Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VICTORY IK BELGIUM. BIG WEDGE THREATENS PO SITIONS OF HUNS. Submarine Bases in Jeopardy With Ostend Outflanked by Capture of Thourout and Moves Already Re ported to Leave Zeebrugge?Success of Italians in Albania. The entente forces in Belgium and France continue successfully to drive the enemy before them. In Belgian Flanders the advance is somewhat rapid but on all the sectors in France the Germans are fighting with des peration to hold back the foes. The great wedge that is being driv en by the Belgian, British and French f; troops in Flanders. now threatens se riously the tenure by the enemy of many positions in north Belgium . from the Lys river to the sea, includ ing his submarine and \other bases along the coast, while to the south the Lille salient gradually is being enmeshed and doubtless soon will re ceive .attention from the pincers, which are being oiled for the task of reclaiming this important tract of ter ritory as far as Valenciennes for France. Meanwhile the French and Ameri can forces are struggling valiantly forward- in their drive northward from thft Champagne region into the coun try over- which the Germans must ef fect a retirement to their border in event of a final debacle. As has been the case always since . the offensive began, the Germans are vigorously defending their poistions, using innumerable machine gun de tachments in endeavors to hold their ground. Particularly vicious are the counter thrusts that the Americans are being compelled to sustain east and west of the Meuse, where the en tire enemy front is threatened, with immediately collapse should General Liggett's men crash through the line for material gains. Nevertheless both the Americans and the French are demanding that their arms be served, and on various sectors they are meeting with success. In the Romagne sector further gains have' been made by the Americans in the face of terrific artillery and ma chine gun fire and the natural defense ' and great systems of wire entangle ments which had to be negotiated. Bad weather has fallen over the sec tor and the airmen have been unable to give their usual brilliant assistance to the maneuvers. To the west the French are slowly closing in upon Rethel on their way to Mezieres, being only two miles dis tant from the town. West of Grand Pre they have effected further cross ings of the Aisne. About S00 Ger mans were made prisoners in this fighting. In Flanders the British have tak en the important railway center of Menin, Thourout has fallen and the Thourout-Coutrai Railroad has al most been won. Numerous towns have been recaptured by the allied forces and large numbers of prison ers have been taken. Many guns also have fallen into the hands, of the al lies. The/capture of Thourout com pletely outflanks the German subma -rjpy~~b?se at Ostend and brings the allied troops within ten miles o; Bruges, whence the railroad line run. noinhward to Zeebrugge. Germany's other u-boat base on the North Sea. Reports ^are to the effect that the Germans are withdrawing what is left of their forces in the north, both naval and military. Da Albania the Italians have oc cupied the Austrian naval base oi Duraizo on the Adriatic, while in Ser bia the allied forces are continuing to press the enemy troops north oi Nish. GURKHAS AND SIKHS. England's Indian Troops. With the British Forces in Pales tine, Sept. 25 (Correspondence of The Associated Press).?Silent death ir. the blackness of night, the fate of unnumbered Turkish sentries surpris ed at their posts by patrols of In dian troops with the British army, has imposed upon the Ottoman sol diers a wholesome respect for these dark-skinned fighters who have re placed many white contingents sen1, to other fronts. The cleverness of the Gurkhas at stalking has had a terrifying effect upon the minds of the Turks, whc are constantly finding their men dead at advanced stations, with nothing tc betray the coming and going of the foe. The result has been a case o'. "nerves" among the enemy, prompt ing constant alarm. Gurkhas and Sikhs, eager for active fighting, are continually "suggesting raids and sectional attacks, uncon sciously answering the exultant pre dictions of enemy publicity organ? that their substitution for white* would open the way for an earlj Turkish offensive which would sweep the British forces from the country. In action the Indian troops are as keen as in anticipation of it. Thei: approach, even