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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1914)
THE arOKXTKG OREGOXTAS1, MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1911. BATTLE OBSERVED .SCENE OF FIRE THAT DESTROYED NINE BUILDINGS IN BUSINESS DISTRICT OF GRESHAM. A TOP OF -TREE Place Your Orders Early . Little of Spectacular Is Seen in Business-Like Artil- ' lery Routine. FOR THE dlitioo BATTERY FIRING SUPERB FROM H T ' f ' N S 1 & - f 1- - V J - ' - - - 1 IB-1 t V-&netm'Li "3i-t f ,.v . V Wa James O'Donnell Bennett, With Bavarian Army, Describes Sensa tions Caused ny Pounding Op . erations of Great Guns. BT JAMES OTHDNNELL BENNETT. (War correspondent of The Chicago Trib une. Published by arrangement with The Tribune.) ON THE FIRING LINE IN COTES LORRAINE, Dec. ? It waa with a, manner which I hop seemed cordial, but In a spirit which waa only moder ately enthusiastic, that I accepted the invitation of the Bavarians to climb one of the trees where lookouts were signaling- by telephone to batteries In the valley below. In the first place, I have 110 passion . for giddy heights; In the second place, ' I feel an almost morbid love of life, owing to its surprising interest. Corespondent lias No Choice. But as between a broken neck and the laughter of half a regiment of deep-chested Bavarians, affectionately .'. known in the German armies from Ant werp to St. Mihlel as "those damned Bavarians," fear nothing, and a man '.' who declined their invitation to climb a tree that a small boy would scram ble up in 10 minutes such a man, I say, might as well go back to London and write censored stuff about the fearful perils he suffered while motor ing at his ease and eating three times . -a day amid the scenes of the present hostilities. That kind of stuff sells, and every body in Europe Is too busy or too sad oust now to take the time to expos the writer of it aa a flamboyant liar. Tree SO Feet Hish, Seems ISO. The tree selected for my observation point stands on the far edge of the . camp and at the top of the wooded Elope which drops down with the valley. To me it loked 150 feet high. I suppose it was 80 at the most. But if you look down from U into the valley you realize that your fall will be quite twice the height of the tree. So you decide not to look". On the way to the tree dozens of long gray overcoats are bung on im provised clothes-horses to dry. They are sodden with mud and rain. Soldiers back from 24 hours in the trenches hung them there. The soldiers are asleep now under those rafters ehalked with the inscription, "We Bavarians fear God and nothing else in the world.' We pass, too. the hut of a Major of Artillery. Directly in front of his door- way is a bombproof pit, calculated to r keep his thoughts on eternity, but so conveniently placed that he could al most leap Into it from his bed. 'But to assuage the strain of the matters of which the pit is a reminder there are lace curtains at his windows Secret of 'Device" Is Kept. In the center of the camp Is a cer tain device which we are asked to test. We do so with cries of admira tion, so perfect are its workings. "It is enormously costly, but enor mously useful," says one of the officers. "If you please." he adds, "don't write of it at this time, for the French don't know that we have it." Nothing more 1b said as to keeping this valuable secret. There is no pal aver and no insistence. The Germans wfienthey trust you, trust you to the hilt, and when they don't well, they . just don't, and they can be extremely austere about it. On the way to the tree nobody could have missed the device in question. On the .way back, an hour later, most persons would have missed it. It Is still there, but is now of different shape and size one of those "now-you-see-it - and - now - you-don't-see-it" things that would delight the inventive soul of a Connecticut Yankee. The glorious Autumn valley is preg nant with death, and yet at the instant there is nothing terrible to see In it, A remote banging and pounding come to the ears. The sounds are full of mean ing. As far as the sights which the naked eye can take in, they mean nothing. A bluish mist rests lightly over the val ley. The brown fields, their bound aries marked off by hedges that still are green, seem utterly deserted. The outlines of a church tower, a squat mill, a bridge, and a huddled village can be discerned, but nowhere is there any sign of human comings and goings. Burning Village Seen. Part the branches a little and put your eyes to the field glasses. The whole picture leaps into sharp outline and begins to have meaning. The spirals of yellow smoke are from a burning village on the opposite hill side. It has been set alight by shell fire. To the layman it seems not as much fighting as dislodging, and the routine of it is so well ordered that this lay man has the impression not of the tent ed field