Winnetka Local History Digital Collections

Winnetka Weekly Talk, 8 Mar 1918, p. 1

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a. '] a NETKA WEEKL Nearly Everybody in Winnetka Reads the Talk SAE AT vr VOI. VI; NO. 51 WINNETKA, ILLINOIS, FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1918 SIX PAGES PRICE FIVE IVE SENS HONOR WINNETKA MAN | RY 35 ~° REAFFIRM POLICES _ : | " | n YO LED I ACTH | NORTH SHORE MAN GOES "OVER THE TOP IAT VAL EC | 1 4 -- | U Licutenant Vaughan M. Lavery, British Engineers, tells of thrilling exp, and remarkable Allied victory | | > ) North Shore to Express Regard for | of Meossines Ridge. | Candidates for Coming Election Dis- Sacrifice of Lieutenant Philip iL 1 cussed and Nominating-Com- Comfort Starr, who Died 3 | mittee Appointed at Meeting One of the most vivid descriptions | side which always cause %. chaos. Our artillery hardly left a| 1 in Flanders |of an actual engagement with the | Furthermore, a man he ere | foot of earth that hadn't been churn- | in Woman's club [Huns at the battle of Messines| was going down from ts of {ed up. 1 passed one of our mine | 8 | Ridge, is contained in the following |the gas. These had to b so laid | craters. Near by were many planks | | PROGRAM IS COMPLETE | etter from the pen of Lieut. Vaugh- up on the parapet where they | sticking up and material which show- 'TO SEEK EFFICIENT RULE | [i= M. Lavery, British General Staff, | wouldn't be trampled on. ed where dug-outs had been. The | ei | ® . eo (2nd an officer in the Third Tunnel-| "It was 3 A. M. when we reached | men inside never knew what happen- 4 i. f Services to be Held in Community ing company, Canadian Engineers, the e *dge of the wood and the shells! ed. Here and there lay a dead Hun, | Platform Adcpted Individually and | House Sunday Evening received by relatives in Wilmette. vere still 1 coming over making much Every one of the machine gun em- ! Without a Dicsenting Vote | The letter is an excéptionally clear more noise as the explosions rever-| placem had a fringe of dead Seth | ; [depiction of modern warfare and] through the woods. {men at the back where they had been 4 ry ofa Winnetka has had her first casual- written by the lieutena while | :10 the ground couple | bomed as they c: Finally | is gunounced.m a5 week's Issue ty. Lieutenant Philip Comfort Starr, a base hospital, recov from | dous heaves and we knew |] 1ed our new line. The [OF the Weekly Talk, 4 public Caucus, | son of Mr. and Mrs. Merritt Starr, | gas-poisoning. It reads in part as| mines | gone up ahd the were busy digging them-|WaS held Tuesday Fvening March 5 695 Lincoln avenue, with the British | follows: | came had nan working his|!? the rooms of the Winnetka Royal Engineers. Corps 154, was kil- "Liverpool Merchants Hospital | ntet S were Women ; chub, to discuss candidates led, in action, in Flanders, February | "Estaples, Franie, : Sod for the coming village election, and 20, 1918. "June 16th. 1917 al were everywhere, | the licies that should govern the ; A special Memorial Meeting will "Tt will probably interest you to | that the aviators | en So ote to run on 8 is Heket be held by the citizens of Winnetka |read of my experiences in the Battle v nctly. I didn't see Mr Phillip S. Post, <hairman of in memory of this, its first sacrifice | of Messines. The papers have un-| OR a new ilding the whole time, last year's caucus; called Ihe meeting to the cause of Liberty, as an ex-|doubtedly told you of the mines, etc., wo days later. In to order. George W. Gordon, was pression of the high regard in which | ut I do not suppose they have given gentle slope up-| €l an of the meeting, and Winnetka holds these men, who give | you many details. j : to see clearly for |: le secretary. . A. no- their lives for this glorious cause, ; My COMpRRY was on the right i & e353 - . : rs of dirt and | : 1 x ASA of sexsn was recognizing that there may be others Form any Wocks wo lind Been "We were still some yards from | smoke were shooting up by the | ap inted consisting of the follow- yet to fall. 18 time as far as'the front Ene] our. post but soon reached it. all over the lands where | 11g ; FR This meeting will be held in Com-l'wns" cancetned. The Idet that a|. 1t was an open trench(that is slop- ur heavy shells were landing. Mes- Se ugene , ummier, chairman, munity House, under the auspices of a8 coming 'off had "een in|iP8 sides) ex osed to "kick-backs sines on the crest of the hill to our i : +i: Mrs. Carrie B. | tite. War Emeroer Haion. on Sins tart Sots. the. Tl le sions tirom shells that exploded behind us. |left was quie we knew our men | Ft ) . 