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Show I Washington Officials Be- ; lieve Decisive Struggle I Has Bepn, ! i NEW ARMY IN FIGHT; H Foch Mas Struck Blow; Ijl With Pershing's j . Huge Army. WASHINGTON, Sept. 12. Wit): j French and American troops striking j I on a wide front south and east of Vor- J ii dun today, the greatest battle, perhaps the decisive struggle of the war, may j C have begun. Early reports show this first employment of General Per- E shing's new army is on a wide front, S I the French and American thrust cov- I ering 20 miles. 1 1 Many officers here believe Marshal ; j I Foch now has struck the blow he had ! t in preparation every since he deter- 1 1 mined to withhold the bulk of tho j f American army from the fighting until f I the stake was set for decisive action. j j American divisions, known to be in I the positions from where the attack I. 5 was launched, include the veteran First and Second divisions of the old I regular army, the fir3t units to get into I action in France, the SDtli national I army division composed of Kansas, t Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska I Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona troops and the S2nd national division f array composed of Georgia, Alabama, I and Tennessee troops with the 37th I national guard division composed of Ohio troops I General Pershing has been concen- trating his army for some weeks in 1 this region, however, and a complete jj. sljift in the divisional alignment may have been made . I French Driving Ahead. 8 To the west, along the front south i of Verdun -where the French lino stands parallel to the Meuse, the t- French, it appears, are driving ahead to pinch ttie enemy out of the salient The French operations form one jaw 1 of the greater piucer movement of Iji which the American thrust towards) ij Metz evidently is the cutting edge, ii The scope of the present action is g not yet clear. It is strongly believed by J officials, .however, that it is only the M preclude to a great effort to turn the I whole German Line and possibly to cut , so deeply into his positions along the ! ;( Verdun front that he might be com- pelled to abandon much territory in , Alsace and Lorraine. I nn Fire which caused an approximate i loss of from 15.000 to 20,000. destroyed de-stroyed a largo portion of the plant and building of the Troy laundry on Wall avenue, between Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth streets. The fire broke out at an early hour this morning. morn-ing. The fire department vrns called to the scene at 4:20 a. m., but as the fire was well under headway at the time, the firemen state that the blaze must have started about an hour earlier. ear-lier. S. H. Hendershot. manager of the laundry, estimates the loss to be above 15.000, fully covered by insurance. The cause of the fire is unknown. The offiical record at tho fire department gives the cause to be a flatiron which had been left burning by one of the girls Wednesday evening- This theory improbably incorrect, however, as the ironing boards upon which the iron's were placed are not burned. Mr. Hendershot Hen-dershot stated this morning that this was not the cause of the fire as the irons arc wired to .the boards, and that an iron hot enough to siart the fire would, have first burned through the board. After tho fire had been extinguished, ex-tinguished, the ironing boards were still almost entirely undamaged, which is considered evidence that the fires were not caused by carelessness of the girls employed at the plant. Another theory to ihe effect that the fire was caused by defective wiring has been advanced, but as the entire plant has recently been rewired, this cause is also discredited by officials of the company. The cause still remains re-mains a mystery. Evidence, however, points to an incendiary, according to employes of the company. Machinery Destroyed. The chief damage was in the rough dry department, where the machinery was almost totally destroyed. The wet-wash wet-wash department and the office were but slightly damaged by the fire. Water is the chief cause of the loss to the front portion of the building. The fire started in the center of the plant and worked each way, according to a report of Fire Chief Graves. The roof the building, which is a brick structure, was burned off for a radius of about thirty feet. Heavy machines dropped from the second floor to tho 3tory below. One motor valued at 4500 was almost destroyed. Fire Chief Graves stated this morning morn-ing that the damage would have been considerably smaller, if the department depart-ment had been notified before the fire was so well underway. The chief states that the call to the department was received from a railroad brake-man brake-man who was working at Wall avenue Josephine Saxe. who takes the part of Blanche Hawkins was generally credited by the audience as the leading artist of the cast. Her interpretation of the lines, which show devoted affection affec-tion for her husband, in connection with her charming personality, are the leading qualifications which captivated cap-tivated the audience. Signor and Signors Monti are enacted enact-ed by S. Paul Vernon and Antoinette Rochle, who have the Italian dialect almost perfected. William Coumcen was cast in the part of Harry Hawkins, an irritable newly-wed who was much interested in having tho sole affections of his. And that was the trouble. William thought his wife was too intimate with j the other tenants of the apartment j house, and especially with an Italian I opera singer. To relieve the situation two families decided at the same lime to move to another apartment to avoid the company com-pany of each other. When the change is made the newly weds find the apartments apart-ments equipped with twin beds, and the bed rooms identical. The first night in the new apartments, apart-ments, both husbands receive a call to their clubs. While at the stag party, the, men become somewhat intoxicated, intoxicat-ed, and especially Monti who returns to the right house but the wrong! apartment! Considerable fun is caused! when tho Signor prepares for bed in tho apartment of Hawkins. But as Monti enters the apartment, he is thought to be a burglar and is chased to the Hawkins home by Mr. Larkin, who is gagged by tho maid and left in the close closet. When Hawkins returns to his apartment, apart-ment, somewhat affected by tho hign balls of the stag party, he finds the two men in his apartment. Mrs. Hawkins easily explains the affair and lays the blame to the twin beds. She claims that Monti would not have found the wrong apartments without discovering the mistake, if it were not for her husband's warnings for her to sleep in her own little .bed with .her face to the wall. The difficulties are solved, the beds placed together, abolishing the twin olement, and strict resolutions are passed by the newly weds against such cold hearted furniture. Minor parts were carried well by Margaret Phillips and Ten Eyck Clay, who take the parts of Amanda Davis and Andrew Larkins, both tenants of the same apartment The entire audience expressed satisfaction. satis-faction. The house was filled almost to Its capacity, giving evidence of the appreciation ap-preciation of the Ogden theatergoers for the first class attractions 'being booked by Manager Gosa. |