davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03

That wicked wit, viii Rogers, loves his
story Of Mr.. Coolidge opening in 1927
a box of cigars and finding upon the
top Of them the words, Merry Christ
mas, 1921"
And Mrs. Coolidge, even more than
Mr.. Coolidge, has been the recipient OF
tokens of popular affection. The toilet
sets and desk sets and novelties" Of one
sort and another she has received would
set her up in a small way Of business.
She could travel to every country in
carry a new bag every time she left.
And the wardrobe Of q Pompadour
could never fill the trunks that have
been presented to her.
But, most Of all, there are the books
which have been sent to Mr.. Coolidge
thousands of them. Books upon every
subject imaginable and in every sort of
binding, from the edition de luxe to the
plainest of covers. These have gone
to the Forbes Library in Northampton,
to remain there pending further deter
mination.
The Laszlo portrait Of Mr.. Coolidge
and the Leonebel Jacobs portrait Of
Mrs. Coolidge will remain in the White
House. Their other paintings will 60
with them u Massasoit street.
And even as these packing cases of
the present presidential gifts go of by
truck to Northampton, as two grand
pianos are being wrapped up for ship
ping, and as other packing cases are 60
ing by express for storage, another gift
piano and other paintings and other
personal belongings have been unwrap-
ped and uncrated and passed along
upward toward that second floor Of the
White House whittier the general pub
lie and the merely political never pene-
trate, those costly but not grandly
furnished rooms" which the President
calls home.
x y
THE Hoovers are moving in. It is the
= first time during the present men,
DRY Of man that the incoming President
and the incoming Presidents wife have
had only few blocks to move. the first
time they already were supplied with
"neighborS" in Washington, the first
time that every one in town knew what
their house was like. For while 1t is
true that the Coolidges had lived in
Washington before they occupied the
White House, they had dwelt in hotel,
and you can't call hotel o neighbor-
hood.
"Twenty-three hundred s street" had
come to have special meaning There,
whenever the Girl Scouts nationally
gathered, when the Daughters" or any
other of a dozen nationally known or
CARNATIONS wanted a tea party, they
were always sure Of homelike well
come. And there foregathered every
one Of achievement in the world Of
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03

burned) by George Washington Parke
Gusts. The present marker stands upon
the site in that room.
The second story Of the mansion has
two long bedrooms on the western side,
which end to end, extend the full
length of the building, each having
spaces for two large beds. Two other
bedrooms with one bed in each are
separated by the square upper hail. all
second floor rooms having fireplaces.
Practically all details of construction
and joinery will be executed in the
manner of that time.
Plans have been perfected for the
restoration Of the old detached kitchen,
with its large fireplace, the base Of the
chimney Of which still stands near the
site of the mansion.
Plans have also been drawn and APP
proved for the large log cabin, about
200 yards north of the residence, the
cabin to be used as resort for pill
grins to the birthplace of Washington.
The eastern side of the Wakefield
estate, lying along Pope's Greek, possess
ses q beautiful outlook. The path along
the shore IS not surpassed in the lowell
ness Of its, prospects BY any site upon
the shore Of the Pnpmac. The wide
creek itself Is like hniall, pretty lake,
iordered by trees and green fields with
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
EiaM Moving or Reason
other Time Home N City in he

Frank B. Kellogg, departing successor
to Hughes, has an attractive corner
house with plenty Of sunshine, which he
rented furnished" 1t is just the right
distance from the State Department to
provide the two-mile walk Mr.. Kellogg
enjoys every morning.
Like the Vice President and like other
cabinet members. the Secretary of State
has number of little perquisites, such
as a motor with a chauffeur. He has
the added social comfort Of being able
to give large dinners at the Pan-Ameri-
can-the most beautiful building in
washington, where you sit down at a
dinner table about flowing fountain
among palms and birds and take your
coffee afterward in charming marble
gallery looking down over it all.
Usually our cabinet officers have
thought 1t necessary to live as "close to
things" as possible. The Postmaster
General and Mrs. New have been an
exception. Their love Of outdoors was
not at all theoretical. So their house
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03