'Wallace Leonard | ; 4 ; t Lior; some time, BIS We all crouched down against the |were to the of it. Besides no |Roach, Fred Burlingham | day evening, March 10th, at eight|were obvious: -- the big guns and] 2 Lo Srou L-qowh. hoa, the jere fo tae remiss Fa po Pie i o'clock. The program will be as fol- | thei nber :-- miles of field ouns|iceWard side of the trench and|machine guns opened up on us from |D1 Ag deg The policies, | : | Their gumier Jules: of field gure waited for our turn to go over. To!the slopes which they would have| which should guide the candidates | bows: passing along the roads; the tram-|"° 3 eo = id SP : Bas Ry YS Jans Tected bv this Nomination . | Sear: Sonncled Bands ways: end. stands cdueinge tallways make things more unpleasant, | surely done if Fritz had still been in selected by this nominating-commit- The Swat Spang mau ; |'soreadine Like: a hare - over all|Pranches and even whole trees start- | possesion. Every once in a while |tee, and to which the members elec 2 Invocation Rev. E. Ashley Ger re as re 3 So ihge fet per Red ed to tumble about us. Finally I got one of his big shells would plump | ed to office last spring, hard [rhe wii vl I Some Dices my boys under a tree which had fal- |down near us throwing up a lot of |[themselves, were reaffirmed as 3. "Cloria"..Quartette--Mrs. Oagan. | IP to the iront mes : nat len across the trench and this saved | dirt. We paid no attention to these | lows: " Mrs. Froley. Mr. Freeman, 31 | cmmunition dunes oe W aki Angas from thinking of branches even if {but kept our eyes open for shrapnel. | 1. We stand for the mut Ratcliffe. Mrs. Brewer violin. | i Be ot 1or ots | fey werent shrapnel proof. You see the ground was so soft, | ownership and operation of t Mrs. Orcutt at piano. | doing" a Sa aome Z| "It is wonderful how small a man |having been tossed up so often, that |lage Utilities. 4. Bible Reading "Twas set downbh first tolire amine] 2° make himself under certain con-|a big shell buried itself pretty deep | i ye Dede ouiselves to gra 5. Remarks). ... Mr. H. K. Tenney bar itor ass ordoted to tale a de. ditions. It wasn t long before we could | before exploding so that the frag- | ranchise without first subm 6. Raising of Service Flag ........ Arer shar a pick out the shells coming towards, ments couldn't go far. But shrapnel | the matter to a referendum Mr. William D. McKenzie 7. Hymn Address" "Lest We Forget" 10. Benediction. All are invited to be present. Quartette WOMAN'S CLUB SESSION IS REAL WAR COUNCIL | Many War Activities are Discussed and Prominent Speakers Heard at Regular Meeting Thursday The Winnetka Woman's club met on Thursday at the club rooms. A war activity meeting ®as held at 2:30 o'clock, preliminary to the regu- lar meeting. Mrs. Charles Hubbard gave a report of the Farmer's Con- vention at Urbana, and Mrs. Charles T. Mordock made a very stirring speech on food conservation, explain- | are all apt to forget. | economy, | what we that conservation it not but substitution, and the fact, that the reports in the daily papers as to what to buy and not to buy, should be followed. Mrs. Carrie Prouty, president made a plea htat the Woman's club stand 100 percent strong in buying War Thrift Stamps, a solution of which would be for each member to take a definite' number of stamps each week for a year. She also announced that there would be a drive made next week for books for our army camps, and any contributions may be sent to the Public Library. They must be in good condition, and books of interest. Mrs. Capron gave the fol- lowing names as the members of the! nominating-committee : Mesdames ing Wortley, Gordon, Montgomery, Mel- hope and O'Day. Announcement was made that | those wishing to have rugs cleaned this spring, could benefit the club by co-operating with Mrs. Barnett. | Notice was also made of the Memorial meeting for Philip Com- fort Starr at the Community House | on Sunday evening. Mrs. E. N. Rhodes then took charge | of the meeting and introduced Mrs. Dwight C. Orcutt, who read a paper on "American Music", illustrated by Miss Esther Pearson, soloist, and Miss Lois Dyson, violinist, She self played some very charming com- | positions based on Indian melodies. Miss Ida Gardner, of Paris, France, has been most generous with her musical talent while in Winnetka. (Continued on page two.) "VJudge Thonras Tayior : | emphazing her- | | tachment over the top" to look for "booby-traps";clean outdug-outs and | find. smitahle headauarters. for the [battalions of the brigade to which EB was attached as well as report