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About The Stanford World (Stanford, Mont.) 1909-1920 | View This Issue
The Stanford World (Stanford, Mont.), 29 Aug. 1918, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053199/1918-08-29/ed-1/seq-2/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
THE STANFORD WORLD 4 a 1111I11111111111111111111111111111111111111IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111M1111111 11111111111111111111 11111r 11111111111111 I 1111111111111111111111111111 '4 111111B11111111111111111111111111111111111111111B1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111IMMIIIII 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 31UNNER DE LW Copyright. 1918, by Reilly and Britton Co., Through Special Arrangement With the George Matthew Adams Fierviee 'Ex - Gunner and Chief Petty Officer, U: S. Navy Captain Gun Turret, French Battleship Cassard Member of the Foreign Legion of France Winner of the Croix de Guerre Arne ALBERT T0 DEPEW . FOREWORD. \Gunner Depew\ is not a work of fiction, but it is more thrilling than any fic- tion you ever read. It is the true story of the experi- ences of an American boy who had a fighting career that is unique in the annals of the great war. It is a story crowded with fighting and adventure — big with human courage and endur- ance. It is the first war nar- rative that tells the true • story of conditions in the German prison camps. It is a story that every Ameri- can should and will read to the end. CHAPTER I. In the the American Navy. My father was a seaman, so, nat- urally. all my life I heard a great deal about ships and the sea. Even when I was a little boy, in Walston, Pa., I thought about them a whole lot and wanted to be a sailor—especially a editor in the U. S. navy. You might say I was brought up on the water. When I was twelve years old I went to spa as cabin boy on the whaler Therifus, out of Boston. She was an old square-rigged sailing ship, built snore for work than for speed. We were out four months on my first cruise, and got knocked around a lot, especially in a storm on the Newfound- land Banks, where we lost our instru- ments. and had a hard time navigat- ing the ship. Whaling crews work on shares and during the two years I was on the Therifus my shares amount.. to foprteen hundred dollars. Then I shipped as first-class helms- man on the British tramp Southern - down, a twin-screw steamer out of Liverpool. Many people are surprised that a fourteen -year -old boy should be helmsman on an ocean-going craft. but all over the world you will see young lads doing their trick at the wheel. I was on the Southerndown two years and in that time visited most of the important ports of Eu- rope. There is nothing like a tramp steamer if you waot to see the world. The Southerndown is the vessel that. In the fall of 1917, sighted a German U-boat rigged up like a, r salling ship. Although I liked visiting t4e foreign pm-ls. I got tired of the Southerndown after a while and at the end of a voy- age which tended me in New York I decided to get into the United States navy. After laying around for a week or two I enlisted and was assigned to duty as a second-class fireman. People have said they thought I was pretty. small to be a fireman; they have the idea that firemen must be big men. Well. I am 5 feet 7% Inches in height, and when I was sixteen I was just as tall as I am now and weighed 168 pounds. I was a whole lot husk- ier then, too, for that was before my Introduction to kuitur in German pris- on camps, and life there is not exactly fattening—not exactly. I do not know why It is, but if you will notice the navy firemen—the lads with the red stripes around their left shoulders— you will find that almost all of them are small men. But they are a husky lot. Vow, in the navy, they always haze n newcomer until he shows that be can take care of himself, and I got mine very soon after I went into Un- cle Sant'S service. I was washing my clothes in a bucket on the forecastle sleek, and every garby (sailor) who came along would give me or the bucket a kick, and spill one or the both of us. Each time I would move to some other place, but I always seemed to _Wits somebody's way. Fi- nally I saw a marine coming. I was nowhere near him, but he hauled out of his course to come up to me and gave the bucket a boot that sent it twenty feet away, at the same time handing me a clout on the ear that just about knocked me down. Now, I did not exactly know what a marine was, and this fellow had so many stripes on his sleeves that I thought he mat be some sort of officer, so I just stood by. There was a gold stripe (commissioned officer) on the bridge and I knew that if anything was wrong he would cut in, so I kept look- ing up at him, but he stayed where he was, looking on, and never saying a word. And all the Buie the marine kept slamming inc about and telling me to get the hell out of there. Finally I said to myself, \I'll gift this guy if It's the brig for a month.