House, and, having built on Sixteenth
street one of those brownstone castles"
which the luxurious taste of the Amer
lean sos so adored, she has entertained
therein ever since with much pleasant
ness, and she also has "a rarer thing for
Washington taken great interest in
the development Of the city. She got
the name Sixteenth street" changed to
Avenue of the Presidents" and she
built on 1t several houses. which she sold
to various embassies and legations, and
one house which she offered to the
Government to be the vice presidential
mansion.
The Government never accepted her
offer, and the Avenue of the Presi-
dents" changed back into plain Six
tenth street again--one more sample
Of the ingratitude Of republics and an
other reason why the Washington NOV
ing day resembles grabbag at a
church fair.
COME buy. some rent and some rent
~ furnished. Justices of the Supreme
Court usually buy. because they are ap-
pointed for life. It was because he was
justice and not because he was Sec
rotary of State that Mr.. Hughes bought
the house he lived in while in WASH
ington-a not very cheerful brick house
facing west on Eighteenth street.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
ny mrs. JOHN MuNCE.

n JEWS of the recent offer made by
nj John D. Rockefeller to con-
Y tribute $115,oO0 toward the
purchase of PCT acres Of land
of the original Wakefield estate
for the restoration OF George Washing
tons birthplace, contingent upon the
contribution Of an equal amount by the
people before January 9, 1880, is slim
ulating to the interest Of patriotic citi-
gems.
Mr.. Rockefeller has expressed the
opinion that the restoration Of Wash
ington's birthplace Is task that should
be undertaken by the people of the
United States and not by any one per-
son, and In this spirit he made his offer,
with the hope that it would arouse pub
lie enthusiasm In the project and foster
. feeling of pride in the undertaking.
The Wakefield National Memorial
Association, to which the Rockefeller
offer was made, has the authority Of
Congress to restore Wakefield, but must
raise the necessary funds by popular
subscription.
Mr.. Rockefeller's interest In Virginia
has been far-reaching and his gener-
osity to the country as whole in the
purchase and restoration of many of
the scenes Of its early history has been
more than a personal interest. It is
therefore peculiarly fitting that he
should add to his already generous
gifts to the American people by this
new offer toward the purchase of the
estate where the Father Of Our Country
was born.
ITO those Of us who live In or near the
city which George Washington
vision created as the Capital OF the
Nation, and which bears his name, this
scene of his birthplace, on the Potomac
River, which is SO intimately associated
with his whole Life, should be doubly
interesting now that IL is to become q
shrine, even more sacred than the
scene of the later years Of his life at
Mount Vernon.
Last Summer as visited the little
reservation held by the National Gov
eminent. marked with simple granite
shaft. I could not help but think what
q pity it was that the place with its
gorgeous environs and solidity Of COL
onial life, could not have been preserv-
ed as q marker. that future generations
might understand better the great char
acter who was to be the Father Of this
great Nation.
The country Is indebted to the re-
searches Of Charles Arthur Hoppin,
historian, for his studies Of the back
ground Of Washington's ancestry and
surroundings, and the correction Of
- 49, 49, .
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03

Fredericksburg, with good roads all the
way. The road from the main highway
into the reservation Is well kept, and
as there Is q marker at the entrance OF
this road. no traveller should miss the
opportunity Of visiting this historic
spot.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
Camera Making.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE
manufacturing plants were engaged
In 1927 In turning out $50 .S27 1877 Ii
cameras, camera parts, accessories and
supplies In the United States This Wa
an increase Of IS per cent over ie2s.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
BY HYDE CLEMENT.

