Unsolicited contributions to this department cannot be returned. DGAR LEE MASTERS has found ED new tombstones in God's Acre out at Spoon River, and some of them register something of the new world since he first wrote. Vanity Fair for July begins the publication of these, and we pass on these epitaphs: LIEUTENANT MCGREW Carve for me an eagle crumpled amid the heights, Shot through the breast! For there on that day in June, winnowing rushes of mist And gliding through little floes of writhing spume And the river become a strip of silver foil- And then the plunge! The dizzy turning over and over! Till she dives nose first, with the anarch weight of steel To the crash through the trees of Siever's woods! Carve an eagle for me! CATHERINE OGG "Tombstone " Johnson, head of the school board, Ashamed that he sprang from an egg And a wriggling sperm, But proud that man was created from dust, For showing a picture to the pupils Of a child emerging from an egg shell, And telling them all the beauty and wonder Of evolution that makes a mind Out of an egg and sperm. So I retired and struggled along. And starved a little, and brooded much MORGAN OAKLEY There is a time for vine leaves in the hair, But life is to be lived neither as leaves I came to the wisdom of barren boughs, SPOON RIVER has become peopled with men and women of foreign stock, "holding office, administering the laws, running the business," as Mr. Masters notes. They bring in a new set of feelings, and we choose a Greek as representative: PROTOPAPAS DEMAS To run a fruit store in Spoon River To look at prairies at the ends of streets, Not up at Hymettus To go to a little stream, Never to see Phaleron below Olympus. ey will run red stuff compared to the veins WE crowd the aisles of our trains, to be the first out, standing in discomfort through the long space of the tunnel. "But we save a couple of minutes!" was the argument of one. "And what can you do with them after you've saved them?" was a puzzled rejoinder. The English Review has it in verse: WATCHING THE CROWD BY MADELEINE LUCETTE RYLEY Hither and thither, thronging the street, Whence are you bound, all you hurrying feet? Bearing your forms, both the frail and the strong, Eager and hasty you scurry along... Anxious expectancy marked on each face, Lending an impetus quickening the pace. The spirit of contest grows ever more warm, For each would be first in the curious swarm. So it's scramble and struggle, bustle and race, Jostle your neighbour and step in his place, With only a thought for the hue and the cry And never a moment to glance at the Sky. And what are your aims, all this zeal to excite? Are they matters of moment, quite worthy the fight? And what is your goal, you strenuous file, And when you arrive, will you think it worth while? If the whole of this Energy garnered might be And applied to some one mighty purpose, then we Might learn-to our weal-while dwelling below, The secrets which only the Gods can bestow. But Leicester was only a man after all, So the thing she was feigning before she left them THE theme will never grow too old for genuine feeling, tho already we have had it so often wrought upon. In the North American Review we find this: SPRING FLOWERS BY THE MADELEINE I went to buy Spring flowers And in the market-place I thought, "God hides his face; The woman on her stool behind the rows Had seen and let the bargaining go by- So she had changed, as I, God knows, Have changed. I thought, "There are As many flowers as before the war." And then the sanguine heart of some first rose, Showed me a field of poppies lying dead And forest ferns. When Spring comes once again They will not wake and stir the loose earth-crust.- O bitterness, to know That you, who lie so scattered, crushed and torn Could have been crushed in an embrace, O men and flowers! I left the market-place, Not heeding where I stepped. I thought, "There are As many flowers as before the war," And wept. THERE is no lack of courage before the undoubted facts of life; no foolish reticence in the verses of Miss Millay. And who will say that the keening here from the ages of The Century fail in poignancy? KEEN BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY This I have to hold to my heart. As the wind from over the weirs; Who builds her a house with love for timber. Builds her a house of foam; And I'd rather be bride to a lad gone down Than widow to one safe home. Actual Values Control GMC Sales Whether dollars or "used equipment" Because the price at which a -every dollar received from It makes no difference whether in part payment for a new GMC is figured at its actual worth as a medium of transportation. Only by such a sales policy can every purchaser of GMC trucks be guaranteed the same value at the same price. And only by such a policy can GMC continue to offer the full measure of transportation that is always expected in every truck that bears the GMC nameplate. GENERAL MOTORS TRUCK Co-Pontiac, Michigan GYC GMC Truck Chassis list at the Factory as Follows: 1-Ton, $1295; W THE EX-KAISER'S YOUNGEST