The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-06-29
ALL FOOLS SLEEP WELL.
By Hapsburg Liebe, of The vigilantes.

At bedtime of one evening in Marcl
of this year, when the great German Of
fensive was on in full force, my telephone
rang. / answered the call; it was {
friend of mine who had rung. IL under
stand" said he, that the German crown
prince and 100000 men have just beer
captured by the British"
All fools sleep well. | slept well that
night, can tell you that. But on the
very next day learned that the welcome
tidings of the evening before were merely
a phase of the everlasting German prop
uganda, and / was sorely disappointed
The rumor was universal, in this section
at least, and many Others too were dis
appointed sorely This, of course, was
the object of that rumor and thousands
of others made in Germany-to disap-
point; it is but one drop of the water
that wears upon stone, but it is drop.
If had not been fool enough to believe
ii without it's being authenticated, /
would not have been disappointed But
| think / am cured now. When at last
news comes that Germany is beaten, 1T
will be hard to persuade me to believe IT..
In great many instances, unconfirmed
newspaper reports are nothing more than
very clever German propaganda -rumors,
which are not necessarily any fault OF
the newspapers, mind you. Take all
such with about ten grains of salt. 1t
may not be clear to the average man,
and sometimes not even to the shrewdest
diplomatic agents, just what gain Ger
many is to derive from these little re-
ports; but there is an advantage some
where, Of that you may be sure. Us.
ually, | dsresay, they are boosters for
other rumors. Germany fights in many
ways other than making murderously
mad drives in dense formation, and
bombing hospitals and churches and
Last summer, when the housewives OF
the country-bless em, every one!-were
doing their utmost at saving fruits and
vegetables by canning and drying, there
came along rumor that the government
meant to seize all this! We tried to
trace this heinous thing to its source,
md failed; it was probably given out a
thousand or two miles from here, and
there is no doubt that it was born in
Berlin. Also, last summer there was a
widely spread rumor that the govern
nent meant to seize all money in banks,
md few of the people were so foolish
Is to believe it and hide their money un- |
Ter the floor.
You are going to hear all kinds of
Kings in the future. Among them will
,e rIimors that transports loaded with /
oldiers have been sunk and that Wash
ngton is not giving it to the papers.
fou will hear that American casualty
lists are being published a hundred times
mailer than they really are. You will
lear that all manner of disaster has be-
allen our army and navy. Then, too,
-ou will hear almost anything that will
elight you-for when you learn the
ruth concerning this latter, you will be
A great deal of rumor is
ow due concerning Russia and Mexico
specially.
Believe nothing of all this German
Believe nothing that is not
uly authenticated, and wink at your
elf when you read unconfrmed reports
D the ewspapers-which, remember, are
o newspapers fault. Play safe 1t is
Ding to be long war, and that chiefly
ecause of coming difficulty owing to the
and of Germany in Russia and very
robably in Mexico; but the entente al
es are going to win in the end--and you
IN paste that in your hat.
1