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Show r SPECTATOR 11 O III BMOCRATS of hI Salt Lake county II have pitched the M first ball on the Political diamond BHHSBBSSSS for this year in -, Utah, Chairman 1J Mendenhall having called the primar- f; ies and district conventions. That the campaign will be a red hot one is a 4' certainty for there Is to be elected J Third Judicial district and these m of congress, one district judge In the 'V" Third Juddicial district and these "I county officers:: three commissioners, y jyi, clerk, recorder, auditor, treasurer, sur-;j sur-;j l . " veyor, sheriff and attorney. m . From the call for the several ward T '',- and precinct conventions it would ap-"j ap-"j pear that the democracy is attempting 1 a bluff in that but two commissioners are designated as to be elected where-7, where-7, as there are three to elect the succes- ds ' t sor of Commissioner Hanchett being M among the number as his appointment !f can only run until the election suc-m suc-m ceeding his appointment. if . There are a number of patriots ( among the Democrats who would like 4, to occupy the places in the join build-. build-. ing, but they are in the same fix that ' the genial bachelor and the handsome ?? spinster were who when the bachelor , had screwed up his courage to the pro- j v. posing point and said "Let's get mar-; mar-; V ried" and was astounded at the reply "Why, who'd have us?" ,4 So it is with the Democratic aspir ants; they are asking themselves the Jy; question who'd have us? Every indication in-dication is that the people of the state y-. have decided to make a change in the . Y state officials who are to be elected jl and in this district and county there I is no question but what a change will j J' be made. There will be many hats 1( JV" thrown In the ring prior to the hold-1 hold-1 i ,$& ing of the Republican conventions. Kl ' W r "i During the heavy downpour of rain i , Tuesday evening two well known Dem- "k , W? ocratlc politicians, who make perlodi- " cal calls at the City and County Bulld- . ing along about the time the pay ?L checks are issued, were caught in the q ' storm in front of a downtown office j ' building. While the rain was coming i ; down in torrents the elder of the two 1 . ' "' . said: "This certainly looks like the W flood." "The What?" "The flood. J i o You've read about the flood and the U ,,, n,rk landing on Mount Ararat, surely." JK'f "No B, I have not. "I've been so busy M , 4 sending those notes to the boys that Wk-) they must pay the five per cent on the Wfc?? next pay day that I ain't seen a paper R,n- for three days." And this is why sev- ilKV-, eral other persons standing In the hall r'' way laughed so loudly, jjr 1 They were talking about the high 8 cost of living, of the many advances made in the cost of commodities that are necessities when one said "Our talk reminds me of a story: 'The teacher of a primary class was trying to show the children the difference be-twen be-twen the natural and man-made wonders won-ders and was finding it hard. "'What,' she asked, 'do you think is the most wonderful thing man ever made?' " 'A little girl, whose parents were obviously harassed by the question of ways and means, replied as solemnly as the proverbial judge: 'A living for a family.'" "The fact that the Democrats of Salt Lake have called their primaries reminds re-minds me that this campaign gives promise of being a warm one for in the critising of the local officials one can call a spade a spade and not be answerable to the espionage act," said a well known politician yesterday. "There is a good deal of camouflage," he continued, "and when it is removed there will be a number of political sensations. This reminds me of a story: "Missing her two-year-old, mother went to look for him and found the youngster in the kitchen on the floor by the coal scuttle carefully wiping a piece of coal with his little white handkerchief. ' Cleanin' toal, mamma," he explained. ex-plained. "Why, sonny, come away from there! You can't clean coal." "Yes, mamma. See!" showing the blackened handkerchief. "All comin' off; all black comin' off." "And this is what will be done this fall; there will be a clean up and all the black will be a coming off when the Republicans get a going in the campaign for there sure will be a removal re-moval of the black and the camouflage. It is a safe bet that in the future the stationery used in the several departments de-partments of the state government for the spreading of propaganda in behalf of the governor will not be of the kind that is sent out from the Federal government gov-ernment to be used only for official business. The mere fact that envelopes en-velopes which are furnished the Commissioner Com-missioner of Public Economy bear a placard that a penalty of $300 attaches for use of the envelopes for private use is not considered. But it looks bad, you know. Of course, every one is glad to know that the governor can afford to take a vacation. In fact they are pleased that he can take a needed rest. They do object, however, to his advance man spreading the good news to the people of the state in stationery furnished fur-nished by Uncle Sam and which bears a frank stating that the envelop is use exclusively for the business of the Federal government. His constituents pay postage on whatever they send through the mail and they are of opinion opin-ion that the governor should do likewise like-wise particularly when such an important import-ant announcement is contained in the receptacle as a vacation for the executive. execu-tive. It was told me by one outside of the little coterie who assume to guide the destinies of the state that there were more cuss words used in the State Capitol building after the last issue of Goodwin's arrived there than had been heard there in many moons. They emanated from the gubernatorial chamber as well as from the offices occupied oc-cupied by the Commissioner of Public Economy and there was a calling on the carpet of the