after the warning o< a barrage, inevitably is so swift as te take, the Turks completely off thei: guard. Recently in broad dayligh Gukhas reached unobsei-ved a poim within close range of the enemj trench. They rushed it and withoir firing a shot, killed fifteen Turks and brought back as many prisoners Only one of the attackers was wound ed. A subaltern in charge of a part> of the Indians had an extraordin?r? experience in this raid. He had stucl" his bayonet into a Turk, but was un able to disengage it. owing to th< narrowness of the trench. Anothe: j Turk nearby began jabbing th^ but' j end of a rifle into the officer's ribs Suddenly the Englishman saw his as sailant's head leap from his shoulder a Gurkha having dexterously de capitated him with his koohri, ai invaluable weapon in close quarters MONEY MUST COME THIS WEEK Liberty Loan Subscriptions to CIos< on Saturday Night. Washington, Oct. 17.?There wil be no extension of the Liberty Loai subscription period past Saturday night. Secretary McAdoo stated em phatically today. DISEASE INCREASING IN VIRU LENCE Ei SOME SECTIONS. Health Officer Urges People Working in Groups to "Use Gauze Masks. Columbia, Oct. 17.?A steadily widening range in rural communi ties, a marked increase in virulence and a measure of control in cities were the outstanding features of the re | ports on the iniluenza situation over j the State received yesterday at the j office of Dr. J. A. Hayne. secretary of the State board of health. The disease is spreading without j abatement in rural communities and it is estimated that there are about 50,000 cases of influenza in the State. Sixteen physicians are now working as acting assistant surgeons of the United States public health service under the joint direction of the State board of health and the United States public health service. The services being rendered by these physicians are of great value, and they, in com mon with other physicians, are not I sparing themselves in their efforts j to check the disease. Cities are showing themselves able j to handle the disease, but the rural I f immunities are suffering severely, i Vhe visiting habits of the negro are j well known and have served to dis tribute the disease widely through j many sections. White farmers when j they hear their neighbors are ill are j eager to render assistance and as few I precautions are taken as a rule to pre i vent infection, the germs are distrib ! uted and new cases are reported tc the health office. Dr. Hayne said yesterday that he hoped the negro chapters of the Pied Cross would organize relief commit ! tees for the rural districts. He said it j was hoped that some plan would be devised by which bedding, medicines and food could be furnished to fami lies in distress. The need of nurses, not necessarily trained, is being felt in many sections, and a committee ot volunteer nurses to take care of the physical needs of those suffering "from the disease now has the oppor tunity to render good service. ! Conditions in the rural sections of Richland County are bad according to the State health officer. Dr. Hayne urges that people work ing in groups protect themselves from infection as much as possible by wearing gauze masks. The masks are quickly and cheaply made and an effective. A strip of gauze about six inches wide and some ten or twelve inches long can be fastened over the nose and mouth by a string or rub j ber band around the head, and a per son is thus rendered practically safe from the germ. Clerks in stores where customers in all stages o; health are constantly coming and going, and employees in public of fices can easily take this step to pro tect themselves. Blackville yesterday reported a to tal of 600 cases. Ellenton reported 73 cases. Beaufort reported 25 new cases. There are four cases at the industrial school. Varnville reported 1!) new cases. Olar reported seven new cases. Conway reported 20 new cases Alken reported a total of 41 cases. Cross Hill reported a total of 1!