\ Bo I planted him one In the kidneys end another in the mouth, and he went rtessn up against the rail. But he came back at me strong, and we were at it for some time. But when it was over the gold stripe came down from the, bridge and shook hands with met After this they did not haze me much. This was the la -ginning of a certain reputation that I had in the navy for fist -work. Later on I had a reputation for swimming, too. That first day they began calling me \Chink though I don't know why, and it has been my nickname in the navy ever since. It is a curious thing, and I never could understand it, but garbles and marines never Mi. The marines are good men and great fighters, aboard and ashore, but we garbles never have a word for them, nor they for us. On shore leave abroad we pal up with foreign garbles, even, but hardly ever with a marine. Of course they are with us strong in case we have a scrap with a liberty- party off Some foreign ship—they cannbt keep out of a fight any more than we can—but after It is over they are on their way at once and we on ours. There are lots of things like that in the navy that you cannot figure out the reason for, and' I think it is be- cause sailors change their ways BO little. They do a great many things In the navy because the navy always has done them. I kept strictly on the job as a fire- man, but I wanted to get into the gun turrets. It was slow work for a long time. I had to serve as second-class fireman for four mouths, first-class for eight months and in the engine room as water -tender for a year. Then, after serving on the U. 8. 8. Des Moines as a gun -loader, I was transferred to the Iowa and finally worked up to a gun -pointer. After a time I got my C. P. 0. rating—chief petty officer, first-class gunner. The various navies differ in many ways, but most of the differences would not be noticed by any one but a sailor. Every sailor has a great deal of respect for the Swedes and Nor- wegians and Danes; they are bcirn sailors and are very daring, but, of course, their navies are small. The Germans were always known as clean Gunner Depew. sailors; that is. as in our navy and the British, their vessels were ship- shape all the time, and were run as sweet as a clock. There is no use comparing the vari- ous navies as to which is best; some are better at one thing and some at another. The British navy, of course, is the largest, and nobody will deny that at most things they are topnotch —least of all themselves; they admit it. But there is one place where the navy of the United States has it all over every other navy on the seven seas, and that is gunnery. The Amer- ican navy has the best gunners in the world. And do not let anybody tell you different. CHAPTEII II. The War Breaks. After serving four years and three months in the U. S. navy, I received an honorable discharge on April 14, 1914. I held the rank of chief petty officer, first-class gunner. It is not uncommon for garbles to lie around a while between enlistments—they like a vacation as much as anYdne=iiinl It was my intention to loaf for e few months before joining the navy again. After the war started, of course, I had heard more or less about the Ger- man atrocities in Belgium, and while I was greatly interested, I was doubt- ful at first as to the truth of the re 'ports, for I knew how news gets changed in passing from mouth to mouth, and I never was much of a hand to believe things until I saw them, anyway. Another thing that caused nie to be interested in the war was the fact that my mother was born in Alsace. Her maiden name, Dier- vieux, is well known in Alsace. I had often visited my grandmother in St. Naziiire, France, and knew the coun- try. So with France at war, it was not strange that I should be even more interested than many other garbles. As I have said, I did not take much stoek in the first reports of the Hun's exhibition of kuitur, because Fritz is known as a clean sailor, and I figured that no real sailor would over get mixed up in such dirty work as they said there was in Belgium. I figured the soldiers were like the sailors. But I found out I was wrong about both. One thing that opened tny eyes a bit was the trouble my mother had in getting out of Hanover, where she was when the war started, and back to France. She always wore a little American flag and this both saved and endangered her. Without it. the Ger- mans would have interned her as a Frenchwoman, and with it, she was sneered at and insulted time and again before she finally managed to get over the border. She died about two months after she reached St. Na- zaire. Moreover, I heard the fate of my older brother, who had made his home in France with my grandmother. He had gone to the front at the outbreak of the war wtth the infantry from St. Nazaire and hail been killed two or three weeks afterwards. This made it a sort of personal matter. But what put the finishing touches to MP were the stories a wounded Canadian lieutenant told me some months later in New York. He had been there and he knew. You could not help believing him; you can al- ways tell it when a man has been there and knows. There was not nitiCil racket around New York, so I made up my mind all of a sudden to go