underlings that was astonishing. But it won't happen any more. The riot act has been read and a plenty, too. CRIME EXPIATED IN BATTLE THAT the Frenchman who has once been numbered among the enemies of society can, at his country's call, show as much heroism and as fine a quality qual-ity of chivalry as his brother pollu who has never sldesteppedfrom 'the narrow path of rectitude, is the conclusion arrived at by Paul Syres Rockwell, staff correspondent of the Chicago Daily News, who tolls of the exploits of that battalion of men who are wiping out their crimes against the laws of France by heroic fighting for their country. Of these rascals assassins, if you will, but hard fighters, though difficult diffi-cult to handle when not engaged in warfare Rockwell writes: Henry de Forge tells in the Excol-sion Excol-sion a touching story of the Battalion d'Afrique, that heroic corps of beard-loss beard-loss youths who made mistakes In civilian life but are wiping clean the slate of the past by fighting and dying dy-ing gallantly for their country. I like this story so well, because it Is so true to life that I translate it here: "This calm and gentle man, whose young face, smoothly shaved as the visage of a priest, smiles from under snow-white hair; this man, who is the chief, nevertheless, of v.iolont troops, the most terrible to lead that arc, spoke of them with pride, a sort of pride of a father. "'Yes; rascals, robbers, assassins, outcasts,' he said. 'It is a battalion of acursed ones, but a hard fighting battalion, bat-talion, I assure you. It is difficult to manage them when they are at repose, re-pose, for when they are not occupied they commit a thousand stupidities. Thus they almost never have a rest. But under fire there are no finer troops in the world, and I love these men, whom I know how to make listen lis-ten to me.' "The officer, Commandunt H , pointed out the groups. I "'Look at their faces. Are they bad looking? The uniform, fortunate- -, ly, sets these lads off a little. But in f what state they come back each time f from the combat! One would say , they have a homesickness to be bad- J ly dressed. What's the difference! They have the pride of. their poverty. One can depend upon them. "Listen. This is the latest adventure adven-ture of the third company. I find It singularly symbolic of the state of mind of these men, and I guarantee ?. t the story'B authenticity: ( "'This company was in line at for- ( ty .meters from the German trenches. j P Often, as you know, the enemy finds jpj" it pleasing to put in line troops of I the kind that he haB before him; 1 dragoons against dragoons, chasseurs f ) against chasseurs, troupes d'elite J against troupes d'elite. ' js '"One morning we relieved the Al- ''j, pins. It was not long before tho en- 1 emy found out who was facing him, ft and my men were ndt delayed in see- i ing appear above the enemy trenches, ' f so near, placards with, insulting in- , scriptions written in French: ' i "'Beware of pickpockets!'" it " 'And other friendly romarks of flj this kind exasperated my lads. Therefore, There-fore, we had a devilish trouble In holding them back, and each night they slipped out and prowled around ; the wire entanglement of the Germans, Ger-mans, who dodged showing themselves. them-selves. "'A now placard notified us: " 'You will soon have somo lone to talk to. "'Three days later, surely enough, Information was given us that we had facing us a battalion of the guard. "'Acclamation, greeted this news. For one time the enemy had not sought to pair off his troops with ours. , " 'In face of the vagabonds, the j poverty stricken, the undesirables, was the fine flower of the Teuton nobility. no-bility. We were going to laugh. " 'After several days of calm an In- i scription appeared above the German ! trench In red letters, very readable, upon a white board. It bore this stinging phrase: "'We have before us the scum of Franco. It is not with rifles that we will come to seek you; it will be with ! lashes.' " 'My men shrugged their shoulders. shoul-ders. But they were nervous. I felt j that another provocation of that kind was going to be dearly paid for. " 'All that night, from ono part to another, the trench engines did not cease firing. Vengeance does not wait long with the "Joyeux'7 1 "'At dawn, suddenly a human form I emerged from in front and stood erect (Continued to Page 12.) " l ij CRIME EXPI4 TED IN BA TTLE (Continued from page 5.) in the midst of the wire;?, with a strange temerity. '"My soldiers did not fire. They wished to see what was coming, to see well. " 'It was an officer of the guard, very young, with the facq of an adol-secent. " 'He had his sleeves rolled up. No weapon. In his hand only a lash, as wo had boon forewarned. '"Two rifle shots then struck down the Imprudent follow, who rolled out into the free zone between the Hues of wire entanglements. "'From the two sides men rushed forward. It was a ferocious fray, a fray with knives to ,'take Ithe officer who was only wounded, and who was trying to crawl away. "'The fight was not long. The "Joyeux" at grips with the guard! That could not drag along. The body was brought into our lines.' "The Commandant H waa silent si-lent for an instant. He was living again those poignant moments. " 'From a neighboring trench,' he began once more, 'I had witnessed the affair, and I ran over in haste, not having any doubts as to the violent vio-lent fashion In which my men would avenge themselves for the insult. The occasion was too good. An officer of the guard! " 'But in what frightful manner were they going to finish him? '"Then I saw this strange spectacle, specta-cle, unexpected, unforgettable, of which I guarantee to you upon my honor, the authenticity: "'The German officer was stretched stretch-ed out very pale, upon a blanket in a shelter. "And, bent over him, before an entire en-tire circle of comrades, silently, the "Joeux" were bandaging his wounds. "They were bandaging him with a gentleness as though he werq a child.' " |