and of martial ardor, but of projects in process of development by groups ,of civil engineers who go me thodically and laboriously about their work. Select your position, slowly bring up your artillery under the protection of the Infantry and then intrench your in fantry under the protection of the ar tillery. After that the duel begins and it may continue many hours or many days or many weeks. Considering the enormous extent of the western battle line reaching as it loes from Switzer land Into Belgium there is rfclatively little spectacular work. In clearing the ground for the ad vance of the artillery and In the final dashen of Infantry by which the re sults of the artillery's pounding are converted Into definite triumph and into occupation of a desired position in that kind of work there must be a superb - pictoriap quality. I have seen no such fighting and I doubt whether any cor respondent lias seen much of it. Jn the first place, their room is pre ferable to their company on such ooca sions, and in the second place .when such occasions are Impending the firing line is a long way in advance of the places to which correspondents are al lowed to come. i The reader must remember that all localities given over to fighting are al most as definitely marked off as a foot balj field. And. indeed, without the most explicit passports and the most authoritative escort it is impossible to penetrate even into the region that lies around the zone of fighting. Every road is guarded. Every village contains a patrol. Every chateau out of the range of the shells is either a staff headquarters or a hospital, and no man passes it unless nis status is thorough iy uuueiaioua oy every ooay, rrom a slow-speaking, slow-thinking sentry to a vehement and autocratic chief of Stan. Routine of Battle Businesslike. Passing for the moment from our present point of observation to a place j j J-U-v -g xf V s1Mi 1 ) fT "xrttS JSj j. - f liPPER PICTURE, RlilNS OX WEST - SIDE OF MAIX STREET LOWER, SITE OF" BARTELT MERCANTILE COM- PAX Y, OS EAST SIDE OF STREET, WHERE FIRE ORIGINATED. which. It is permissible to say. lies nearly 100 miles to the west, the busi nesslike routine of the operations which carried the Germans across the Aisne may be illustrated by the remark of a German officer who stood on the heights whither we now have moved. Before him lay a wide valley. Its bot tom lands comprising rich and care fully cultivated fields, untouched by the hand of war save where a ten-centime ter shell had helped a farmer ia his Autumn plowing. Half way up the opposite slopes the mill, the church and such like large structures of a village or two could be discerned and occa sionally a whole wall of one of these buildings would go spurting Into the air, precisely like a sheet of dirty water. ' When the wall which had thus been blown into, the air by shell fire sank to the ground, tongues of fire would leap from it, growing brighter as the yellow smoke slowly billowed away. ltis evident." said an officer who was watching this, "that the English have run out of smokeless powder to day." . Scene Is Exhilarating;. It was our first view of shell fire and It made us pretty tremulous, not with fear, I can honestly add, for we were not In the slightest danger, but with exhilaration arid wonder. When we tried to call one another's attention to this or that feature of the scene our voices shook a good deal, and finally we ceased speaking much and only pointed and nudged. There seemed to us a kind of indecency in our human chatter amid this solemn thunder. Well, what the German officer said that indicated his sense of the routine nature of the appalling activity was this: "It is rather busy today." With that he picked up a pair of field glasses and silently studied the oppo site slopes for five minutes. The officers said that as we seemed interested we could go down the hill to the battery of six 10-centimeters and see the men firing them "salve," as the German word of command has it. meaning volley firing. So we left the bit of promontory from which the bat tery fire in the field below was being directed and took our places in the lane 20 feet wide which ran between the battery and the telephone pits behind it. Amulng Results Attained. But for a half articulate person he got amazing results as to both noiae and accuracy. The six gray babies lurched back on their haunches simul taneously when he whispered "Salve." Blue sky and sunshine seemed torn to tatters, and s,ix shells went singing and sighing clear across the valley to a thickly wooded height, where they ex ploded over an area that seemed to comprise only a few square yards. After that you had four minutes to shake the ache out of your ears be fore the officer with green lines of weariness under his eyes whispered "Salve" again. But the ' 10-centimeter declaration was a reticent kind of spending com pared with the