davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
Rent PrOfteering

To the Editor of the Evening Public Ledger
Sir-A few days ago my wife and !, after
careful consideration, decided that We could
afford to buy just one $50 Liberty Bond on
the '$l-a-week plan. We thought that as
am too old to go to the front or be OF use
elsewhere that it was our duty to aid in the
grand work for human liberty and that such
duty could be best performed by purchasing
a bond, however small.
This morning l received a curt note from
my landlord increasing the rent IS month
As I see no way out of II. l must accept his
terms, but to do so l must give up all idea
of buying that Bond
Now | ask you is not that man deliberately
blocking the good and patriotic work OF
prosecuting this war to the bitter endy Ihe
rent | now pay is, if anything, entirely 100
much, so that the proposed increase IS
profiteering of the most Objectionable brand
if not downright robbery
A WORKING MAN
Philadelphia, April 10.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
The Great Mystery

A MAGAZINE writer who went to inter-
a view a statesman in Washington says
he found him enveloped in an atmosphere
of considerable mystery.
The only mystery about him, poor man,
was that he was trying to do some work.
Any man who is working has to surround
himself with an air of mystery, Because
it is a universal human passion, when one
sees a man hard at work, to go and hang
around him and breathe on his neck
People collect around him like holes in a
sock; they like to ask how he does it, and
get him to tell them all about it. Every.
bory who has nothing to do hates like
thunder to see anybody else working.
So just remember, every time you see
a man working go and bust up that en-
velope of mystery. Tell every one else to
go up there and have look at him. If
you leave him alone he might get some
thing done.
great many persons find work a mys-
tery--a mystery so appalling that they
never attempt to solve II.
Fred Myers sent us a thrift card with
a perfectly good thrift stamp stuck on IL.
He did the same TO four other persons,
and each beneficiary was to repeat the
stunt to five Of his friends, thus starting
an endless chain of thrift cards.
Our first thought was TO soak OFF the
stamp and put it on one OF our own cards,
but Fred had stuck 1t on so tight that we
determined 70 be good sport and follow
out his Instructions
That idea Of Fred's 3 good one. Start
Il among your friends SOCRATES
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
What Do You Know?
QUIZ

QUIZ
I. Identify "L'AiglOn."
2. Which American river Is called "the rams
3. Name the author Of "Thanatopsls." -.
4. What Is meant by the Theory OF eNoluho"
3. Which Is the chief port and cOmmercih q"
of the German Empire?
0. What is a standard fruit free?
!. What Is a bridgehead?
3. When was the battle Of WaterlOO' -.
0. Who Is 1.-the the new British Secretary oil ''''
10. Who is Count Wekerle?
Answers to Saturdays Quiz
1. MaryIend yps founded by George cai''"'
0 Rc-4' -,,''q o4".-o 90 Tm~-t.- 10 s'.HR."s -
Liberty Island, formerly Bedloe's isi'H''
~. -',H I-s" 'iaiDVa' -. AZ
3. ''IOcate" Il correctly used In the senssg,tf N,
"situatIOn or '.pOsitiOn" or 'plaeessnlSS ar
incorrectly, in the sense Of "hna"S
''di di,eOver." ,mss
(. ''The spy" one Of the early novel;, noVsi,Sd oI 'A'-'
5. The closing date for payment Of Income 'A-
Is June 10. q,
Q. Mississippi Is called ''the Bayou state.
!. Messines RldEei an Important elevate. =.
tegie petition In the Armehueres yhs
8. The Crusaders; medieval eampaisnt,hhs * Iss.
sought 90 retake Jerusalem from VIZ 1nsoi1rer
lens, Among the most n0iee " Il ifan. % King
q Benllloni Richard GSeuT aus s Kns q
France. 80 ,...ssa.
o. The Earl Of Derby has been made ,..ssls A@1ls'' e
dor Extra9EdlnarE, Of - erSss, ss.mer pcsi y
Seeretary of State for War. -.
40. Orntasioi an eiahornts ,nusieel art.L,r. .'I'
..l,nr Y sole: es.ssE'ss ..ts.s,s sao H
a&sil;S, ';ai'.''i'R' 'a''...'isR z = : 's' 'sss';@s's' '
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
SECRET SERVICE FACTS

