HUNS AS LUMBERMEN | A CANADIAN TEELS OF VISIT TO FRENCH FOREST. Prisoners Are Employed to Handle the Timber, but They Are Not Very Efficient, and Men From Our Own Dominion Are Doing the Bulk of This Important Work. YES lefdt!"" "Eyes frondt!" " Uttered in gutteral Ger- man, these commands sound strangely on a Ca- nadian ear. Stranger still is the mis- en-scene whence they arige. For the non-com, who shouts the order is a hulking Hun in fielé¢ grey, wearing the Iron Cross, and by his side marches a column of German sol- diers. But no Mausers are in their hands, no bayonets at their sides, and the headgear is not that of one regi- ment. Blue, red, yellow, white border the caps of these men, and quite as diverse are the designs of their shoul- der-straps. Tall and short, fat and thin, many be-spectacled, mingle in' this conglomeration of Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons, Wurtemburgers ~-no longer soldiers, but woodmen marching to dinner. They salute a group of Canadian officers as they pass, and the burly German non-com, in charge is quite evidently glad of a chance to air his authority a bit in public and do a bit of a swanking he was wont to do in the barrack square of Deutschland. It 1s in a pine forest of France that Douglas Robertson, the Cana- dian correspondent, saw these Boches working for the Canadians engaged in forestry work, Working, did I say? Well imagine thirty-two husky Huns pretending to haul on a rope, leisurely pulling down a tiny jack pine, scarcely more than a sapling, and you can visualize their efforts, How an Ontario farmer would laugh at such "work." However, the Ger- mans do accomplish a little. They quite evidently like this "job," and it confers an appetite and an apprecia- tipn of the comfortable huts in which they are housed. By the roadside stands their own German ""koch," and facing him a row of burnished kettles. Brim- ming with some savory stew, the steam ascends in fragrant clouds. To him in batches of twenty at a time come the prisoners, to fill their dixies and receive each one a gen- erous chunk of bread. Sguatting under the trees in this fine weather, they partake of their mid-day meal. Would that Canadians in Bocheland fared half so well, After feeding, several of the Huns produce long- stemmed pipes, with china bowls, which they puff contentedly, their enjoyment unimpaired by ny thought of the sentries who stand back among the trees in case some forgetful Hun might wander through the sylvan dells. And what a pine forest is this! Its like does not exist throughout the length and «breadth of Canada. A regular fairy-tale wood, this vast plantation of clean trunks, rising al- most limbless to an average of fifty feet, green-topped, springing from au underbrush carpet -- of moss and needles, They grow in yellow sand, these trees. The larger ones measure from 10 to 14 inches through at the base, and give some 40 feet of log. Hark, Canadian lumbermen. In this country a stern Government al- lows no timber-limit vandalism on the part of loggers. No brush nor slashing may be scattered about, as in Canada, to start fires. Everything here is piled, swept clean. In the adjoining French seetion of this wood I actually saw windrows made of branches carefully tied together. Thus they are shipped off to Paris for firewood. ¢ . In marked contrast to the Huns the Canadian bushmen, who, over- alled," stand in military forma- tion ere they dismiss to lunch. A little group,-they have charge of the more technical jobs. Soon a mill will bum in this vicinity, as others are doing elsewhera, turning out 'ts full quota each day. These Canadian mills are not only supplying our own troops, but Imperial and French troops as well, Canadians are hard at work in for- ests of beech, hornbeam, ash, oak, birch, cherry, and chestnut trees, which are falling before them, and, oddest sight of all, are being pulled down by block and tackle. Such is the French fashion. Limbs chopped off, and a rope attached to its top, many a tree is torn out by the roots, which are afterwards sawn off, Saw-dust roads, slab piles, noon- day whistles among such surround. Mals c'est la guerre! Alas, modern war is an ogre for timber. But then the trees will grow again; many are ripe for the saw; many more will be left stand- ing. All is being done systematical ly under Governmental supervision. "Builders in Canada would be glad to pay $60 and $70 a thousand feet for this," remarked an Ottawa Val- ley lumberman, now an officer in charge of one of these mills, He re- ferred to the beautiful, clear beech, which, alas, was being saws