SON AS A SPY HILE MILLIONS OF GERMAN SOLDIERS were being used as cannon fodder to enemy guns in the World War, a pale, sickly young man already incapacitated for further service in the trenches by a shrapnel wound was playing the dangerous rôle of spy at the American Military Base in La Rochelle, France. This courageous fellow was none other than the late Prince Joachim of Prussia, sixth and youngest son of the former Kaiser, according to Major C. E. Russell, of the United States Army Criminal Intelligence Service. During the period of the great conflict one popular indoor sport in America and in other countries allied against Germany was that of poking fun at the then Crown Prince (or "Clown Quince" as some humorists derisively dubbed him) and his brothers, who, it was assumed, were all arrant as well as arrogant cowards. If, however, the facts are correct as presented in Major Russell's new book, "True Adventures of the Secret Service" (Doubleday, Page and Company), this harsh judgment upon the male members of the Kaiser's family must be revised, at least in the case of Prince Joachim, for the American Army officer, who obviously has no wish to glorify the former imperial household of Germany, tells a tale in which the youngest son of the Kaiser is portrayed as a warrior who did not flinch at the prospect of being shot at sunrise as a spy or hanged as a common felon. The revelations are made by Major Russell in connection with his account of the way in which the Secret Service thwarted mysterious attempts by firebugs to destroy the military docks and supplies at La Rochelle. Several attempts to burn these docks had been made prior to July, 1918, but they were clumsy and the guilty and altho their labor was used by both the French and the Americans, since they came from our camp we were responsible for their actions, and it was our duty to solve the mystery and punish the guilty. We felt convinced that the German prisoners were in some way setting the fires. We finally decided to send three of our men up to the front. They were to join the newly captured prisoners so that we could transfer them to our prison compound without their identity becoming known. ... This plan was carried out and the Secret Service men detailed to this work were treated the same as the other prisoners. In order that they might be able to visit the various prison huts they were assigned to the Sanitary Squad-the meanest and dirtiest job in the prison camp. Major Russell says that "too much credit can not be given to these men for their willingness to perform even this task in order to accomplish their mission." A PRINCE IN VALOR ALSO Prince Joachim entered upon the stage at this point under the pseudonym of Freytag, who was supposed to be a Swiss Red Cross worker, sent to this compound at the request of the German Government to look after the welfare of their prisoners. The Secret Service men working on the case had no suspicion at the time that Freytag was other than what he seemed to be. Even after it became plain that he was a German spy, the American officers had no inkling that he was a son of the then reigning Kaiser. Regarding the Prince's activities in the prison camp, Major Russell declares: Having the proper credentials, he proceeded to make himself universally liked by all who had anything to do with him. He was a modest, well-mannered young chap, unmistakably a gentleman, speaking excellent tho bookish English, and with only a slight foreign accent. He appeared to be in the early stages of consumption, and his color looked hectic; but he was quietly efficient and made no complaints about his health till an attack of influenza put him in bed and served the Allied and American cause immeasurably. The late Prince Joachim, of Prussia, did not flinch at the ones had been promptly captured and punished. But then, says Major Russell, "we received a report from one of our assistant provost marshals stationed at La Rochelle, one of our subbase ports, which awoke us to new dangers." This A. P. M. reported: "For the past eight nights, on each night, we have discovered . a fire on the gasoline box. By good fortune we have been able to quench them before they made a fair start. But sooner or later, unless steps are taken to capture those who are responsible, we are sure to have a fire that will seriously cripple the entire American Army by destroying at least 75 per cent. of our gasoline supply. Stringent orders against the carrying of matches are enforced; we search every German prisoner before allowing him to pass through the gate; any one found violating this order is severely punished; but still the fires continue." The Commanding General considered the matter very serious, and ordered that every possible means should be employed to catch the firebug and punish him. At this place we had a prison compound with over three thousand German prisoners in it, But for weeks no one suspected that the Swiss Red Cross man, always working so earnestly for the prisoners, was any other than the philanthropist he appeared. He