VXTHOEVER thinks that the United States
" Secret Service is ignorant of German
plots is lacking in knowledge. The Secret
Service has been OH the job from the be-
ginning. During the last two years of
Bernstorfr's period of service in Wash
lington a Government detective was his
ronhdentiaI valet What the German am
bassador did was reported to headquarters.
Other German agents and sympathizers
are under constant surveillance. We know
what they are doing and when the time
is ripe they will be arrested 1t is some
times wiser to let them play their game
and TO Illustrate II In order 10 discover how
many persons are implicated with them.
The story Of what has actually been
dome Is more fascinating than any fiction
that has been produced or can be produced
ny the writer's OF detective stories. William
n FlHpn. who until recent months was the
hfR1 Of the Secret Service. has obtained
.0|ssion 10 tell some Of the things that
41.ned, His lrst article. dealing with
|.& 0'o| Ior tbf sinking q the Lusltania,
...|E4 A. PA neTepaper on saltr4ag'
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

COON after the strikes broke out all the
Ammunition factories in Germany were placed
under military management, and the work.
ers, the women well as the men, subjected
to military discipline and ordered by the
officers put in command Of them to resume
work at once. Some of the workers refused
and stubbornly persisted in striking. Num-
berS of these mutineers are being sentenced
daily by military courts to terms of imprison-
ment varying from three months to two years.
Two women workers who had encouraged
other women in a muntion plant at Tempel-
hof, near Berlin, TO persevere in the strike
were each sent to Jail for two years. This
military control over the workers i'm the mu-
milton factories, which reduces them without
distinction even of sex to recruits subject to
military discipline and military penalties in
case of characterization" seems likely to
become permanent institution in Germany
for It has not yet been abolished, although
the strikes have been over for a long time.
The strike leaders unfortunate enough to
fall into the clutches of the military authori-
ties are naturally being dealt with stnl more
severely than the ordinary strikers In Mu-
mich journalist, young university student,
and Red Cross nurse, who were accused
Of having helped TO organize the strikes in
the Bavartan capital were sentenced to
terms of penal servtude from three TO five
years. The wife of one of the Elbing city
councillors will have TO spend three years
in a Prussian penitentiary because she led
pouy Oh IloleIs IN a street demonstration
in this well-known manufacturing town on
the Beltic, where most of the German tor
pedo5oats and many submarines are built
The military court in Stettin sentenced the
local Socialist leader, August Horn, to five
years and three months penal servitude
However, the military courts In the Prussian
province OF Posen undoubtedly hold the rec
ord for pitiless severity: A Polish Socialist
by the name Of Jarmulowiez was sentenced
by court-martial In czenstochau 10 ten years
'zuchthaus because he had made a speech
melting tho miners n this great mining dis
ui1t 70 Hvike and oieobey the ohtrs Of the
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

Special Correspondence Ercnng Public Lcdocr
Berne, March 80.
MANY German eXiles here in Switzerland
lfl believe the day is not far distant when
the Kaiser will be forced by the Prussian
JunlIers to appoint General Ludendorn, Hin
denburg's chief of staff, Chancellor Of the
German empire William IL will not do this
willingly, for he is jealous of the military
renown of his generals. But since Prussian
militarism successfully Cowed the Russian
Socialists into signing the most ignominious
peace treaty in history the general staff and
the Pan-Germans are omnipotent in Ger
many. Vastly ested by this triumph of their
brutal methods of diplomacy. they plan to
apply them also in western Europe.
Virtually Ludendorff already rules Ger
many, so the change will be scarcely notice
able He has completely ecpsed his chief,
Hindenburg, who long ago eclipsed the kai-
SER lie is, like Won Trpitz politician,
although it was formerly Il German boast
that politics played no part in the army.
Even less known than Hindenburg in Ger
many before the war, he is a typical repre-
sentative of the Prussan military Junker
caste: poor, proud and ambitious, His mill
tary talents are undoubted. Politically he Is,
of course, an advocate of extreme military
autocracy.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
TODAY'S USELESS QUESTION

When you buy a pair of shoes why
does the salesman put in the laces IN
such a perverted and Bolshevik way
that every time you wear those shoes
one end of the lace gets longer than
the other, and after week of futile
effort you have to take them out ana
rethread them?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