-1 cases. Springfield reported three new cases. Jonesville reported a total ot eight cases. Walhalla reported a to tal of 72 cases. Enoree reported 118 cases, six cases of pneumonia and three deaths. Hodges has many cases. Fort Mill reported 500 cases. Hem ingway reported a total of S00 cases. Ninety-Six reported 0 00 cases in the town and community. Iva reported 94 cases for Monday and 25 new cases for Tuesday. Hartsville reported 24 new cases with a total of 125. Blackville. a new focus of infection reported 600 cases with the disease getting out into the surrounding country. Greenwood County has about 60<'! cases. Winthrop College reported no cases of influenza. Conditions in Mayesville and at Greeleyville are bad. Dr. Robert J. Speir of Atlanta re ported for duty at the State health office yesterday and goes to Lancas ter where the epidemic seems about at a standstill. More assistance i needed at Lancaster. Dr. F. A. Brandt of Missouri ha returned from Springfield and report ed the disease under control. H< goes to Mayesville where there ar< some S00 cases. Dillon reported that one trained nurse was available for service there ^.nd requested that she be allowed tc. remain. Conditions in cities over the State show a general improvement with the exception of Charleston. Rural communities are becoming more and more infected and the virulcncy o* the disease is on the increase. Hagood News and Views. A good resolution just now among the German people could easily be come a Ids revolution. If this war does not bring us near er to God it will be a calamity in deed. The sad news comes to us of tin death of Osborn Sanders; mention o' whom was made the other day it your columns. With the announcement of th death cf Arthur Thompson of you! city comes the news of the sei ion illness of his father, W. S. Thompson Mrs. T. It. Moody is some better. S. W. .Mien is able to be out again His sister. Miss Emma Allen, livinc in Columbia, was prostrated by th< "flu," but last reports were that sh is recovering. Quit* a lot of sickness is reported j among the colored people. Mr. W. H. Freeman is up again. The immense cotton crop is being ?slowly gathered. Xo small grain is planted, nor can b2 till it rains. * All the ginneries are still over crowded. "Hagood." Rembert. Oct. 16. BUILDING SHIPS. What is Boing Done in Some of the American Ship Yards. Orange, Texas. Oct. IG.?Sixteen vessels already have been sent down I the ways at Orange, twenty-four others will be ready for launching be fore Christmas, and contracts have been placed for construction of six ty-one more at the earliest possible I date. The tonnage of vessels launch-! ed, building and contracted for here; totais 317,300. ? j Before the program is completed, here more than half a million acres of yellow pine forest will have been laid bare. The shipbuilding program brought prosperity to this little town, whose population has nearly doubled since America entered the war. \ Fifteen months ago the industry was littlv known or understood here. One or two small yards, located along the banks of the sluggish Sabine River, were devoted to repair work on tug* and small launches. Then came the call for a "bridge for the Atlantic." Almost over night the river banks sprang into life. Tin ring of axes reverberated through the forests nearby. The hum of indus try banished the festive alligator from j his old haunts and the steel-ribbed j skeletons of ships began rising al I most in the midst of a wilderness. ! The shipyards now employ approxi j mately 7.000 men who draw wages j totalling $225*00*0 weekly. Notwith j standing more than a thousand homes j have' been built in eleven months, {workmen still are forced to live in I improvised shanties and tents while housing- facilities are being- increased with all possible speed. I - The National Shipbuilding Com pany of Texas has launched six ships, has eight on the ways and contracts for eighteen more, all for govern ment use except two of those already launched which went to the British Cunard line. The Southern Dry Dock ?.<- Shipbuilding Company has launch ed one ship, has five on the ways and contracts for five more, all for gov ernment account; the Internationa1 Shipbuilding Company has launched eight, has ten on the ways and con tracts for thirty-eight more, all ."or the Italian government; and Ed. Weaver & Sons has built one and ha* one on the ways. The National yard is building the n?-w type of vessel of 4,94 0 tons each. Tbc- first two cf these ships, which are classed -by authorities as among the innovations of the war, are now on their maiden voyages. Approxi mately 1,500 dead weight tons large i titan a Ferris type v ssel, the new ship requires nearly 500',000 fewei feet of timber ic build and fewer steel bolts. It was designed by A. A. Daugharty, an engineer who at the outbreak of the w/ar was building ar oil refinery here. His employers were in need of tankers to transport crude oil from Mexico, and Daugharty de signed a tanker 315 feet long, with 48-foot beam and 25 feet depth ol hold. His design was radically dif ferent from the common type havinj: the boilers and engines in the stern I and his propeller drive shaft was on!