was allowed the freedom of the city, and could buy any supplies he needed. He did his duty in trying to keep his charges free from the vermin, and to that end supplied them with quantities of a certain chemical. When he wanted another acid to be used in the same fight, there was no bar to his getting it. Detectives are trained to look out for the little things, mark the small oddities, the trifles unaccounted for or unaccountably repeated, and sooner or later the big revelation comes. Our three men among the prisoners were industriously cultivating friends and watching for clues, but they got hold of nothing tangible till after they observed that Freytag in talking to a certain trio of prisoners always got them out into the open and generally took them into the center of the prison compound. Other men he talked to with others crowding about; but these men, whether singly or in a group, he isolated. Then one of our men reported that three of the prisoners were continually losing their blouses. They were the same three Freytag had so frequently singled out. Next, the same man noted that the blouses were lost only after a chemical treatment. And now when he marked and reported further that the fire started only after one or more of these blouses had been lostwhy, we knew we were hot on the trail of our quarry, tho still we were unable to link these happenings with the chain of evidence we must have. And then still another fire was set. We must hurry if we were not to lose our docks and perhaps the war. A slant of the wind in the enemy's favor might eventually give the Germans the victory. Just then it was that Freytag was taken down with influenza. We managed, of course, that both doctor and nurse should be persons in our own service. But they both tried in vain to get into the sick man's confidence; he kept his own counsel-not displaying his suspicions, but certainly cherishing them. Altho he was told that it would be a month or six weeks before he could get out, he would not talk. Mary, the nurse, offered to carry on his work for him. "You know," said Mary, "that altho I am an American by birth, I am of German stock. My sympathies are all with Germany, and I am willing to do almost anything to further the German cause." But she made no headway whatever. Trying a new plan, Mary was instructed to go to the prison camp and tell the prisoners she was sent there as Freytag's representative that he was ill and had asked her to look after their welfare while he was away. She gave special attention to the three men whom Freytag had been so intimate with. Finally, one day, one of them said to her that he would have to have some more of both the acids that were used for the destruction of vermin. He said for her to tell Herr Freytag that the last acid was not strong enough; it would not work quickly enough, and for him to experiment and see if with the new supply the ration should not be changed. Even with this information in our possession, we did not realize that we already had the solution of the plot; and but for a careless remark made by the Swiss, we might have gone on and on, still working in the dark. Mary told Freytag of her conversation with the prisoner, Hans, and, of course, she strest the fact that he had complained the acid was too weak. Thereupon, "I will try it out by myself when I recover," replied Freytag. "The next time you go over to the camp, tell Hans not to use any more until I first try it out here at home. Tell him it is too dangerous and that I wish him to wait until I have recovered and can tell him personally just what proportions to use." When this was reported to me, I determined that I myself would experiment with those dangerous acids and asked my friend the doctor to help me. But he did not need to experiment to know something about what would happen if I brought those two substances together. "You will blow yourself up if you don't look out!" he exclaimed. "Those two acids in contact cause spontaneous combustion and you will set something on fire!"-and we had fathomed one of the deadliest plots of the war! It was very simple: Freytag, teaching them how to fight vermin, had instructed all the prisoners to wash their clothing in the first acid, allowing it to remain on the cloth. The three men who were in his confidence were the only ones who knew his real objective; he would give them a small bottle of the other acid, which was stoppered with a small roll of paper; and when they were at work they would take off their blouses and would throw them, with the bottie in a pocket, behind some combustible material on the dock. The acid in the bottle would eat through the paper stopper, and reaching the chemically prepared cloth it would burst into flame-and the chance of destroying a vast system of docks and endless supplies of gasoline and oil would be excellent, especially if the acid were timed to reach the cloth at night so that the fire might get a good start before being discovered. It took little experimenting to prove to us that the acids might and did work just that