The Camden chronicle. (Camden, S.C.) 1888-1981, September 05, 1919, Image 7
MOSLEMS IN NOMENCLATURE WHICH
war RISK bureau has to tackle
lties~tlie Bureau Experiences In Answering Letters and
I u ' ntainii'O the Correct Addresses of Demobilized Men?
; Ball Become Transients and Others Give Only Frag
mdntary Information.
| \V;,shlnKU?n.? Kcco homo! Behold
wuui ' I
I r no this man's mime so that I
jpi re|H?rt definitely on the Hiatus of
y* Insurance." j
1 That. tQgPther w|th a slip bearing 1
L* memo. 'Mhiih'.m Hull, <:i, 721,50.1)
?UcCflU. South CnrollnO. Beneficiaries:
jlr*. Klla Stalk* (wife), Mrs. Pa nil tie
Igtilks (mother)." handed to a file
Urchor in the hureuu of war rislcjn
jnirtiiee.
! Tlie.nmn's nnme was given as Hall,
^lille .those ??f his wife and his mother
frP given as Stalks. Patently,
jomethliiK was wrong somewlujte. Just
;vtat was wrong, however,.*^ not tp
trident. To find out whf^lujd where
the error was, was tha tfoh.
? Finding die ermr somebody else |
uiun^'uio Job of the war i
risk intfox file sea rollers, and It's a
tough Joh if they fair to get at the!
boitoyi of it.
Index tiles section 1
? r ir are listed tne na trios of nearly j
I !.)ill.lon men who wpre Inducted j
li'lary service, the young worn- 1
? ;n! ? a eoipplete Inventory of all
Girt Sleuths Searching Card Index
Files.
the thousands of men surnamed Hall.
Among them nil there was not one who
came frmn M<('all. South Carol ina> ru>$
jet one who had a wife or mother
ttbose name even remotely resembled
the"Stalk<" iriven as the name of the
fro beneficiaries.
Calls for Nimble Wit.
nils, clearly, was a case for the nse
pf that sjhm iitiiv nimble wit and fine
deductive family which has character
ized much ??f the work of the search
ers of the index files, and given them
a process of procedure which might
be used to add a leaf to the book of
the Kuriises, ihe Plnkertons and the
Flynns*
"Well." remarked the girl . charged
*ith pro<hi< i i ? :r the needed Informa
tion, "this man may be 'Stalk,' since
that is the name given for Ills wife
and mother."
Hut search through the "Stalks"
broucht nothing to identify the case.
"Still," she persisted, and they al
ways (In |ii-Mst, these glr^s. "His
Dame mu?t I . some kind of a 'Stalk,'
but wiiat kind '! Corn stalks, bean
,,alks. ami cabbage stalks are the
?&ly kind (.f stalks I know anything
?bout so I'M hist look them up."
And sure et .>u^h. it turned out that
Misname "some kind of a Stalk.**
Cjl'tmiro in fnrt, and his Index
?rd was (lis! \ changed to read :
"James ???..bhagostalk* (3,721.505)
jjtfall. Soii'b Carolina; beneficiaries,
?rc. F!lla < 'ahhagestalks (wife), Mrs.
Mnie r!dii;(^restalks (mother)."'
You s,.t, ,j ;lt ^irj Wearing the blue
, t^eatf-r over there." said one young
'oman.
Th?j i:.ri ..f the hlue sweater appear
^ you:,.' Mie might have Just left
*?w>l. >' . \s ;is searching some ln
1 eard*. ! fingers rapidly running
[torn one *i t if it her. With each flap
|fir^Cf r 1 ta^en a
1 h <>f tin- ,i -. ription thereon, but to*
ohs?r\.-r ,)!(. .vas mnking n speed
tu"r'' i:' ' ;,'!iing every card In the
draw cp,
! ' r hl' ' The drawer was
a foot to the right,
at < ? ! . - Marathon in card move
^ ' ' ? d (.no, made a notation
th/' ' ' r carried, placed
r'if'l |.j ,j)0 others, closed the
*bf"'r ' " ' '* toward the man
,s of the file section.