over and get some for myself. Believe me, I got enough racket before I was through. Most of the really important things I have done have happened like that: I did them on the Jump, you might say. Many other Americans wanted a look, too; there were five thousand Amer- icans in the Canadian army at one time they say. I would not claim that I went over there to save democracy, or anything like that. I never did like Germans, and I never met a Frenchman who was not kind to me, and what I heard about the ,way s the Huns treated the Belgians nfade me sick. I used to get out of bed to go to an all-night picture show. I thought about it so much. But there was not much excitement about New York, and I figured the tj. 8. would not get into it for p anyway, so I just wanted to go over and see what it was like. That is why lots of us went, I think. There were five of us who went to Boston to ship for the other side: Sam Murray, Ed Brown, Tim Flynn, Mitchell and myself. Murray was an ex- garby—two hitches (enlistments), gun. pointer rating, and about thirty-five years old. Brown was a Pennsylvania man about twenty-six years old, who had served two enlistments in the U. S. army and had quit with the rank of sergeant. Flynn and Mitchell were both ex -navy men. Mitchell was a noted boxer. Of the five of us, I am the Only one who went In, got through and came out. Flynn and Mitchell did not go in; Murray and Brown never came back. The five of us shipped on the steam- ship Virginian of the American -Ha- waiian line, under American flag and registry, but chartered by the French government. I signed on as water- tender—an engine room job—but the others were on deck—that is, seamen. We left Boston for St. Nazaire with a cargo of ammunition, bully beef, etc., and made the first trip without anything of interest happening. As we were tying to the dock at St. Nazaire, I saw a German prisoner sit- ting on a pile of lumber. I thought probably he would be hungry, so I went down into the oilers' mess and aie two slices of bread with a thick e of beefsteak between them and handed It to Fritz. He would not take It. At first I thought he was afraid to, but by using several languages and signs he managed to make me under- stand that he was not hungry—had too mucli to, eat, in fact. I used to think of this fellow occa- sionally when I was in a Germae pris- on camp, and a piece of moldy bread the size of a safety -match box was the generous portion of food they forced on me, with true German hoe- pitality, once every forty-eight hours. I would not exactly have refused a beefsteak sandwich, I am afraid: But then - I was not a heaven -born German. I was only a common American garby. He was full of kultur and grub; I was not full of anything. There was a large prison camp at St. Nazaire, and at one time or an- other I saw all of it. Before the war it, had been used as a barracks by the French army and consisted of well - made, comfortable two-story stone buildings, floOred with concrete, with auxiliary barracks of logs. The Ger- man prisoners occupied the stone buildings, while the French guards were quartered in the log houses. In- side, the houses were divided into long rooms with whitewashed walls. There was a gymnasium for The prisoners, a canteen where they might buy most of the. things you could buy anywhere else In the country, and a studio for the painters among the prisoners. Of- ficers were separated from private.— which was a good thing for the pri- vates—and were kept in houses sur- rounded by stockades. Officers and privates received the same treatment, however. and all were given exactly •••111 the same rations and equipment as the regular French army before It went to the front. Their food consisted of bread, soup, and vino, as wine is called almost everywhere in the' world. In the morning they received half a loaf of Vienna bread and coffee. At nom they each had a large dixie of thick soup, and at three in the afternoon more bread and a bottle of vino. The soup was more like a stew—very thick with meat and vegetables. At one of the officers' barracks there was a cook who had been chef in the larg- est hotel in Paris before the war. All the prisoners were well clothed. Once a week, socks, underwear, soap, towels and blankets were issued to them, and every week the barracks and equipment were fumigated. They were given the best of medical atten- tion. Besides all this, they were allowed to work at their trades, If they had any. All the carpenters, cobblers, tailors anti painters were kept busy, and some of them picked up more change there than they ever did In Germany, they told me. The musi- cians formed bands and played almost every night at restaurants and thea- ters in the town. Those who had no trade were allowed to work on the roads, parks, docks and at residences about the town. Talk about dear old jail 1 You could not have driven the average prisoner away from there with a 14 -inch gun. I used to think about them in Bran- denburg, when our boys were rushing the sentries in the hope of being bay- onetted out of their misery. While our cargo was being unloaded I