way. I purposely suppress the names of chemicals capable of such misuse. The time came when Freytag was allowed by the doctor to go for a short walk, and, as we expected, he took the first chance to get fresh supplies for arson. Meanwhile, we secreted several men in his cellar, where we were sure he would undertake an investigation of the strength of his purchases. Sure enough, when he came in he went to the cellar, and, taking some old cloth and paper, proceeded to try out various combinations of the acids. After several hours' experimenting, he finally secured the proper proportions and then put the two acids together on a cloth. In a few seconds the cloth was burning. Then the Secret Service men stept out and arrested Freytag. The calm and defiant manner in which he reacted to this exposure of his carefully laid plot and to his capture leads Major Russell to exclaim: He was a brave chap, that German spy. Just up from a sickbed, he had been working for hours beyond his strength, but he showed no white feather. At first he denied all charges, but when he heard what we knew, he took the other tack and wanted to know why any further preliminaries? Why should we investigate further or talk of a court-martial? "Take me out and shoot me," he said. He was brought before me. It was my duty to find out, if I could, who he was. The manner of his confederates toward him and his own personal quality convinced us that he belonged in the higher ranks of life. But I could get nothing out of him. We sat opposite each other, talking quietly enough, and nothing I could say appeared to shake him in any way. I told him that as a common felon he would be hung. He said he had a right to be shot. But when I replied that maybe if we knew who he was we could grant that right, he still quietly refused us any information. I told him I recognized that he must without doubt belong in the officer class, but if we knew nothing about him he would have to bear the hard conditions imposed on his common soldier confederates. "Put me in with them," was his answer. All the while he kept his voice level and firm. Men experienced in such suffering could tell that his mouth was dry; he was "chewing cotton" and the white saliva showed at the corners of his mouth, but there was no weakening of his soul. He was too mysterious and personally impressive to be speedily executed. For the time being he was imprisoned under the conditions of an officer. Soon extraordinary German efforts to effect his exchange proved we were right as to his being an important person. The Germans offered to exchange many prisoners for this one. Limitations of space prevent narrating here the thrilling steps which led to unmasking Freytag's identity, and finally to the seizure of the secret plans of the German High Command which were so valuable to the Allies. This feat, described in detail in Major Russell's book, is said to have shortened the war materially. In brief, the situation was as follows: The Allied commanders, according to Major Russell, were at their wits' end to obtain urgently needed information about the movement of the German troops. The American Secret Service volunteered to try to penetrate the enemy lines in some way to secure this information, the French having already failed in their effort to do so. Freytag, in reality Prince Joachim, was used as a pawn. One of the American Secret Service men, posing as a deserter, got into the good graces of the "Council of Five" in Spain, a committee of Germans. He maneuvered in such a way as to obtain the release of Freytag from imprisonment by a spectacular and hazardous escape made while the American guards were firing upon the fugitive and the disguised Secret Service man. With this accomplishment to his credit, the Secret Service man wormed his way deeper into the German propaganda and spying system in Spain. He and a companion managed to get passage behind the German lines where, at infinite risk, they finally succeeded in stealing the desired information and escaping back to the American lines with two German army officers whom they had induced to betray the Fatherland. Prince Joachim had no direct connection with these later adventures of the Secret Service men, but it was through his intercession on their behalf after they had spirited him away from the prison that these American spies obtained access to quarters from which they ultimately carried away the urgently sought documents. Judging from Major Russell's story, the youngest son of the ex-Kaiser was far from being a coward, despite the fact that he subsequently shot himself fatally "in a fit of nervous excitement." Of this tragic fate the author-soldier says: "The world knows the story of Prince Joachim's suicide. The American officers who participated in this great feat will always believe that the Prince killed himself because he realized that he was the means by which the Americans were successful in reaching officers of the German High Command and in inducing them to turn traitors, and in helping so materially to conquer Germany." |