ALSO, what has become of the jewsharp?
"a Every boy used to attempt, at some time
i'm his career. to master this instrument
Possibly few succeeded At least, they
made noises. Personally /. could never even
make a noise but ! tried. I also tried to
play the harTnonica I could make as much
Noise on that as the next fellow. but the
tune cluded me. I used to practice TIL the
corners OF my mouth were CallOuscd--but in
vain. Not so Sally Plummer. She was a
pretty, self-posseSsed person of eleven, who
stood on the platform every day beside the
teacher. ana setting her harmonica between
her rosebud lips blew the martial strains to
which we marched out of school for the day
She was supposed, | believe. TO have great
musical career ahead Of her; but at thirteen
she left town, and what blighted her am
bitions in the bud / cannot say. I only
know ] have not encountered her name on
the concert programs.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

The mills Of the gods grind slow, but
they grind exceeding small The Mills of
the Police Department, while following the
precedent in other respects, is expected TO
snepd things uD.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
TRUTH COMING TO LIGHT

THE general sense of Prince Lichnow'
l. sky's charges against the German Gov
ernment had been made known in cable
dispatches from abroad, but now that his
memoir is printed in full for the first time,
Il constitutes in every paragraph an unan-
swerable revelation of Berlin's RESPONSE
bility for the world calamity. 1t is rein
forced by the words of Doctor Muehon,
which have also just come to light
1t is instructive to note the source of
these confessions. Are they from ire.
sponsble enemies Of Germany, actuated by
passion or prejudice? No, they come from
the former German Ambassador in Lon
don and from an exdirector of the Krupp
corporation. If we had been asked to
choose what kind of testimony we would
like to see, TO confute Prussianism out of
its own belly, we could not have hoped for
more shining fortune. Truly, when Krupp
director sickens Of the military clique who
rule Germany there is hope for the future
In the end, truth beareth away the VIC
tory"
One has nothing but admiration and re-
spect for Prince Lichnowsky. The world
Will NlOoSlJ iOAS anu Aoilb iNAllNillbtl WIldA
he says. He is an experienced student Of
political affairs, particularly in matters
concerning the sinister and tragic role
Austria has always played in European
history. Before his appointment as Am
basador i'm London he had been in quiet
retirement at his country estate since
serving i'm the Vienna embassy thirteen
years before. His memorandum, written
for his private archives, tells the story of
his twenty-one months as Ambassador in
London. 1t was natural enough for a
highspirited man to wish to clear Uhimself
from his odious position as scapNgoat Of
the heavy handed diplomacy OF Berlin.
The tone OF LichnowslSy's remarkable
| mamoir Is liberal. humane and frank. He
I 2ptaka a. trne cermen patriot one who
Io1|,sW nclsinf nut fisaster ip the Triple
t|.||0.|n rt|lcy. witch was a dynasllc ia
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
LUDENDORFFvS REIGN OF TERROR
AercileSs Military Courts Are Trying Crili Germans in
Secret and Imposing Heavy Sentences for "Treason
By B. +. KOSPOTH

these reports, which are, Of course, carefully
dOctorod, reveal cases surprising in bar
barOuS injustice all that used to be narrated
about the Cars regime in Russia. The mill
tary courts are composed OF five judges, who
are officers not under the rank of captain,
appointed by the commandcrs-in-chiefo of the
various military districts into which Ger
many Is divided since the war. The State
attorney Is also replaced by an officer There
exists no possibility Of appeal against the
sentences passed, and they are carried out
within twenty-four hours. Death sentences
only must first be confirmed by the general
commanding the district
In the last few weeks an incessant stream
Of strikers-nen, women and young boys
arrested in the streets and factories has been
passing before ,the military judges. Every
day you read in the German papers three or
four laconic paragraphs like this;
Karl Meyer, mechanic, forty years old,
accused of having damaged "A trolley ear
during the strikes by unsCrewing the
brake and resisting arrest by a policeman,
was found guilty of high treason and
sentenced by court-martial in Berlin to
three years and six months penal servi-
tude.
Nearly all the sentences passed by the
military courts consist in terms of hard labor
in a penitentiary (Zuchthaus) and not in
ordinary imprisonment For having stopped
a trolley car by placing himself before it
and refusing TO leave the track "A young
workman, seventeen years old lately
sentenced in Berlin to one year and six
months hard labor These severe sentences
are legally possible, because the indictment
'gainst the prisoners in all such cases is
II, n treason During the strikes i'm Berlin
a usmopstratiOn took place in the Humboldt
Hahn, large popular park, Mounted police
charged the crowd, trampling men, women
and children under their horses boots 4
workman in the crowd called out, pointing
to mounted policeman, Pull that fellow
from his horseg lie made no attempt to
suit the action to the word, but merely
uttered this seditious cry. For this he was
sentenced to two years and six months penal
servitude.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

