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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1920)
TTIE SUNDAY OREGONIAN. PORTLAND. JAXTJART 4, 1920. War Orphans Are "Waif and Strays" in Hpme. Mlu Lanron Cnldcr Surh Chil dren Precious Legacies Ieft by Soldlrrn and Say" Nome Sound 1.1 It r Dob;b' Home. ANYHOW, IT'S PERFECTLY PROPER TO LAUGH WITH BRIGGS ' Tm. oays off Rf?AL Pot BY EDITH E. LANYON. THE ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT, Dec. 8. Every morning when I am dressing I hear the sound of little feet pattering down the road. If I rush to the window I can just catch sight between the shrubs of a flash of scarlet. N It is the orphans going to school, dressed In red capes and hoods just like the. one little Red Riding Hood wore. Junior orphans wear scarlet and senior orphans bright blue. All of them wear clo'-is because leather costs a lot of money now. They are a cheery, healthy set of little girls and those scarlet cloaks of theirs brighten up the gray winter landscape. Officially they are "waifs and strays"' from the home higher up the hill. " Waifs' and strays' home" sounds like a dog's home to me. so I prefer to call them orphans, though indeed,, some still own living parents, as a rule not of the kind to boast about. A few are dead soldiers' children and no soldier s child should 'ever bear the name of wait or stray. It is a legacy he has left to his country and should be a cherished legacy. Our "tweeny-maid" was brought up at the home and is a good advortise r.ienl. as her greatest delight is lo go up there on her afternoon oft and play with the children. She always spends her holidays there and (this la a secret) she is making matron a most gorgeous needle book, all green satin and pink roses, for a Christma3 present. I know all about it, because I sim helping. Next week matron is going away lor a few days and I have volunte-jicd to take her place at the home to re lieve the assistant matron tor ner off duty time. 1 wonder how it will feel to be tem porary acting-mother to 19 children. On the Saturday I have promised to take the Red Riding Hoods out for a walk, shall keep away from the woods for fear 19 wolves might spring out and devour them. In my last letter I made a mistake in saying the name of our principal' slum was "Rattle Gate." It is "Rattle Ghyll." On further questioning I find it is so-called because it runs alongside a swift stony-bedded stream and near a noisy water mill. Gin or ghyll Is from an Icelandic word gil, which means a mountain ravine. This was not a walled town, so never had any "gates." I leaned over the bridge to listen and the water certainly rattles oyer the stones. After a flood the noise in that street must be deafening. Deaf ness has lost its sting, 1 always think, since that telephone affair came into constant use. You can talk into it quite naturally and the deaf person holds the receiver to his ear and can hear all. the trivial nothingnesses of light conversation. So nice that your smile arrives too. 1 always smile when talking to a friend, even on a long distance tele phone, and that smile is wasted on the desert air. Far better if it could bet preserved for use in times of depression. Bot tled or dried smiles, guaranteed to keep in any climate, and for any period, might be useful in emergen cies, for passport purposes, or going . through the customs, etc. The weather lately has been some times wet, sometimes frosty a:nd sometimes even fine. One day it was misty. I went for a walk up the hills and soon got above the fog. It was curious to look down, because the mist lay in the valley like a mysterious lake, gradually licking up the sides of the h'lls and becoming deeper and deeper. It got colder as I went higher, and soon the leaves on the bushes by the wayside were each edged neatly with frost lace and the hedge rows fes tooned with frosted cobwebs. My only companion was a dear.muddy little spaniel. He has the most Joyous hind legs I ever saw when he bounds ahead full of life and spirits. The fascinating, faint smell of rab bits appealed to him more than aU the scenery In the world and he snuffed every inch of the way, mak ing a noise just like a vacuum sweeper. Should he meet a man with a. gun 1 know full well that he would de sert me without a qualm. One evening about sundown 1 saw Lake Windermere looking just like a pearl. It was veiled in chiffon mist and shone through with all the elu sive tints of mother-of-pearl. I have seen the dawn shining across the bay onto Mount Tacoma with those self came pearl tints, but at sunset it was more like rubies and amethysts. They say that Grassmere, one of our local lakes, took its name in olden times from the "Grise," or wild swine which dwelt on its banks, but it is a name which requires no fancy ex planation because the edges are grown over with grassy weeds. I am willing to leave the "Grise" to wallow in the obscurity of the past. We have two pigs, called "Jack and Jill." The expansion of their figures Is one of the topics of the moment and their waist measures are taken and duly noted every few days. It is sad for piggy that he is so pleasant when he's dead. Unless some of the pigs whose bacon fed us during the war were very pleasant in their lives they missed it alto gether, because all England can testify that they were not by any means pleasant ;when dead. We can forgive Chicago, though, if she really