safe judgment
as TO the morale of an army from the
morale of prisoners. for when any man
falls into the hands OF an enemy he feels
as though the world were coming to an
end. So it Is quite humanity comprehensi-
BILE that when the mighty Count Won
Wendell gave stately recognition of the
fact that those Americans had surrounded
him he radiated the impression that the
war had either come to an end thereby or
might as well stop gracefully instead of
petering out.
The Count, who was formerly aide-de-
camp of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Ba-
varia and whom we found q lieutenant
colonel commanding the Third Bavaran
| Infantry had taken refuge In q quarry
along with 200 Germans Of various ranks
| His cave was surrounded early In the
| day and the unswerving Yankee infantry
| passed by, leaving only enough to guard
| the entrances to the quarry and take oc-
| casional pot shots into II. All day the in
vested 200 held out and then toward sun
down they surrendered. They did not
shout 'Kamerad Kamerad !" not they.
They surrendered in the good old-fash-
ionsd way, following fashion almost for
got In this death or glory war.
For At Aundown the Count sent outl
white nes, anq With. It formal nqte q
~ !. ~ q I'D, S2S1 15