roar of the 21-centimeter mortars that go traveling on three flatcars apiece and have difficulty in finding a. French field which will sus tain them in wet weather. When we took our stand behind them they were not in action. An officer said he be lieved matters could be arranged. So he moved IS feet through the ex tensive thicket in which the guns were planted and bent over a 'telephone pit that was screened not with sheaves of grain, but with branches of oak leaves. There was conversation with an officer of a General's staff which was located six miles away, but that was nothing as to the distance, I mean, for from that same Yit you could talk with Ber. lln if you had something of the highest Importance to say. The word ran along the line, "Keep your mouth open keep your mouth open keep your mouth open." It was addressed to the civilians standing 30 feet behind the guns or perhaps it was 50. And an officer who seemed to wish us well added: "Stand loosely, gentlemen, stand loosely.' The shell was on its way to the enemy. All I saw was something red, and all I heard 'was the crack of doom. Later I tried to remember what was heard or felt at the firing of a 21. and I decided that the dominant thing lay in the see ing, and that what one saw was the blue sky vanishing in a crimson flash. Turks Take Hills In Persia. BERLIN. Dec. 20. by wireless to Sav vllle, N. Y. The Turks report taking some hills overlooking Kotur, near Lake Urumlah, Northwestern Persia. MAYOR HAS LIFE JOB L. J. Simpson, of Nortfr Bend, Has Eye on Congress. . HARBOR AID IS SOUGHT Perpetual Executive Tells of Ex tensive Public Work Completed and Contemplated, Declaring Coos Bay Prosperous Place. Did you ever hear of a man, and a young and healthv one at that, elected Mayor of a thriving cty for life? A person of such distinction is in Portland- now in the person of L. J. Simpson, Coos Bay enthusiast, who has been Mayor of North Bend since that city was born officially 18 years ago. "The people in my' section were not satisfied wrth -the Ten Commandments laid down in the Bible," said Mr. Simpson in the lobby of the Hotel Port, land yesterday. "They have pledged themselves to this eleventh command ment: 'There shall not be a new Mayor at North Bend so long as L. J. Simp son lives.' " But If Mr. Simpson has his own way he will upset the commandment a couple of years for he wants to suc ceed Willis C. Hawley as Representa tive in Congress and is already nurs ing his candidacy. He is a staunch Re publican and will seek to defeat Mr. Hawley for the nomination. If he goes to Congress Mr. Simpson intends to see to it that Coos Bay and other harbors along, the Pacific Coast get their full quota in Federal appro priations. , The object of his present visit is to' confer with Major Morrow relative to the prospect of renewing work on the Coos Bay Jetty. Providing Major Morrow will recommend the work. Mayor Simpson says North Bend will send a large delegation to Wash ington to work for the appropriation. ' "The Port of Coos Bay has estab lished a district including the natural watershed of the bay and has voted $600,000 in bonds to improve the inner harbor," said Mr. Simpson. "This means an assessment of 55 for each man, woman and child in the district. By the time our $600,000 has been spent we will have a channel 25 feet deep at mean lower low water and 300 feet Vide. "The ttwn of North Bend, population 3500, has just spent 1165,000 on im provements, and a paving contract is pending. Next year the new grade be tween North Bend and Empire, four miles distant, will be hard-surfaced. In addition there Is about (400,000 worth of road work in sight In the Coos Bay district. -- " "Work is about to be started on the 175,000 tiimpson Hotel and between 1500 and 2000 men are employed In building the railroad into the Coos Bay district. This work and the fact that all the big sawmills are running eight-hour shifts makes Coos Bay the most prosperous community on the Coast." FIRE BURNS BUILDINGS Continued From First Page.) men, who worked heroically and saved other buildings that were threatened. The home of Peter Mitchell, nearly two blocks from the scene of the blaze, was set afire by flying sparks, but was saved by a bucket brigade. Wires Are Prestrate. Many telephone and light wires were burned, and direct communication with Portland was interrupted for a time. The places burned follow; Bartelt Mercantile Company, stock loss $15,000, insurance $11,000. Loss on building about $6000. Warehouse con taining blacksmith's equipment. J. C. Hessel & Son, Implements; stock loss $5000, Insurance $2500. Ed Osborne, owner of building, loss about $1200. - Ed Osborne, blacksmith shop and J - -sl 1 9" 1 1 s'; - r J. k. wagon factory. Building and equip ment total loss. Max Schneider, photograph gallery and equipment, total loss. Palmquist harness store; loss (1500, insurance $1000. Tietx meat