I "J^V ; ,,
I I ' :i1 ? ? : ? i i 1 1 1 ? ? was quickly enacted,
? ???d out. it brought to
:t r- * trkable case which had
r investigation for some
Ti?e "Divia Mystery.
b? ?h "! s,rn,|P? case might
ln>'stery" with Miss Blue
lf>r fts the detective heroine,
'n^writtcn letter was received by
the bureau ?frou\ iui army eflinp, an<?
ended as follows :
"Ucspcetfully,
"lVlVflto Djvls Spruce,
Hastings, I 'ft'.**
MliW Blue Sweater was assigned to
the letter with Instructions to secure
the man's policy number that certain
inituin, lion requested a a to the stand
ing:. of Ids Insurance might be fut'idsh
ed hlin.
The name of Dlvls Spruce could not
he fftpnd In the flloA Then en mo the
time for Imagination and deduction.
No matter how the name was split to
make some other plausible name, the
Hies could not produce results.
Finally the young woman decided
to address a letter to the man at Hast
: Ings, Pa,, requesting him to furnish in
? formation about himself. In due time
the letter was returned to the bureau
as unclaimed.
This did not put an end to the
search by any means. Imagination
and deduction again were brought Into
the case, and a further study of the
oilglna) letter win made.
Dlvls Spruce,
Spruce Division.
Of course! The Spruce Division!
The Spruce division was a part of
the American army.
Miss Blue Sweater secured a '-roster
of the Spruce division from t be war
department and searched through the
nearly 40,000 names for a man who
lived at Hastings, i'n.
lit this *be wis rewarded. The list
showed only one man from that town.
He was Herman Miller. With this ln
formalioir the young woman bad no
dliileulty in lindmg the card of Her
man Miller, (policy number 1 .877. 155;
serial mYmhcr N(5H.2r>f>) of Hastings,
Pa. This man was furnished the in
formation he desired, and in thanking
the bureau ire admitted he bad forgot
ten to. sign his name to the letter.
Searchers From All Sections.
Girls from every part of the coun
try are employed as searcher:;. If a
complex jcase arises Involving a man's
identification, and his home 1s In"
Maine, a girl from that state is assigned
to run down the mystery and she near
ly always does. Should the state be
California, a girl balling from the
"Const" soon has the correct data care
fully listed in the tiles.
There are innumerable "wonderful"
cases under Investigation every day,
but these girls are not unlike the he
roes from France who never exploit
the "wonderful" things they them
selves did .in line of duty.
Handwriting experts are employed
to determine the Identity of many sig
natures. since every conceivable form
of "handwriting reaches the bureau.
Often the body of a letter will be per
Checking Names of Soldier Survivor?.
fectly legible, but the signature will
prove to be one of those nonforgeahle
jumbles of pen strokes which are the
delight and pet hobby of the writer
and the despair of every hopeful
reader.
Silent letters in names must always
be taken into consideration. The name
of Hlynack is m good example where
the silent letter is the key letter for
searching, but at the same time It is
particularly dead In pronunciation.
This name is pronounced Lynack, and
in the hurry of writing, often names
are misspelled, when on the .surface
they appear very simple and correct,
Foreign names- are often typed In
correctly because the soldier at the
time of making application f ? ?r m?ur
ance may have been unfamiliar 'with
Knglish and made a mistake in re
peating the spelling to th?> army or
navy clerk. This a great source of
worry to searchers.
Names Spelled Many Ways.
Frequently one man's name may be
"spelled in four or five ways. If rela
tives. parents or someone Interested
In his welfare inquire* about hi* insur
ance. each will spell it In their way.
fJIrl searchers must determine which
is the correct spelling and then ver
ify It from th<* m:. iH? original si 'ma
ture.