~ RUM beats-brrm brrm brrnl.
Music blaze. Brasses. Bright
blue. bright red, Marine Band.
~ Clatter-clatter. haiti Atten-
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03

/ r Jews Of the recent offer made by
VI John D. Rockefeller to con-
tribute $115.oO0 toward the
purchase Of 267 acres Of land
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03

sonian Institution. in washington. the
original Of the Bride of Wakefield"
Mary Ball Washington. the mother Of
George Washington. This was painted
from life by John Wollaston, and it
is hoped that it will be possible to
have this picture hung in the copy
Of the house where George was born.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03

THE wealthy. beauty-loving landed
the incOnveniences Of colonial life. wsrs
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-26

{ want to; a man doesn't even know
himself at such moments.
We hear the explosions OF the
hand-grenades coming toward us.
Our machine-gun sweeps over the
semi-circle in front Of US. But be-
hind us the attack crashes ever
nearer.
A few minutes and we are lost.
Then, at closest range, a second
machine gun burst out. 1t is set
up in crater alongside us; Berger
has fetched it, and now the coun-
ter attack comes over from behind;
we are set free and make contact
with the rear.
Afterwards, as we lie in compare
lively good cover, one Of the food
carriers reports that couple Of
hundreds yards distant there lies a
wounded messenger dog.
"Where?" asks Berger.
| The other describes the place to
him. Berger goes off either to fetch
| the beast in or shoot it. Six months
ago he would not have cared, he
would have been reasonable. We
try to prevent him.
Then, as he goes off grimly, all
we can say is: you're mad" and
let him 60 For these cases of front
! line madness become dangerous If
one is not able to fling the man
to the ground and hold him fast.
And Berger is six feet and the most
powerful man in the company.
He is absolutely mad for he has
! to pass through the barrage; but
this lightning that lowers some
where above us all has struck him
and made him demented.
1t affects othes so that they be-
gin to rave, to run away-there was
one man who even tried to dig him
self into the ground with hands,
feet and teeth.
| It is true, such things are often
simulated, but the pretense itself is
a symptom. Berger, who means to
| finish off the dog, is carried of
with wound in the pelvis, and one
of the fellows who carry him gets
a bullet in the cheek while doing it.
II =
Muller is dead Some one shot
him point blank with a Verey light
in the stomach. He lived for half
an hour, quite conscious, and in ter
rible pain.
Before he died he handed over his
pocketbook to me, and bequeathed
me his bootS-the same that he once
| inherited from Kemmerich.
wear them, for they fit me quite
we'll. After me Tjaden will get
them, I have promised them to him.
We have been able to bury Null
Ter, but he is not likely to remain
long undisturbed. Our lines are fall
ing back.
There are too many fresh English
and American regiments over there.
There's too much corned beef and
white wheaton bread. Too many
new guns. Too many airplanes.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-26

, But we are emaciated and starved.
Our food is so bad and mixed up
with so much substitute stuff that
it makes us i'll.
The factory owners in Germany
have grown wealthy; dysentery dis
solves us. The people at home ought
to be shown these gray, yellow, mis-
cradle faces here, these figures who,
with lips trembling and distorted
with pain, still grin at one another.
Our artillery is fired out, it has
too few shells and the barrels are
so worn that they shoot uncertainty,
and scatter so widely as even to fall
on ourselves. We have too few
horses.
Our fresh troops are anemic boys
in need of rest, who can not carry
a pack, but merely know how to die.
BY thousands. They understand
nothing about warfare, they simply
go on and let themselves be shot
down.
A single f1ier routed two COM
pdIlleS VI CIlcuI 4O1 a JOhO, JOoO 90
they came fresh from the train-be-
fore they had ever heard of such
thing as cover.
Germany ought to be empty
soon," says Kat.
We have given up hope that
some day an end may come. We
never think so far A man can stop
bullet and be killed; he can get
wounded, and then the hospital Is
his next stop.
There, if they do not amputate
| him, he sooner or later falls into the
hands of one of those staff surgeons
who, with the War Service Cross in
his button-hole, says to him: What,
one leg a bit short? If you have
any pluck you don't need to run at
the front. The man is AL. Dismiss!"
Kat tells story that has travelled
the whole length of the front from
the VoSges to Flanders-of the staff
surgeon who reads the names on
the list, and when a man comes be-
fore him, without looking up says:
"A1. We need soldiers up there"
A fellow with a wooden leg comes
up before him, the staff surgeon
again says A1-"and then" Kat rises
his voice, "the fellow says to him:
I already have a WOODEN leg, but
when I go back again and they
shoot off my head, then will get a
wooden head made and become a
staff surgeon"
This answer tickles us all i'm
mensely.
There may be good doctors, and
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-26
CHAPTER XXI