spent most of my time with my grandmother. I had heard still more about the cruelty of the Huns, and made up my mind to get into the ser- vice. Murray and Brown had already enlisted in the Foreign Legion, Brown being assigned to the infantry and Murray to the French man-of-war Cain sard. But when I spoke of my inten- tion, my grandmother cried so much that I promised her I would not enlist —that time, anyway—and made the return voyage in the Virginian. We were no sooner loaded in Boston than hack to St. Nazaire we went. Gunner Depew, on board the French dreadnaught Cassard, gives the Pollus a sample of the marksmanship for which the American gunners are famous. Then he leaves his ship and goes into the trenches. Don't miss the next Installment. (TO BE CONTINUED.) Something to \Greet\ About Persons casting about for something to wqrry about may take pleasure in recalling from \The Little Minister\ the manner in which self-styled simple folk in Scotland regard the northern lights—\the devil's rainbow,\ Waste! Lunny called it. \I saw it sax times in July month,\ he said, \and It made me shut my eels. You was out admits Ing it, dominie, but I can never forget that it was seen the year '12 just afore the great storm. I was only a !addle then, but I mind how that awful wind stripped a' the standing corn in the glen in less time than we've been here at the water's edge. It was called the dell's bosom. My father's hinmosi words to me was, 'It's time eneuch to greet, laddle, when you see the au- rora borealis.'\ Waster Lunny was \greeting\ o'er the drought then, but twelve hours later the Quharity was out of its banks, washing out the corn and with a year's store of wool on its crest was dashing out to sea. Moon by \EarthlIght\ When the crescent of the new moon appears in the west the phenomenon called \the old moon in the young one's arms\ is often observed. Part- ly embraced by the horns of the ere, - cent is seen the whole round orb of the moon. The cause of this appear- ance is that the \earthlight\ upon that part of the moon not reached by the sunshine is sufficiently brilliant to ren- der it faintly visible to our eyes. COMMERCIAL POTATO CROP HARVESTED BY USE OF DIGGER -SORT AND SACK IN FIELD si* 4 . 1 4 41 4 St 4 ' .00 1. 4 1 Horse -Drawn Potato (Prepared II I I t kt t t e i 14=01 VW Depart - Where atm early crop is grown, the date of harvesting Is largely governed by market conditions. If the price is high, a crop tmty often be harvested profitably when it is half or two-thirds grown, whereas if prices are low It is isenerally advisable to allow the tu- bers to reach full development before they are dug. In the case of late vari- eties *stilted for winter consumption it is the usual practice to delay har- vesting as long as it is safe to do so without mating unnecessary risk of freezing the tubers. Use Elevator Digger. With few exceptions, the potato r.rop Is harvested with an elevator die- ser drawn by horses. When the crop Is sold from the field, it is a common practice to sort and sack the potatoes is they are picked up. The sorting ot zrading of potatoes in the field is mon economically done by ustng a potato grader of the shaker or belt type. These graders are mounted upon a wooden sled and are hauled along by a horse. The sorter has two 0 0 0 0 Our Allies and Our Duties. rit I i .et 1 us always rem is T t tiker and ce every o ac- knowledge our debt to our allies, who have held back the tide that threatened to engulf us with them while we were unaware ot our danger and prospering while they bled. Let us ever walk humbly before splendid, unconquerable France, grim and unconipiaining Britain, valiant and suffering Italy, and let us stand uncovered in the presence of poor, ruined Belgium, the bravest of all the sons and dnughters of taco, who grappled the beast with her bare hands and held hitn a brief moment until the hosts of defense could be assembled. Anti through all the dark days and years to come let us keep our bodies strong, our minds clear, our hearts pure, so that when we have finished the hikrld butcher business we can wash the blood from. our hands and leave no stain upon them, brush our garments and leave no smoke of battle upon them, and present our souls to our God unblushing and un- abashed. In this spirit let us go to each deify task, however hard It may be; in this spirit let us rally for war as for a holi- day, for the day of victory will be indeed the holy day of the world's redemptIon.—From Ad- dress by Clarence Ousiey, As- sistant Secretary of Agriculture. COUNTY AGENTS TEACH MANY 'Harnesses Sun's Rays. An experimenter In the Royal Col- lege of Science in Toronto claims that he has found a way to harness the sun's heat to industrial tasks of al- most any nature. For instance, by his experiments with mirror combinations he has focused reflected rays so as to melt a bar of lead at a temperature below freezing to a depth of one and a half inches in 43 seconds. Intended No Harm. Lucy was playing up on the lawn with her little puppy when the dog next door came up wagging his tail in a most friendly way. The little pup stuck his tail between his legs and started for the house. Lucy caught him, saying: \Don't be afraid, pup; he won't hurt you; he Just Come over to Introduce hisseif.