into common-plinks for roads. "Does seem a shame to see such stuff being wasted when pine or spruce would -do just a. well. But the army sim- ply has to have it, 80 we are turning it into lumber as fast as we know how. I sent planks like these, hot from the saw, to build the roads over which pur guns were hauled upito Vimy Ridge." " Out of the hardwood Canadian millmen are sawing besides lumber, beams, trench timbers, railway sleep- ers, firing beams for 9.5 howitzers, ete, Fuel was scarce in the trenches last winter. If the Hun manages to defer his final thrashing until next year, the boys in the trenches won't freeze for lack of waste wood. One mill commandant told me he had 1,000 tons of such stuff .ready for thera fogs. Sacrilege! | Canada's Contribution. It is now raore than a century and a half since Louis XV. -of France signed over to Great Britain the Do- minion of Canada with the light re- mark: "Oh, well; it's only a few acres of snow." One cannot help wondering what his thoughts would have been could he have had a vision of the Canada of to-day and the part she is playing as an ally of his countrymen of the twentieth century. Out of a popula- tion of some seven and a half mil- lions Canada has given 440,000 fight- ing men to the war. At the end of last year war orders totalling $1.- 095,000,000 had been placed with her, while this year's munitions orders are expected to exceed $700,- 000,000---or about $100 for every man, woman, and child. At the be- girning of this year 630 factories were working on munition contracts. the country's output being now more than that of any European nation except Germany before the war. Wooden ships, steel ships, .and sub- marines are being turned out, and on this account and that the Imperial Munitions Board is spending annual- ly more than two and a half times as much as the Federal Government spends in a normal year. Anxious European allies await the grain and flour of the Canadian prairies as eagerly as ever the populace of An- cient Rome looked for the corn ships from Sicily and Egypt. And if the province of Albert along were culti- vated on the same intensive scale prevailing in pre-war Belgium it would support an agricultural popu- lation of fifty Boner half the entire population of the United States,--From "Canada's Troubles and Triumphs," by Harry C, Douglas, in the American Review of Reviews. + An Intrepid Mariner, An intrepid but almost forgotten Canadian mariner was Captain J. H, Gardiner, who left Shelbourne, N, S., on June 19, 1893, in an effort to cross the Atlantic in a fifteen-foo Balibont of his own make: - Captain Gardiner was last heard of about eight hundred miles east of - New York, when Captain Crowley, of the British steamship Verejean, picked him up and outfitted his boat with supplies, Captain Gardiner insisted on cbn- tinuing his solitary journey across the ocean, although he said that he had had bard luck in the journey out of Shelbourne. He was bound for Falmouth, He d that he was trying that method of crossing the ean in an effort 'to make a name or himself." Russians in Our Army, Although the Doukhobors are re- cognized as immune from military service, over one hundred of them THE DANDIES OF RUSSIA. The Georgians Are as Imperious as They Are Handsome, The Georgians are the daudies of Russia. The despatch from Moscow, reporting the opening of the great council in that city, said that, among the varied costumes worn by _ the members of this assembly, the Geor- gian¥ were "robed in cloth of gold." This style of dress is thoroughly characteristic of the tastes and habits of this little but ancient people. Those who have strayed over into the picturesque mountainous region be- tween the Black and Caspian seas, which is their present as it was their ancient home, and have observed them going about their daily occupa- tions, can have no doubt that the Georgiang in this Moscow meeting were perfectly fitted for so gorgeous A dress. They are an exceedingly hand- some race, both men and women. A "Georgian beauty" is "a proverbial saying in the Near East, -and the men very generally are a full match for the women. They are of good height, sinewy cd lithe, and with the free and springy step of the true mountaineer, They do not appear to grow old so readily as the Scottish Highlanders, and they have the same proud and independent bearing. Very many of the Georgians are princes-- such princes as they have in Russia and in Germany, not of royal blood, but specially made for some distin- guished action or quality-rand many of these titles go far back to almost forgotten