DUT sometimes it broke out in
- other ways, this danger, these
pent-up things, as from an over
heated boiler. 1t will be enough to
tell how Berger met his end.
Our trenches have now for some
time been shot to pieces, and we
have an elastic line, so that there
is practically no longer any proper
trench warfare.
When attack and counter attack
have waged backward and forward
there remains a broken line and a
bitter struggle from crater to crater.
The front line has been pene-
trated, and everywhere small groups
have established themselves, the
FIGHT is carried on from clusters
of Shell-holes.
We are in a crater, the English
are coming down obliquely, they are
turning our flank and working in
behind us. We are surrounded. 1t
is not easy to surrender, fog and
smoke hang over us, no one would
recognize that we wanted to give
ourselves up. and perhaps we don t
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-26
CHAPTER xxx Continued


That is the only way to save our
selves. In the quiet hours when
the puzzling reflection of former
DAYS. like a blurred mirror, projects
beyond me the figure Of my present
existence, often sit over against
myself, as before a stranger, and
wonder how the unnameable active
principle that calls itself Life has
adapted itself even to this form.
All other expressions lie in a win
ter sleep, life is simply one con-
tinual watch against the menace Oh
death; it has transformed us into
unthinking animals to give us the
weapon of instinct-it has REIN
forced us with dizziness, so that we
do not 20 to pieces before the hor-
ror. which would overwhelm us II
We had clear, conscious thought
has awakened in us the sense Oh
comradeship, so that We escape the
ABYSS of solitude-it has lent us the
indifference of wild creatures, so
that in spite of all we receive the
positive in every moment, and store
il lid as a reserve against the on
slaught of nothingness.
Thus we live a closed, hard exist
ence of the utmost superfclaIty,
and rarely does an incident strike
out a spark. But then unexpectedly
a flame of grievous and terribly
yearning flares up.
Those are the dangerous mo-
ments. They show us that the adj
iustment is only artificial, that u
is not simple rest, but sharpeSt
struggle for rest.
In the outward form OF our lie
we are hardly distinguishable from
bushmen: but whereas the latter
can be so always, because they are
so truly. and at best may develop
further by exertion of their spiritual
forces, with us it is the reverse; our
inner forces are not exerted toward
regeneration, but toward degenera-
Gon.
The bushmen are primitive and
naturally so. but we are primitive
in an artificial sense, and by virtue
of the utmost effort.
And at night, waking out Of a
dream. overwhelmed and bewitched
by the crowding faces, a man per-
ceives with alarm how slight is the
support. how thin the boundary that
divides him from the darkness.
We are little flames poorly shell
tered by frail walls against the
storm Of dissolution and madness,
in which we flicker and sometimes
almost go out.
Then the muffled roar of the bat
tie becomes a ring that encircles us,
we creep in upon ourselves, and with
big eyes stare into the night. Our
only comfort is the steady breath
ing of our comrades asleep, and thus
we wait for the morning.
Every day and every hour, every
shell and every death cuts into this
thin support. and the years waste it
rapidly. 1 see how it is already
gradually breaking down around me.
There is the mad story of De-
tering.
He was one of those who kept
himself to himself. His misfortune
was that he saw a cherry tree in a
garden. We were just coming back
from the front-line, and at turn
ing of the road near our new billets,
marvellous in the morning twilight,
stood this cherry tree before us. tt
iod M 1eaVee hit Was, one. white
mass of blossom.
In the evening Detering was not
to be seen. Then at last, he came
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-26