II took Mr.. schwab ten minutes to Sc
iect building to house his assistants He
seems to think thst the way to do anything
"a to do t.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

Ex-oficers of the old Russian army are
now said 10 be getting ready to join the
Kaisers forces This is not surprising They
did what they could for him while wearing
the Russian uniform.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

Cleanup week is to begin May c, ac-
cording to the Governors proclamation, but
it seems to have started here ahead of time
or hasn't il?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

* off agn. on agin, gone agln-not Fin
negin, but Robinson-seems to be the history
of recent episode.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

The decks Of, the Emergency Fleet Cor
pOration are Ia be Schwabbed.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
OF YESTERYEAR
By Walter Prichdrd Eaton

EINHE other day 7 was walking along the
Il road thinking solemn thoughts about the
war and the labor problem and the cost or
lima bean seeds when suddenly my sad eyes
fell upon an old buggywheel In the bushes
beside the way. The spokes were falling out
and the iron tire was half off. l picked this
wheel up, removed the tire, took spoke for
a hoop stick and setting the tire upright
upon the road hit II resounding whack.
DO you remember that peculiar sensation
Of hitting hoop with a stick--that spring
ing. saggy feeling? ] did the moment the
blow was struck. As the hoop sprang down
the road / instnctively sprang after II. The
memory released all the other memories
necessary for successful hoop-rolling, and
found myself racing along guiding the rusty
old tire with the most delicate and skillful
manipulations and propelling 1t with the
fcwest needed taps at just the right instant
A man never forgcts how TO swim, nor how
to roll a hoop | wonder If | could spin
top. No? ! must try.
As l rolled my hoop along, to the evident
astonishment Of certain neighbors who
ran to the front windows of their farmhouses
to observe the phenomenon, it occurred to
me that l hadn't seen a child rolling a hoop
in 10, these many years. The whack of the
hoopstick is never heard in the land one
Of the pleasant and precious customs of
childhood has, apparently, passed from the
world.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

AND how about tops? Marbles I still see,
"A though rather infrequently. The games
which used to starr as soon as the frost was
out Of the sidewalks, and sooner than the
arbutus in the fields, are rare now; but they
do occur. II has been years, however, since
I have seen small boys spinning tops or
heard the halangng cry, Gimme peg at
yours?' l have carefully examined the backs
of the doors in houses where small boys
live to see If they bore the telltae marks.
But they don't Surely you remember how
you pulled that wooden pog out of the top
Of the top? You placed 1t in the crack made
when the door was opened a bit and then
shut the door. OF course the rounded head
Of the peg sank into the wood of the door
and the jamb and you could then grasp the
top give it a twist and pull it free. But it
was wise not to be caught doing this Tops
were an early autumn pastime.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
1Dl'7 NJ III

He says it means THE work of a day
and journalists.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

Five Mobile men drive
They Are 1860 rivets IN nine
Well Named hours" a headline tells
'us Mobile is an ad-
jectve as well as the name of a very de-
lightful city
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

The Philadelphia Busl-
ness Show ended in a
golf match between
picked ufiiclency ex-
u y Eokd many busl-
1nllaG MaaLhaI.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

7 WAS never little girl and | never
L played with jaCkstones. But all the little
girls | knew did, by the hour The little
girl whose house had the largest and widest
stone steps was usually the best for the
jackstone parties. The game was a mys-
terry TO me, but appeared to have an endless
and subtle fascination for it's deVotees.
What has become Of it? 1 never see little
girls now squatted in a group and tossing
up the curious iron stones" Why should
this game have vanished?
But today as / walked over to the village
I came on strpy dry gravel walk, and
on it was scratched with a stick a series
of connecting squares, much trodden and
sluffed, and nearby lay small fiat stone
or two.
"Hop-scotch" " / cried aloud. Thank
goodness something is left OF the good old
days"
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
Hunger