market; loss $1000, insur ance $800. J. J. Halligan, barber-shop; loss $300. D. A. Hart, residence; loss $250. ' The Condon Hotel sustained damage of about $600, while the heat and water did slight damage to the Bank of Greshani, the Sterling & Kidder hard ware store and the C. C. general mer chandise store. Gresham Firemen Praised. We got the call at 4 A. M.," said Captain William Hansen, of Engine No. 9, last night. "I don't know Just what time we made, on the trip out. The boys in Gresham said that we ar rived there Just 17 to 19 minutes after they called us. "But I don't know about that. The roads were bad, and it was dark. We made as good time as we could with safety. We could see the fire from Mount Tabor, as we came up on the Base Line road. "Gresham has a good little fire de partment and they were doing good work when we got there. But the east wind was too strong for them. We had plenty of water, but the build ings were" all close together and it was a hard Job to fight the fire. Portland Flremea Shocked. "A lot of our boys, and some of the Gresham people, were shocked by live wires. They were falling all around. Before we left we chopped all the live wires and cleared them off the street. We got back to Portland at 9:25 A. M, The people of Gresham sewed breakfast, to us after the fire." Eight members of Engine No. 9's crew went to tha fire. They were: Captain William Hansen, Lieutenant Frank J. McFarland, Hushel Thomas, chauffeur; George Holsheimer, - Jack Kline, Ira Gardner, T. O. Baker and A. J. Conrad. , .The men say that the water froze on their clothing. NEIGHBOR OF LASSEN BELIEVED TO BE IN ERUPTION. Theory That Forest Fire Accounts for Smoke Discredited by Snow Crater Not Kaons to Exist. REDDING, Cal., Dec. 20. Mount Kanaka. 30 miles west from Redding, broke into, eruption shortly after noon today, according to residents of Shasta and Trinity counties. A dense column of black smoke as cended from the extreme peak of the mountain and hung plume-like until darkness hid the phenomenon from view. In Redding it was declared by several persons that Ore could be dls tingulshed by the aid of glasses In -the smoke at the apex of the peak. No previous crater existed oh Mount Ka naka, as far as could be ascertained. Mount Kanaka is one of the Yolo Bolo mountains that form part of the Coast Range and is 15 miles north of Lassen Peak in nearly the same corre sponding position across the valley from Redding. The eruption, while not of as great magnitude as the recent disturbances of Lassen Peak, bore the same general appearance. That forest fires were responsible for the smoke plume was not believed possible, owing to the fact that the mountain was covered by a heavy cap of snow, and because the display had continued for more than four hours without spreading In any direction or increasing or diminishing in volume when night bid it from view. A party of Investigation was formed tonight and will proceed to the scene of the disturbance tomorrow. Mount Kanaka is 5000 feet high and is situated one mile south of Mount Bally. Women Cremated in Scotch Castle, GLASGOW, via London, Dec. 21 Three young women guests were burned to death in Herbertshire Castle, a his toric old feudal, building at Denny, seven miles from Stirling, and owned by C. W. Forbes, when it was destroyed by fire today. Many valuable paint ings were lost. OF Tine Orego Every resident of Portland, the Columbia River Basin and Oregon 8hould secure a copy of the New Year's Edition of The Oregonian. It should be the duty of every person interested in the welfare and devel opment of the state to send a copy of this great edition to each of his friends in other states. The forthcoming number will be distinctive and unusually attrac tive. Articles of compelling interest, statistics and illustrations com pose a complete resume of progress in 1914. Without doubt it is the greatest medium for advertising Oregon's development. It will contain elaborate pictorial features, portraying the important activities of the state. It will feature Portland's maritime . growth and' harbor and river improvement. Oregon's trade opportunities with foreign lands will ba exhaustively treated. This great edition will be on sale Friday, January 1, 1915. Single! copy 5c; postage 5c. SlU out blank form and Bend to Oregonian officeSixth and Alder Sta, Name '. I Street I Town j State m I ,- ' ' m THE OREGONIAN, Portland, Oregon Gentlemen : Enclosed Year's Annual to each of Sent by (Duplicate blanks may Circulation Department), MR. LANE'S ACT SKIMPS SECRETARY ASKED TO GO FURTHER AND APPROPRIATE FUND. Authority of Congress Not Required and Mr. Chapman Sogseeta Stigma of "Passing; Back' Remains. fll " While Oregonians generally were gratified to learn that Secretary of the Interior Lane had announced that he would approve the appropriation of $450,000 for irrigation work in Oregon without the necessity of another J460. 