\ Necessity. , A national exhibition was recently held in Berlin to popularize the use Of nailer clothing. Farmers in Southern States Given In- struction in Growing of Crops and Other Problems. (Prepared by the United Staten Depart- ment of Agriculture.) The war emergency brought n great increase in the number of farmers, farm women, and boys itia gifla in- structed by'eounty agents in problems of greater food production and con- servation. According to reports to the office of extension work South, of the states' relations service, 303,723 farmers in the Southern states were reached due -- lug 1917 with definite demonstration in the growing of crops, raising and feed- ing of live stock, marketing and other problems. The number of acres cov- ered by the crop demonktrations alone in 1917 was 2,857,485. In addition to these a conservative estimate of the number of farms directly reached by the county agents in 1917 Is 1,650,000. The figures represent about 60 per rent of all farms in the South. Agents are giving advice and help n one way or another to nearly every tie with whom they Oome th contact, id the direct and indirect Influence ' the county agents' work and the •oportion of the farmers reached is ought to be Much higher than the fig - sea given. Digger In Operation. screens, arranged one above the other The diameter of the openings in the upper screen In some graders is 1% inches and in others 2 inches, while the lower one may have openings any- where from % to 1% inches in diam- eter. Some makes of graders or slzers have wire -mesh screens with struare openings, while others pave circular or oblong openings with circular ends. Pickers and Sorters. Three pickers usually work with one sorter, each taking a row. The potatoes tire picked into wire or splint baskets having a bail handle, anti as the baskets are filled they are dumped , on the upper part of the top screen and then shaken down. The large po- tatoes passing over the top screen are diverted into one sack and those pass- ing through the upper screen and over the lower go Into another sack. One man drives the horse and operates the sorter while another sews the sacks and assists in loading the wagons. One digger with the necessary crew of men and teams can harvest from three to four acres a day. BOYS AND GIRLS WORK HARD Produced and Censerved.Products Last Year Worth $10,900,000—Many Were EM - olled. (Prepared by the United States Departs meat of Agriculture.) More than 2,900,000 boys and 'girls were reachld through club work last year, according to a compilation re- ceutiy made by the United States de- partment of agriculture, which super- vises this work in co-operation with the state agricultural colleges. Of this number approximately 350,000 made complete reports, which show that they -produced and conserved products atnounting to $10,000,000. lu the 33 Northern and Western states 840,606 boys and girls were enrolled. 01 this number 160,625 made complete reports and produced and conserved products valued at $3,700,000. In (be South there were 115,745 boys enrolled in the regular work, who produced products valued at $4,500,000, and 73,- 306 girls who produer-si and conserved products valued at $1,506.t130 In the emergency club work in the Soali: the club leaders reached over 400,900 boys and approximately 1,030,000 girls who produced and conserved products valued at more than $4,000,000. WAR WORK BY COUNTY AGENTS Not Only Laboring for Department of Agriculture, but Also Aiding Food Administration. (Prepared by the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture.) The county agents and home -demon- stration workers employed in the Unit- ed States are not only instructing farmers and farm women in food pro- duction and conservation, but are as- sisting in other essential war work. They are not only working hr the de- partment of agriculture imit are assist- ing the food administration, the treas- ury department, the war department, the navy department, the department of justice, and the department of labor. They have taken part, in addition to -their _regular activities, in such work -- as food surveys, seed surveys, seed, distribution, obtaining credit for farm- ers, selling Liberty bonds, eradication of live stock diseases, surveys of insect pests and campaigns for their destruc- tion, marketing farm prodficts, prefer- ential or priority shipments by rail of farm products° and all farm supplies, and dissemination of Information giv- en out by the war department, the council of national defense, and the committee on public Information re- garding the war, and other matters af- fecting the national policy under war conditions. @Plow, to Destroy Weeds. One and a very good reason why stubble fields should be plowed soon after the grain crop is harvested is to destroy weeds. Remove All Trash. At all times of the season, gather up and destroy all old vines, stalks, and refuse as soon as the crops are harvested. 41 • I ,
