The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1920-12-10

sOe whose name announces that II Il
devoted to true stories. and sub
tffte calls attention to the good OLE
prUverb that truth Is stranger thar
0cttoO." Truth In this case mnkei
the concession Of trying to appear al
1sch like Action AZ possible. But 4
b not In the realm Of imaginati ton thal
one would look first for the verdi
cntiOn OF our ancient adage That truth
n stranger than Action. The news Of
the world as II In turned out day bJ
day h to a very large extent con
ccrued with the strange and unusual
thing. often parailelIng fiction. often
going beyond II. The variety Of the
p0asihie combinations Of circumstan.
CO.. II - great rs to surpass the I'm.
Axinaticn Of the most fertile fictionist.
aays the New York Times.
Ark amy one what events chronI-
csed In the newspapers are or have
bern stranger than fiction. and the
nrxt answer will probably be the war
itHelf. The war. certainly No one
did and no one could have imagined or
written down such stupendous trng-
ely m the world has just gone
through. II In case where the plain
facts have far outdistanced the fic-
tS0niats as well as the historians
looking into the future. Old Bernardi
knowing what the German ruling class
had In mind. knew that war with
France and Russia was coming and
thA world as whole had slowly been
prepared through years for Euro
pean clash. hut no one foresaw q
csnflict In which the whole world
wu0id BE- Involved. a war which would
csst miiltons Of lives and money run
ming into the hundreds Of billions Of
collars.
What Stranger Than rhis3
Not only the war as a thing In H.
eli. hut unnumbered phases and incl
dents Of the war passed beyond the
imagination Of the men who wrote be-
fs~c 1914. Americas part In II alone
farms an ALMOST unbelievable episode.
What writer would have dared. a dec
ace even ago, to have told OF an
American army Of 100000 men fight
tns over the old battiefeids OF North
sru France and Belgium?
What brilliant fevionlst could have
pictured the results OF the WARP The
restoration Of crushed nations OF Eu.
rupe. the breakup OF old emplrcsf
What revolutionary genius OF nctlon
would have fsncied Russia under tho
ksolsheviki for nearly three wears?
Who could have given an air Of real
~ to a rorsnce In 1913 dealing with |
the fate of the Car OF Russia or |
kaiHer Wilhelm of Germany?
The true stories Of the heroic deeds |
se the war, the personal experiences |
Ind tragic incidents. are In many cases
loo strunge and unreal tn have passed |
snQuestioned In the pages Of fiction.
4 gun with range OF sevcnty-five
miles drops shell into Paris church
u thu moment II In crowded for Good
Friday mass. No wonder that for
lays the world would not believe that
such thing had happened The first
ne of gas by the Germans against
he british In the Ypres sector was
mother fact the world could not bring
tsclf =. believe without great effort.
The hrst rlr raids, the first subna.
'tnc attack ON passenger ships and
wen the announcement that the Ger.
nan troops were marching ON France
hrouEh Belgium upset all the order
4 thinking IN supposedly sane
world. A world which has lived
through the days since August, 1914.
VIII have no reason 10 doubt that
ruth Ii stranger than fiction.
Outdoss Juiss Verne.
FOR years the imaginative story Of
Iuhs Verne on submarines. called
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
ssa." WIS bromide ameng writer's
ard takers who wished to mention the
litra -nrtioaai and the Enthusiastically
Yet the yiyldness Of that
tory r-saIained nothln. SO picturesque
md certainty nothing 80 true as that
pie tale Of uneerseas suffering aud
ssroiSia brought into this port and
hiiasleiphia from OF the Delaware
rpes rrceniis by the survivors of the
lmeriran submarine So.
Disabled Ia u practice crash dive.
sse submarine wis tilted by her Com
handler ~ that her stern stood out
4 ~sier and while cntarncts swept
through her compartments as the
'-srs were Opened between them. ON.
-ss and men ",t,nh.si 60 the part OF
hss stir TINT stood above the waves
not knowing that ANY part Of the
ssssri was above the water line. Then
'sr nearly thirty hours the crew bat.
led for life. without drinking water.
n asnasy atmosphere POISONED with
hsortne gss. aud with only scraps Of
ond Ca eat
They rip,sed hole I'm the steel
hates Of the vessel. put a red shir,
n pipe and waved their NJ rial untl
clip can@. Then. each diselalming
rcdh for herolsm by giving praise 10
'ouse one else In the crew. they were
s~rued by steamship captains aud n
serolc engineer who labored for hours
!" cut imrge hole through the sub