A clever pieoe of deduction was that
in the case of Andrew Good of North
Dakota His name could not be found
In the files and W?\s turned ovW to one
of the cloveres! woa.'choiT Sluce the
mail's address was glv.cn lis Nor*h l)u~
kola, shy ns*uiued, la Wow of the tint
that there wort' many Indian* listed
fi'imi thai state* ,'iN ,,m<' ^ ,n'
Indian nuino. She immediately
Thunder to his u&BXft ul"'
i rani i Ar.'ivw t?OOd l lour
(lor. la lees tluia throe minutes .after
she had been asked to \ond hot* aid.
Carelessness or unavoidable haste In
writing. up insurance application# on
the Form I II. by which a mini enter
ing tlio M^rvkc i'c<|UoHtK or (Uncial ms
government allowance to dependents
and failure to Include complete Identi
fying Information In a lot tor of In
quiry, count It at o tin* largest single
(?aviso In t|io bureau's delay In answer- J
ing mull.
Any tetter addressed to the bureau
on any inattor pertaining to a service
man should contain, his name ,ln full
first, last, it i to< I middle: II should state
Ids rank and or.-anlzatlon at the time
"Form 1-11" wftw filed, or at the time
Insurance application was made; his
present home address and former ad
dress If the address has been changed;
the first, middle and last name of his
beneficiary, bud present and former
address. If the address has boon
changed.
The names of the nearly five mil
lion men who were Inducted under the
selective draft, and those who lmve
.joined up since' the armistice, are oit
cards in filing cabinets, which, placed
one after the other, would make a line
more than five miles long.
Jpst what complications may arise
when there Is failure to Include this
Identifying data, may be Imagined
from the fact that a comparison shows
that the repetition of names In the
files of the bureatl Is far greater than
the repetition of names carried in
card Indexes of commercial companies.
Many Bear Same Name,
Flfty-thrCe thousand two hundred
Johnsons were called Into active mili
tary service. The Smiths were not
far behind numerically, coming up to
the considerable figure of f>1.0o0. The
"Brown" family with -IS, 000' Is next.
More than half the letters inquiring
about insurance come from men who
either fall to give their Identifying
number, or their address. In thou
sands of cases they give their address,
hut due to tlu? fact that there are oth
ers with similar names who live in the
name city, and have moved this Infor
mation IS of .little value to the girl
sc archers. y ?
Actual figures show that more than
half the soldiers, "nllors and marines
have moved since leaving the service.
Few forwarded a not ice of a change of
address. Tills left the bureau with >
only the name of the man for record,
but through Its system of tracing men,
large numbers have been located by
the girl sleuths and their correct ad
dresses have been listed.
Many amazing discoveries have been
made In names, and the number of
ways they can be spelled. One young
woman lias tabulated 40 ways, so far
discovered to spell Aloyslus.
Another has specialized in the spell
ing 'of Ignatz. She has found 18 ways
to spell this name.
Still another has found that John
can be spelled 24 ways.
To Bartlioldt" Otto Aabel. (policy
number 3.203.838) of Mlnden. Neb., be
longs the distinction of having his
name the. first in all the. card Index
files. The last card In the file bears
the name of Wlar vslaus Charles Zyzes.
policy number 1.802.689) of 421 Maury
street. Rome, N. Y.
Constant combing Is necessary to
keep the files up to date.
U. S. LOSES 4,480 CAPTURED
Eighth Army Division Makes Low Rec
ord With Only One Mao
* Captured.
Washington. I). C. ? A rechecklng by
the war department of the figures up
to June 3 shows the total number of
Americans captured by the enemy in
France was 4.480, of whom 310 were
officers. The Twenty-eighth division
was the heaviest loser with 18 offi
cers and 714 men, and the Twenty
sixth next with 10 officers and 438
men. The Eighth division reported one
man captured.
Of the divisions earliest In line, the
First lost no officers hnd 152 men and
the Second division five officers and
1R2 men.