meant that bacon for the Germans, lavishly salted with salt that never lost its savor. I am now trying to read all the hooks I have not had time to read during the past four years. We have a subscription to Mudies,' that old fashioned and best-known of all cir culating libraries, so we get all the new books down from London. I have just been reading Woods Hutchinson's "The Doctor in War." and found it very interesting. I like the way he says what he wants to tay in such a direct manner that it teaches you at once, instead of grop ing through a dictionary for all the technical words he can find and muf fling his thoughts up in them until you utterly lose Tight of his idea. On Sunday we had that stirring hymn. "Oh Come. Oh Come, Emman uel." sung to a weird minor chant It has a wild, uncivilized sound. If I know anything, it is more ancient than Christianity, and was once sung as a pagan hymn to the sun. Perhaps sung by dancers encircling victims packed in wicker baskets, ready for the sacrifice: the same tune, but very different words. Wo have a splendid organ, said to be one of the finest In the north of England, but it has the artistic tem perament. One Sunday.it went on strike in the middle of the service and refused to do anyi.hir.g- but growl like a den' of lions begging for Daniels. A charac teristic sound at our church is the Matter of the orphans' wooden shoon coming up the aisle. There was a curious advertisement j - OMg6OV IS AUWATt TAlOxG Tm6 Oor CUT Qf' tlFg 1 1 UJUUMMJm. ARCM T You GolC BAG 1 cAWt VfaO NO vlO CARRIE LISTEN I XOrJ'T WanT 'To .TAKE That kj i f Mf vaJ Ra, OoT iisJ This KlJ& OF .SLOPPY WeATHEft- TrilS' . isfice- ome for cjUMMeP- it'D Get avaiful Uip.tt waw IT'S. Too Ml C( I (AIAWT TAXI f(E. OP it ODEAR NNH6M You TRY To -3 Mi5aK OUT or The nouses with. Your Dear old Battle 5carrcd 8ac Tb "Play;- a. Game .of uifJT(R. Golf with Your OUT) Pals - and Tne wife Tries To CET YfcxJ TO TAKg Turf PPETTr ri T SHg GAvg You FOR CHRIiTMAi-. TcMiCDaeM ars. l . CAN'T IMAGiMfe J . H fe, ) I ALL ALIKC - hf i .VAJHAT 'L S ' i l ' ' i DtS5' For a Penk To rVT M SLOT SO That MAY BE HAD fuSHes Rod with iMcneAStrJfi : vwJueMce Aiu a G R eat- C L AT T s. A MAKl AJ-D A GUA MACHIMC Puts in1 pen my Arr POSHES A PRoJeCTlNC BRASS RoL So That Cum iviav drop imto OPeMlfJG .AT Bottom' Pushes Rod vigor ously WITHOUT Aor RESULT .VWHATvSOEVtR Seats o ' macMin AimD SHAKeS..T Hofic That Suv wilC drop vioteiMCE iuflsiBes guT Gives Rot OAe. Final PU5M--.MO '.Gum Becorvves irrvTaTsd aajd makes ct&se- UP IMSPECTIOM OF LOVAJtR SECTION OF MACHIiJE -'PUSHlNlG rod at the. same Time Penny Gome: no (SUM. JXJCSaJ'T Losim6 a pejKiY-. but' Does obJcct To Be.KiG RSBBED OF." IT. '9 I In the London papers a few days ago asking for someone to take care of a baby gorilla, wages 30 shillings a week. Imagine being nurse maid to such a baby as that! I would rather adopt a whole orphan asylum; One of the popular peace occupations seems to be keeping rabbits. Such a contrast, I suppose, to kming Germans. I fill in my spare time by doing mild little iits of embroidery for Christmas presents. . Reels of cotton fere now 15 cents a reel and the thread is as rotten as passible, it is like "sewing with a burning .thread." as my old "nurse used to say. (She usually described ready-made garments as "sewin' with a red-hot needle and a burning thread.") Embroidery silk celebrated Decem- i ber 1 by going up 1 and 2 cents a skein. Will anything ever go down, I won der? Tonight I hear the owls hooting. I think they all must be widow or Widower owls mourning their dead. Such a dismal sound, it makes me feel lonely. I would rather hear the most excru ciating squawk of an electric car go, ing around a curve. This hooting mattes my very soul shed tears. - "(ifrl of No Hnrrat." Lieu tenant-General Robert Lee Bul lard, who has succeeded Major-General Thomas H. Barry as the commander of the department of the east, with headquarters on Governor's island. Is called "The General of No Retreat." In his citation of an American unit which captured Fay's wood, on the Meuse river. General Bullard ended tt with "You are there; stay there!" This phrase became famous through out the American expeditionary forces.-, When, July 15, 1918,' General Bul lard left a conference of French gen erals under whom he was operating he expressed regret that he could not obey orders to fall back. In expla nation of his conduct the general said: "The American flag has been forced to retire. This is intolerable." Ie launched a counterattack by the Americans in this second battle of the Marne which proved to be the turning point of the war and enabled Marshal Foch to wrest the initiative from Ludendorff and Hindenburg. For his "disobedience" he was pro moted to the rank of lieutenant general. Son of -a Confederate private" sol dier, of fighting blood, a friend of John J. Pershing at West Point, sea boned by gallant conduct in Mexico and made an international hero in the great war. General Bullard comes to his new post of responsibility with the love and respect of his country. JOURNEYS THAT ARE UNPOPULAR PORTRAYED BY DARLING OSE WHO OONTLIKE THE CLIMATE I TOR TJrf rwvJsj;: wk ,Lw&f CONDUCTOR : SAY YOUMG FELLA, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING? ' ' - j THE GENERAL MANAGER'S LITTLE HOLI DAY OUTIMG. in tuuiiiimi..Li,iiLiiini, .nivc, i ii . .j mmm mi m l Mm mm id 1 . . " iV VT. - -Aa X X X VVV "LlJ