Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-08-17

Search for the we'll known needle
in the widely advertised haystack
would be a simple matter for corps
of faif detectives in the bureau of
war risk insurance. whose daily task
is locating the record of some lost
service man among list of almost
S, 900. 900 names. Long experience has
developed their intuition until 1t
amounts to second sight" and the
faintest of clues sometimes provides
the key to the record sought.
Recently it was necessary to look
up the record of an ex-service man
whose inquiry said he was James
Hall of Mccall, S. c.: benef1ciaries.
Mrs. Ella Stalks. wife. and Mrs
Fannie Stalks. mother" Patiently
som ething was wrong. and search
through all the Halls and Stalks fail
ed to show any one Of those names
from Mccall Cndiscouraged. the girl
in charge began looking over such
names az "Cornstalks." "Beanstalks,"
etc. and came at last to the card
reading: james Cabbagestalks. Nc
Call. s. c.. Mrs. Ella Cabbagestalks.
wife. and Mrs. Fannie Cabbagestalks,
mother"
Company Clerk to Blame.
In another instance would-be
humorous company clerk in the Army
sent in notice of the discharge of
mataha, Ala" Names Of the Flivers.
FIeavers. Fluvers and Pfluevers were
searched through in vain. till the girl
turned to the Fords. and there she
found Charles E. Ford of Push
one If the knottieat problems came
from a soldier in Hastings. Pa. whose
letter was signed Private. Divis
Spruce" All sorts of combinations
were tried in vain, and letter ad-
was returned as unclaimed. With a
$40. 900 insurance policy hanging in
the balance the young woman In
charge Of the case sat down to think
over Dyis ,bs .as snS them an
she she U got a roster Of the spruce divi-
sion from the War Department.
Searching through 10000 names. she
at last found that one Herman Miller
was from Hastings: Pa, and in reply
ten the "Divis Spruce" letter and for
gotten to sign his name.
The first requisite of a searcher in
the war risk records Is Imagination.
the second il accuracy and the third
is neat handwriting. Every letter in
a name must stand out distinctly. and
so common a name as Gallagher" Is
spelled eleven ways in the bureau
files. inviting confusion.
"Johnsons" Are Numerous.
Practically two full divisions could
have been organised among the john
son family, which had $4,000 men in
service. this number including the
were 2,Iss John Johnsons" alone.
making a fair sized infantry regi-
ment, while "William Johnson" was
present to the number of 2.062.
The Smiths sent $3.50 men to war.
Smith" There were another 1900
that merely signed e Smith" The
Brown family IN service numbered nnt re
$50. The Williams family. however.
sent $4,000 men to the colors: the
Andersons, $4,000: the Walkers. 49,
| 500, and the Millers but $500. 1t was
half Of the latter. or about 1900. bore
| the given name Of John"
A letter was received from a soldier
who may be known as Thomas Jones
Raimey Of Louisiana. Raimey could
! not be found and 1t was turned over
After some thought she happened to
remember that there is county in
/ Louisiana known as Raimey. She
therefore eliminated the county and
| found the man under the name of
| Thomas Jones.
Keen Sense of Searchers.
Some idea Of the keen sense Of the
! index searchers for placing q house
| in order may be gained by their
handling of the Rodriguez family
from Porto Rico. which sent SS4 sons
| into the Army. OF this number.
| which IL almost large enough to
make a complete battalion. there were
| but seven first names. as follows:
Domingo. Francisco. Jose, Juan. Ro-
| mon. Tomas and Antonio. The serial
| number OF each man was in the
| 600. 900.
OF the Jose RodriQuezs. ffty-one
were members Of the 374th Infantry.
There were twenty-nine Francisco
RodriqueEs in the $3.50. 374th and
375th infantries. The remainder were
scattered throughout the various
| regiments.
The custom in living up to family
tradition II still adhered to in this
country by many descendants Of the
Latin races. This gives the young
women no end of difficult problems
to work out. Ono instance il that of