Georgian Too Tired to
Crank Up His Auto
Atlanta, Ga. ? And now the
laziest man !
Lawson ColMer, an autolst,
was coming Into Atlanta, when
he overtook ait old ear stopped
by th<> roadside. The occupants
were in animated conversation.
Thlnklnp he might he of assist
ance, Politer stopped and asked
If he could help.
"> "You might pull us down th<i
road a piece to start my auto,"
said the tired-looking owner.
Collier hacked up, pulled out
n pier-o of rope, and pulled the
auto about 50 yards, and then
asked what the trouble was.
"Oh. nothing at all," said his
neighbor. "I Just didn't want
to take the trouble to crank It."
Find Missing Soldier on Farm.
South Norwalk, ? Conn. ? Clayton K.
II?)| >e. ii <lisch;irirc>rl private of the *>0t h
Halloon company, uho disappeared
after leaving New Tofk for his home
i In WlU'.nantlc, Conn., was fotind
working nn a farm near hero. He
will go home.
United States Tires
are Good Tires
Your Money's Worth
You want tires that give you the
most for your money, ? measured in (
mileage .
How are you to know ? Since we are
in the business-? and you know us ?
why not take our word for it?
We say to you? there arc no better
tires built than United States Tires. They
have, proved good by performance .
They are tough, hardy, economical,
efficient. They stand up, and wear,
and live, and satisfy .
There are five of these good tires.
Let us show you the one that will ex
actly "fill the bill" for you.
'Royal Car J' 'Nobby' 'Chuttt' ' Ujcn * TUtin'
We Know United <. States Tires are Good Tires
W. H. McCathen, Woodrow, Providence.
J. L. Gillis & Co., Rembert. W. (). Hay, Camden.
B. C. Gillis & Co., Rembert McBee
That's Why We Sell Them.
Carolina Motor Co., Camden.
King's Garage, Bethune.
Drug Co., McBee.
MOTO
Saves
Gasoline
Removes
Carbon
\
LUBRICATES THE VALVES
Read the following and note the date ? Motorlife is not
as new as you think.
San Antonio. Texas Aug. 11, 1010
Hon. .1. K. Davis. County Judge,
Dear Sir: I have the h unii' to make the following rej>ort of m v trial of Motorlife as a fuel economizer
and carbon remover:
Run No. 1. < >n plain gasoline (??" miles on ?"? gallons 13.3 mil * to the gallon.
Run No. 2. Motorlife added, llfi miles on 5 1-2 gagllons, 21 miles to the gallon, gain 57 per cent.
Jill n No. 3. Motorlife added. IKK miles on K 1-2 gallons, 22 miles to the gallon, gain 07 per cent.
My car is a Hudson G, full equipment, and the load in each c consisted of yourself, the four County
Commissioners and myself; other conditions approximately the same. Run No. 1 wan in the north part of
the. County; No. 2 to Comfort and back; No. 3 the Kerrville trip.
After adding Motorlife I was enabled to mnke two full turns on the needle valve (one half turn on
plain gasoline. would stop the motor), and yet I got a smooth running motor with full p?wer. On my
return from run No. 3, I removed the cylinder heads to ascertain tlns carbon effect. Not only was the carbon
all removed, nil cylinders being substantially dean, hut better ignition, smoother running and freedom from
motor trouble resulted.
Run No. 1 is about an average run on plain gasoline; Run No. 3 gave a saving of 0 gallons of gaso
line which at 20 cents per guflon would be $1.20. The cost of MoforHfe for the 8 1-2 gallons was 13
cents, leaving a saving of $1.'?7 on this run, which would Rive ? a iving of more than $10.00 on $1.50 in
vested in Motorlife.
Respectf ully submitted
,J. M. Brown
County Chauffer
Guaranteed not to injure any gasoline motor under any condition in any quantity
j. ferris Mcdowell,
WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTOR
Dealers Wanted in Every Community.