The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-14
TOYS MADE HEREILETTER FROM San
Topeka Designed Christmas Tells Eleventh
Products Kan. Shops. Eleventh Day and Month.
Purely Domestic Articles Says Are Fighting
Work of Local Women. Coolies, Not Huns, Now.
REAL WAR DOLLS ON SALE, TOO HENRY ALLEN RIGHT IN IT
They Made by French New Governor Upon the Front
Soldiers and Widows. With the Boys.
Dig Deep Into His Sound of KlaxOH In Topeka
Pocket This Will Cause Alarm.
FARRELL Tells of Eleventh Hour,
Eleventh Day and Month.
Says Yanks Are Fighting
Coolies, Not Huns, Now.
ALLEN RIGHT IN IT
New Governor Upon the Front
Line With the Boys.
Sound of Klaxoa in Topeka
Will Cause Alarm.

A Topeka soldier, San FARRELL, SER
geant in the both field artillery,
writes to a Topeka friend, describing
the last hours of the world combat,
and describing the death-like silence
that fell on the eleventh hour. of the
eleventh day, of the eleventh. month
of this year. He says that just before
the hour for the armistice struck, the
cannonading was more than usually
heavy, each side being determined to
salvage as little ammunition as pos
sible. He speaks also of the lighting
of the towns on the night of the 18th,
when, for the first time in years,
light could safely be shown.
In his letter is an account of some
of the work of Governor Henry Allen
with the Y. NJ. c. A. in the 35th di-
vision in France.
Sergeant FARRELL, headquarters COM
any, was formerly a State Journal
exporter. He belonged to the guard,
and went to the Mexican border. when
the battery was called out. Returning
foreign service. and has been in
France a good many months In his
letter he says:
Fighting Coolies Now
We are not combating Germans at
the present time-closed season on
that game-but the open season is still
on against the Coolies. The Mighty
Chief Cootie and his imperial staff
have declined all our overtures of
peace. Having disposed of one enemy.
the allied forces are now devoting all
of their powerful energies toward ex-
terminating the other foe. The prin-
cipal weapons in this offensive move
ment are boiling water. creosote, pow
ders. sulphur, ct cetera.
Even as L write these few lines to
you l make a vain grab at my shin
in order to prevent a husky insect
from maneuvering too openly.
But changing the subject from the
coolies, which, like the poor, are al
ways with US, think you might be in
terested in what happened along the
battle front at IL a m on the eleventh
day of the eleventh month of this
year. OF course all of it has been
chronicled in every paper in the world.
We had orders to cease firing before
II o'clock on that day. We were in
position on a front that has been made
immortal in this war.
At 1855 the rumble of cannon, near
and far, was just as intense as ever.
Perhaps it was even more intense. be-
cause I have a bunch that both sides
did not care to salvage any more am
munition than possible. In the dis
lance one could hear the machine
guns popping away. At II O'Clock an
almost sepulchral silence superseded
the cannonadinS. In a land where,
few brief minutes before, cannon and
rifles and machine guns were busy
from the English channel to Switzer-
land, all was still. except in places
where troops were congregated and
there naturally was a great deal Of
cheering.
The night before. and many other
months. we had been lulled to sleep
by shell fire. On the night of the
eleventh rockets and star shells and
flares lit up the sky everywhere. The
ruined wreck of a great city, one that
has been demolished by four years of
constant cannonading, was g1oriously
alight. For the first time in years au-
tomobiles, motorcycles and trucks lit
their lamps. Billets and dug outs
made no pretense of shading the glow
of their lights and took no precaution
such az blanketing windows, etc.
which formerly was necessary due to
the fact that hostile aircrafts were
frequently lowering above at night
searching for lights. And when they
found them, a few pounds OF bombs
usually was substituted for a calling
card.
Where do we go from here, boys:
where do we go from here?" That is
something which none of us can
answer. 1t largely depends on circum-
stances-miiitary and international.
we 90 not attempt to answer that
question. AS formerly. we merely
await orders. However, I do not be-
lieve there is man in our division
who is not proud of the record that
it has made in France, and the name
that it holds among the fighting troops
in France. 1 do not think that it
would be stretching a point to say that
Missouri and Kansas were represented
in the thick of the fighting by a bunch
of real scrappers.
Henry Al;cn Hero.
There is another matter that ought
to be of some interest to you. When
We first went to the Vosges Mountains.
where We held down a quiet sector
before getting into the regular fight
farther north. Henry J. Allen, who
has just been elected governor of
Kansas, left his position with the
American Red Cross at Paris in order
to be with the Kansas boys at the
front He undertook to organize, de-
veiop and operate the Y. NJ. C. A. of
the division, and he succeeded mighty
well. He didn't spend all of his time
back Of the fighting lines either and
many times he visited the front
trenches when Fritz was Smelling the
road he was travelling on and the
trenches he was visiting and casing
the dug-out he slept in.
At one place, early in October. the
Y NJ. c. A. man attached to our regi-