days. They have an alpha- bet' of their own, and a literature which, like the ahcient Persian, is of no mean quality, But their predominant racial qual- ity is the joy of living. They appear never to grow round-shouldered, and they are great hunters. They can fight well, too, when they see the need of it, and a good many of them are always in training for that or any other kind of outdoor work. Probably some of them loaf a good deal, too, but they do it with an alr of authority that gives a certain dig- nity to this fairly universal practice. Their dress is gay and becoming, and their bearing goes with such clothes. We venture to say that the sharper Kerensky spoke, in his Mqscow ad- dress, the straighter the Georgians looked him in the eye. That's the kind of men they are, and as hand- some as they are imperious. Store Summer Heat. In a striking article on the con- trast between the weather in Europe and in America; Camille Flammarion expresses the opinion that for the future humanity will utilize the heat waves of summer to obtain warmth in winter. He says: "That the earth is topsy-turvey is undoubted by nobody. While on August 2, 1916, the thermometer re- gistered the maximum heat for the year, on the same date in 1917 it was almost cold, the temperature being less than half, It. is discon- certing to know that while this side of the Atalntic is suffering from chil- liness, people are dying in America from heat. "This height of wild irregularity and striking contrast show these ab- normal temperatures are due to ter- restrial and oceanic atmospheric cur rents, and not to the direct influence of 'any particular activity of the-sun, for in that case the whale globe would be equally affected. "Statisticiams, therefore, are mis- taken in drawing conclusions based on thermometric comparisons taken in a limited region of the earth. "It is to be supposed, of course, Lthat under the great heat prevailing in the New World oceans of vapors are drawn up with avidity by the blazing sun rays and then driven across the Atlantic by the westerly winds. Before reaching the old con- tinent the vapors are cooled by the action of other currents, especially the northerly ones, and become con- densed into clouds and fall in rain. "This atmospheric ocean is infin- itely more turbulent and enigmatic in its various manifestations than have joined Saskatchewan battalions. | the liquid immensity covering three- This is the more remarkable when it is remembered that they left Russia largely on account of tHeir rooted objection to military service. Many of them still maintain that attitude, and the Government has recognized their scruples. It is also remarkable that they should now be fighting in a cause which so largely concerns the land they migrated from. Six men have beén hired to work at the prison farm in Port Arthur district. Prohibition interfered with the farm's usual supply of labor. Horace L, Brittain, Ph.D, has been dent of Toronto quarters of the globe, and in the fu- ture humanity will utilize nature's forces that are constantly rising round us, and the vast riches and lost resources in the stifling heat waves will be collected and stored for our descendants." Roosevelt to Blame. "Darkness . . . but look! In Heaven, a light, And it's shining down . . . God's accolade! Lift me up friends. - I'm going to win--my cross!" From "Tricolor," by Robert Service R ~~ Red Cross ministers according to the : highest traditions of the Hospitallers, or ¢ Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. z Small wonder, then, that their insignia dawns upon many a sufferer's consciousness as God's Accolade! To Ontario is given the privilege of once more leading the Empire in aiding the work of the British Red Cross, by contribut- ing generously to its cause. & ar Day" October 28 ££ 't Be Generous IN GREAT BRITAIN $100,000 for initial outlay in providing and equipping after-carc mstite- "tions for totally disabled men. $100,000 for nusterials for Red Cross Working Parties. pals and magarings sup- 40,000 plied weekly for the sick and - 460 Motor Ambulances, Cars, etc, for Home Service \ 2 728 Command Depots and Conval- 2 escent Camps regularly visited and supplied with Comforts and Games. The home (London, Eng) admin- stration and man t expenses {excluding hospitals) the year ended 20th Ociover; 1916, represent 2.92 per cent. of the total ture, e: dollar'. lied or Tess than 3 cents on the d colnts have been "0 the :Canadian Red Cross Society. Red Cross work costs over - 000 per week or $30 a minute. $00, Sank : Na BAT Si 5 Parliament Buildings, Toronto.