back and had a couple of branches
of cherry blossoms in his hand.
We made fun, of him, and asked
him whether he was going TO a we'd
ding. He made no answer, but laid
them on his bed. During the night
heard him making noise, he
seemed to be packing.
I sensed something anliSs and
went over to him. He made out it
was nothing, and I said to him:
Don't do anything silly, Detering."
"Ach, why-it's merely that I can't
sleep"
What did you pick the cherry
branches for?"
II might have been going to get
some more cherry branches" he re-
piled, evasively-and after while:
Il have a big orchard with cherry
trees at home. When they are in
blossom, from the hayloft they look
like one single sheet, SO white. 1t is
just the time
Perhaps you will get leave soon.
You may even be sent back as a
farmer"
He nodded, but he was far away.
When these peasants are excited
they have a curious expression, a
mixture of COW and yearning God,
half stupid and half rapt. In order
to turn him away from his thoughts
1 asked him for a piece of bread.
He gave it to me without a MUIR
muir. That was suspicious, for he
is usually ght-fisted. So I stayed
awake Nothing happened; in the
morning he was as usual.
Apparently he had noticed that I
had been watching him; but the
second morning after he was gone.
I noticed it. but said nothing, in or
der to give him time; he might per-
haps get through. Various fellows
already have got into Holland.
But at roll call he was missed. A
week after we heard that he had
been caught by the field gendarmes.
those despicable military police. He
had headed toward Germany, that
was hopeless, of course-and, of
course, he did everything else just as
idiotically.
Any one might have known that
his flight was only homesicknesS
and a momentary alteration. But
what does a court-martial hundreds
of miles behind the front line know
about it? We have heard moth
ing more of lettering.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-26
VII Qznlt@hx NIczh7m 77Wzt<%Nz&zsSS&2@&ESee

/, there are, lots of them; all the same,
every soldier some time during his
hundreds of inspections falls into
the clutches of one of the countless
hero-grabbers who pride themselves
on changing as many COS and BIS
as possible into AIS.
There are many such stories, they
are mostly far more bitter. All the
same, they have nothing TO do with
mutiny or lead-swinging. They are
merely honest and call a thing by
its name; for there is a very great
deal of fraud, injustice and baSenes;
in the army.
1t is nothing that regiment after
regiment returns again and again
to the ever-more hopeless struggle
that attack follows attack along the
weakening, retreaJing, crumbling
line?
From a mockery the tanks have
become terrible weapon. Armored
they come rolling on in long lines
and more than anything else en-
body for us the horror of war.
We do not see the guns that bonn
bard us; the attacking lines of the
enemy infantry are men like our
selves; but these tanks are ma.
chimes, their caterpillars run on a:
endless as the war, they are ami.
hilation, they roll without feeling
| into the craterS. and climb I'D AGAR
without stopping, a fleet of roaring
smoke -belching armor-clads, inyul'
nerable steel beasts squashing the
dead and the wounded.
We Shrivel up in our thin Skin
before them, against their colossa
weight our arms are sticks of straw
and our hand -grenades matches.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-26

Shells, gas clouds, and fiotillas Of
tanks, shattering, starvation. death.
Dysentery, influenza, typhus-
murder, burning, death
Trenches, hospitals. the common
grave-there are no other posi-
bilitieS.
In one attack our company COM
mander, Bertinck, falls. He was one
of those superb front-line officers
who are foremost in every hot place.
He was with us for two years with
out being wounded, so that some
thing had to happen in the end.
We occupy a crater and get sur
rounded. The stink of petroleum
or oil blows across with the fumes
of powder. Two fellows with flame
thrower are seen, one carries the
tin on his back, the other has the
hose in his hands from which the
fire Spouts.
If they get so near that they can
reach us, we are done for, we can
not retreat yet.
We open fire upon them. But they
work nearer and things begin To
look bad. Bertinck is lying in the
hole with us. When he sees that we
can not escape because under the
sharp fire we must make the most
of this cover, he takes rifle, crawlS
out of the hole. and lying dowr
propped on his elbows, he takes aim
He f1res-the same moment a bull
let smacks into him; they have go'
him. Still he lies and aims again
once he shifts and again takes hi
aim: at last the rifle cracks. Ber'
timex lets the gun drop and says
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-26

Good" and slips back into the hole.
The hindermost of the two fame
throwers is hit. he falls. the hose
slips away from the other fellow,
the fire squirts about on all sides
and the man burns.
Bertinck has a chest wound. At
ter a while a fragment smasheS
away his chin, and the same frag-
ment has sufficient force to tear
open Leer's hip.
Leer groans as he supports him
self on his arm, he bleeds quickly,
no one can help him. Like an