One Of the papers read
Hunger to the American Philo-
sophical Society on
Saturday was on "The Physiological Effects
of Prolonged Reduced Diet" We could have
answered that question in one word.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

T UDENDORFF and the Prussian military
IL party owe the almost unlimited power
they enjoy in Germany today not only TO
Russia's downfall and Rumania's misfor-
tunes but also in great measure to the
recent strikes. Although they failed mser-
ably, these strikes have filled the Kaiser's
guilty soul with the fear of revolution. The
military party, working on the imperial APP
prehensons, has easily convinced the Kaiser
that ruthless oppression and despotic rule
alone can save him from sharing the Cars
fate. Ludendorff has undertaken to keep the
German people in a proper state of submis
sion, while Hertlng is tolerated as Chan
cellor so long as there still seems chance
of Turing America and the Allies into
peace of Conciliaton" which the German
rulers regard in the light of welcome truce,
allowing Germany to recuperate, to assimi-
late her eastern conquests and to repeat her
aggression against the western Powers later,
in FIVE or ten years, as the case may be. All
through the war Germany has presented a
double face to the world. But this incurable
duplicity of the Teutonic methods was never
more apparent than now, when Count Hert-
ling and Won Payer, both risen from the
ranks of the Reichstag, are masquerading
as parliamentary statesmen and trying TO
create the impression that Germany is de-
veloping democratically, while in reality
German democracy lies more PROSTATE be-
meath the spurred heel of Prussian mlitarlsm
than ever before.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
THE CHAFFING DISH

CPEAKING of the notices that persons
- keep in their desks, the Rev. Charles s.
Lyons sends US his favorite, which runs
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

ILIIIO can say why this is? Not !. There
w seems to be no reason for II whatever.
And what has taken the place Of hoop
rooling? As / watch the children at play
I can detect nothing. I have been thinking
back over my boyhood and there seems to
be many other childhood things which have
disappeared. For instance, clappers. ! be-
liove in some sections they were called
bones, and sometimes they were actually
made Of bones. But for the most part they
We're made of hard wood, ebony preferred.
They were about an inch or an inch and
quarter wide, six inches long and Slightly
curved YOU inserted one between your first
and second fingers one between your second
and third finger, and then by the proper
manipulation of arm and wrist you ratified
off a drumlille tattoo. There were also fiat
clappers. with no convcXity, hut with bits of
lead fastened TO the outer side on the end
of a flexible steel band. Even | could APP
proXimatc a drum Call with these. But the
real clapper expert sCorned such aid. He
took the orthodox instruments, sometimes
pair in each hand. and up the street to
school he came, heard afar off, whole drum
, corps in himself II has been many, many
years since I have seen or heard pair CT
clappcrs
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22

IIIHEN the strikes were at their height
w martial law was proclaimed in all the
larger German towns. The strikes however.
were suppressed more effectively than by
force of arms by calling all strikers of mill
tary age 10 the cOlors, by depriving the rest
old men, boys and wOmen--of their weekly
food rations. and, above all, by the efforts
of the leaders of the Socialist majority In the
Reichstag, and OF the labor syndicates, whose
fragrant betrayal of the workers cause was
perhaps the chief reason why the movement
failed. Nevertheless, military courts of JUS
tice are still busy daily sentencing unfortu-
nate victims of Prussan autocracy to the
severest penalties for the most trihing Of
fences committed during the days of the
strike. The military rulers Of Germany have
resolved to strike terror to the hearts of the
people, and they are succeeding.
People in America ought TO know what
these courts-martial are doing, for there is
still tendency in all civilized countries to
underestimate the pitiless brutality OF the
military maniacs who govern Germany. Lu-
dendorff's reign of terror ought to destroy
the last illusions of those who still believe
the present Prussian system OF government
capable OF reform.
Most OF the trials by court-martiRl are
taking place in camera and the German
net6papers may only publish the ofaclal re-
poiB issued b the aninorluet, But even
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-22
MIR. HINES SCORES

If he is a dummy, who pulls the strings?