000 appropriation on the part of the Leg. islature, the prevailing opinion is that he should go even farther than that if he Is disposed to do the right thing by Oregon. , "It is not necessary for Secretary Lane to await action by Congress to insure Oregon that 4B0,OO0," said C. C. Chapman, of the Commercial Club, last night. "That sum of money already has been set aside for expenditure in the State of Oregon and if Secretary Lane but says the word it will be ready for use tomorrow. In his statement Sat urday he recognized the main principle at issue and shows that he is willing to compromise his previous stand, but if he means to do the right thing he should give Oregon the .benefit of the funds immediately. "Congress recently passed, a law placing the Irrigation, funds on the same basis with river and harbor im provements which require the sanction of Congress to recommendations by departments for allotments. But this law does not become effective until July next and . In the' meantime Secretary Lane is privileged to -make his allot ments operative as In the past, especial ly so in this case, in which the funds actually were allotted, as the records show, about a year and a half ago." Others familiar with the situation said yesterday that Secretary Lane's changed front did not mean anything to them unless to signify that ho intended to "pass the buck" up to Congress and refuse to reallot the $450,000 on his own responsibility. WAR PICTURESJ0 REMAIN Hellig Will Show Movies ot Battle Line for Another Week. The Belgian war pictures, the first authentic moving pictures from the far-flung European battle line, will continue to run this week at the Hellig Theater from noon to 11 o'clock at night. The Hellig Theater procured the rights for an additional week as soon as The Oregonian relinquished its right, which was for one week, in the interest of charity and Jointly in the Interest of the Belgian Red Cross fund of the Chicago Tribune. The Heilig continues in the arrange ment with the Chicago Tribune and a share of the proceeds goes to the Red Cross fund. The pictures, which are the first au thentic motion Alms from the Belgian battle zone, show actual warfare, life in the trenches, and the camera has clicked in the . wake of the big sieg find. ., for which mail The Oregonian 's New the above addresses.' (Enclose 10c for each name.) - - ........a, be had by calling, telephoning or writing to The Oregonian guns and field artillery. The pictures of the ruined cities are likewise vivid and realistic. One of the features of the films is that they show the effective organiza tion of the great fighting machines of the nations involved. WOMEN'S CAUSE IS AIDED Mrs. Ii. W. Therkelsen Gives $100 to Congressional TJnion. Among other gifts to the work of gaining the Federal amendment for woman suffrage, known as the Brietow. Mondell resolution, was that of Mrs. L. W. Therkelsen. of Portland, who Sat urday gave $100 to the Congressional Union, which is heading the campaign for the passage of the bill. The gift was made at the meeting of the sustain, ing committee of the Portland branch of the Congressional Union, at room 613 Eilers building. This committee is composed of Dr. Florence Manion, Mrs. E. 6. Gilbert. Mrs. A. E. Borthwlck, Mrs. Therkelsen. A Gala Week at YE OBJECON GRILLE The Christmas spirit of good cheer and merriment prevails at this popular Grille. Special Table cV Hote Christmas Dinner A royal old-fashioned Christmas feast with its bur den of "goodies," Including a bottle ot fine old Zinfandel wine, served from 5 to 8:30, l.50. . Special Entertainment All-Star Winter Garden Cabaret, with its bevy of pretty girls and new "hits." Marion 8. Bellamy, famous Silhouette Artist a silhouette for every guest. Reserve your tables now for New Year's Eve. Phone or Mail. e (Oregon rtlle HOTEL OREGON, BROADWAY AT STARK ' Chas. Wright. . M. C. Dickinson. Pres. Managing; Director. When la Seattle, Stop at Hotel Seattle We O w n If Mrs. Emma B. Carroll and Mrs. W. J Hawkins. Miss Virginia Arnold is tha union organizer in Portland. PORTLAND FIGHTER WRITES John li. Cricbton Tells of Learning of Supposed Arrest After Landing, Reading of his alleged capture on tha high seas en route to Liverpool on hia arrival In the port abroad was the ln-4 teresting experience of John R. Crlch-. ton, ex-Portlander. according to a letter; received from him recently by E. Hub- bard, a carman residing s-t 1171 Berth wick street. Mr. Crlch ton, who for several year a lived at 1061 Concord avenue, of this) city, and was an employe of the Port- land Railway, Light & Power Company, sailed to his native country about Not vember 1 in answer to a call for volun teers to the army issued by the English) government. The first half pint of milk at a mllklnc contained only 1.07 per cent of cream, while the last haJf pint contained 10.86 per cent. A A