> 19 feet, as against a drive shaft o: 119 feet in the Ferris-type vessel. A fore peak tank balances the weight The.vemergency lleet corporation of ficials w-ere impressed with th< Daugharty idea and awarded th< company a contract for twenty-six o the vessels. Workmen at the National yard: claim a world's record of setting ur. the seventy-nine frames for Daugh arty ship No. 242 in thirty hours am thirty-five minutes and have chaileng ed other yards to eeiual the record. A Pacfic coast company held the pre vious record of forty-four hours f.oi framing a ship. One of the greatest problems con fronting directors of the shipyard; here has been protection against Ger man agents. On Independence Day the torch was put to the shipyard o1 the Orange Maritime Corporation bj an enemy agent, resulting in the yarc and three large vessels being destroy ed. Now armed soldiers patrol even foot of every yard, while agents oi the department of justice round U] all suspicious characters. PRICE OF COTTON SEED. Food Administration Lowers Price One Dollar Ton. Columbia, Oct. 17.?In an an nouncement given out yesterday by the food administration for South Carolina, it was stated that the sta bilized price for cotton seed in South Carolina had been reduced $1 pe; ion the new price to become effec tive October 17. The announcement made by th<: i federal food administration foi South Carolina was as follows: "Effective October 17, the stabiliz ed price for cotton seed in South Carolina has been reduced $1 pei ton by the food administration. The new stabilized price for cotton seed in South Carolina in car lots is $71 per ton and in wagon lots $6S per ton.'' (Signed) William Elliott, "Food Administrator for South Car olina." Soldiers Cleaned House Fe)r the French Women. Paris, Sept. ?rs (Correspondence or the Associated Press)?American sol diers billited in a French village be hind the filing lines recently surpris ed and won the gratitude of the wo men of that village by giving i1 rj i regular house cleaning la^t .True. Telling of the incident in a Red Cross hospital, an American soldier said; ! "The women and girls were^in the Helels cultivating. At nighl they v. -r< too tii ??,! to do housework^ ^e* the whole village heeded it. ?n^L "'ay when they were in the fielen > boys turned to and cleaned up nfci:. ;>urg. \ "We washed every window in the\ P'ace and swept and. scrubbed every thing that would stand it. When the women came that nighl they were so pleased they cried. After that they couldnt' elo enough for us and were j :?roud when we would let them have a shirt to wash." i LOCAL Y. M. C. A. Letters Relative to the Newly Elect ed Genci n I Secretary. - i The following letters, addressed to Mr. Claude E Hurst, corresponding secretary of the local Young Men's Christian Association, will be found of general interest in the community: "Your letter just received, and.I; am glad to note that you received my i telegram. I am looking forward with j a great deal of pleasure and interest! 10 my new work there in Sumter. J am sure that I have picked the very j best town that could be found, and' also the very best people that can he j found. j On account of conditions here in i j camp, due to the spread of this in ! tluenza. I am not sure whether I can j set there by the 20th or not. I will i be there just as soon as possible. It may be the 25th, or in other words, j the latter part of the month before I can get there. Kindly hold things together as best you can until I can ! pull loose from my present place. With my very best wishes. I re main, Yours very truly, J. Y. Todd. I have your letter of October 1? and thank you for the same. I am glad to know that Mr. Todd I has accepted your call and believe j that you will find him a wide-awake I and capable man. I Very sincerely yours, H. C. Huntington, Inter-State Secretary, j BEATS FRENCH COOKING. A Man From Georgia is Teaching the French Cooks Some Things. Wih the American Army in France. Sept 25 (Correspondence of The As sociated Press)?French cooks in the j employ of the American Red Crosv! are learning from Thomas Kane, a Georgia culinary artist, how to make American ides, cakes and cookies for the American troops. His skill in the making of pastry has made fa mous the American cooking wherever he has practiced his art along the net work of railways over which the American troops are transported from the seaports to the front. This is a reversal of the idea that the Americans ought to take lessons in cooking from the French. Pastry of any kind, good or bad. is a luxury in the army; ginger cookies "like mother use to make," apple pies and cakes that "melted in the mouth" are spoken of with rever ence among the doughboys. It is Kane's task to teach the French cooks how to supply these luxuries. To each of the American Red Cross ? canteens, where the American sol ' diers resort for food, rest and enter ? tainment. Kane goes for one month to spread gastronomical joy with lav ' ish hand. He does not leave until the 1 French civilian cook employed at the r Red Cross has learned the culinary ' road to the American soldier's heart. r Everywhere he goes he leaves a wake of tickled palates. At one canteen the workers almost wept when his time came to move 1 on to the next. "I don't know what we will do when he leaves" sighed one ' enthusiastic worker. "He has just spoiled the appetities of our "?oy* : and now I am afraid we won't be able to please them with plain ordinary cooking." s Kane was once a chef on a tr*.ns } Atlantic steamer. He had settled in ' Antwerp to live but was driven out b\ : the Germans and came to Franc? and volunteered his services with the 1 Red Cross to "help do wah." THE BELGIAN RELIEF. j One of the Greatest Needs is Cloth ing. .! Havre, Oct. 16.?The fifth winter f of the war will bring greater demands j than ever for civilian relief; in Bel I j gium, according to a statement oi Lieutenant Colonel Ernest P. Bick nell, American Red Cross fcommis ! sioner for Belgium, in which he an . nounced that the commission has supplied more than $100,000 worth of clothing to Belgian refugees in the last nine months. "There are more Belgian refugees i in France now than at any time dur ing the war." Col. Bickncll said. "Prices are higher, rent is higher, and large numbers of people who, for the first year or two, retained their vigor, are tired, prematurely old, discourag ! ed. sometimes almost helpless. "There is probably no piece of ser ' vice that the American Red Cross can render to Belgian people which will help more efficiently than to assist them in properly clothing them ; I selves." j - _. I PERSHING REPORTS GAINS. Hard Fighting on Both S?dcs of Mouse River. Washington, Oct. 16.?Substantial gains on both sides of the Meuse against stubborn resistance by a re inforced enemy is reported today by Gen. Pershing in his communique for Tuesday. KAISER ISSUES DECREE. Concerning Administering Martial Law in Germany. Amsterdam. Oct. 16.7 -Emperor Wil liam has issued a decree saying- that martial law in Germany can only be i administered by an agreement be ; tween the civil and military authori ties, according to reports received here. Geo. H. Hurst, j Undertaker and Embalmer Pro.Tipt Attt-nb*n tc 0: and Night Calls At J. 0. CRAIG Old Stand. N. Main Phones: * 4 0 ? t 0 NOTICE! Subscribtions to the Red Cross War Fand are now du? and payable at the SUMTER TRUST CO We request all subscribers to make prompt pay ment. Annual election of officers the Sumter Chapter will be heid at the Opera House on the night of Oct. 23. PLEASE BE PRESENT I I Hta If you will bring us your 4 per cent Liberty Bonds before Nov. lsl, we will be glad to have them converted into 4 1-4 per cent Bonds. The Firsi National Bank SUMTER, S. C. I _ _ _ .7 * Your War Savings Pledge Our boys at the front are making ? good their pledge. How about you f Buy War Savings Stamps to-day. . 3? The National Bank of South Carolina f We sell them. CS. R0WLAK3, President. F E. HINNltNC, 4, Cashier, jp ??ti?ti>?|i?^.t.>t??.|iiH..;MK"I";"H"I"l":"M"I"I'?'I"Illl"tl**lll*ll ft1! W*lt? BUY WAR SAVINGS STAMPS If? Buy Fourth Liberw Bonds. It is the privilege and duV of every true American to buy^^nds to the utmost. Come in and algmge, we will look af ter details. The National Bank of Sumte r, The "Old Reliable" Since 1889 J P. BOOTH, President W. J. CROWSON, Jr., Cashier JT*a*r^^a^aTa? nTn->T**t?j>. J. -S,?a?m?*i+7a1 ?il a> 4r ? # *^9^^^w^9m m^m V<B"*]^* m 4* m ? ? ? ? ?1 ?5? A f: Building Material and Feed Staffs I A t Rough ami Dressed Lumber, Lime, Cement, Plaster, Brick, Shingles, Mouldings, Etc. All kinds of Feed for Horses, Cows, Hogs and Poultry. We solicit your patronage. Booth & McLeod, Inc. Phones 10 & 631 4*