on | water supply, tramways, and any- thing else of use from an engineers standpoint. I liked this far better than. exploding a mine as it prom- |ised a great deal of excitement. had been batteries |. "For days our artillery | gétting heavier as new | moved up to their positions. "Fritz was replying as much as he dared so that it was like running | gauntlet to go to and come from i front line. Strange to say very few of our men were killed or wounded by his shells, when you think of the | enormous number he threw at us. There were always lulls in his firing of which you may be sure we took] full advantage. "The weather was ideal. "We had it all figured out that the push would come off in about four {days when 1 suddenly received my orders and left camp with my de- tachment for a near village. At 11 :15 P. M. we fell into our place in the long column of troops and the march to the front line started. About 12 o'clock we were in the support trenches when Fritz took it into his head to bombard us with gas-shells. Our own artillery had practically died down which made the silence intense. he gas-shells fell at first some distance from us but soon our eyes began to water and we could smell the stuff. It didn't take us long ito get the masks on. Our trench was over a mile long running more or less parallel with the front line. | progress was slow, the men only iheing alge to go in single file at a | snail's pace. The sky was overcast looking much like rain. Every once [in a while a shell would land in the | trench, decapitating one or two men land leaving others lying about. The bodies had to be thrown over the Our | al and landing around us, from the general background of sound. Every- sped vetted -Ssrrn-ro tari HR had been there for weeks. Some of the men went sound to sleep. The waiting seemed more or less of a dream to me. A shell fragment fell between my corporal and myself missing our knees by a couple of inches and cut the duck-board at the bottom of the trench in pieces I amused myself by stabbing my cane into every new hole made by shrapnel in the opposite wall of the trench. Pretty soon the walking wounded started to pass us amid a rapid fire of chaffing; and laughing up and down the line greeted them. At 5 A. M. it was broad day-light fand so we started over. Fritz was still shelling our trenches but the gas-shells had stopped. 1 finally got to the right place in the front line which was no easy job and we went over the parapet into "no man's land", then the fun started. "Our difficult own barbed wire was rather to get through as Fritz hadn't been able to cut it up much, The first thing I met on the other side were two stretcher-bearers and their stretcher all in line, head to toe. The bearers were stone dead, lying on their faces, both killed by the same shell. And right here I want to that I take off my hat to the regimental stretcher-bearers. The way they calmly go through everything without a stop is sub- lime. "The next thing we knew was that we were passing through a barrage say put up by Fritz to keep supports from coming up. One shell landed not more than five feet away but failed to explode. It had the effect of waking me up, however, and the way all we scampered forward, every man for himself would have been comical under other conditions. Fritz's lincs were nothing more than | given briskly ! was a different proposition, bursting |t high in the air and spraying a large tree Swnthe butlets put shrapnel four or five times over the same spot and then changed, we would wait a minute and then run for the spot just strafed. In a few seconds Fritz would throw shrapnel to our right or left. By alternate! dashes 2nd rushes I thus managed to cover all the ground taken by the brigade. I came across a new Hun rifle which I annexed as a trophy. could have picked up other things but safety depended a go speed so I couldn't over-load and had to let them go. One thing that pleased me much was coming across four trench-mortars which had often bad me a time in my old quarters. Most of their crews lay dead around them. We finally re- turned across no man's land at 8 A. M. having spent three hours in our reconnaissance. "I had our down trenches Just started communicating one of when { Fritz. started to throw over some | shells, more more gas ed not so from me. and '1 - had it in place. ill effects two the first land- than five yards or My mask was down taken At the beyond felt irritation time I the no to my eyes. | handed in may report and | marched my way we came. "Such was the battle of Messines. My description spread along a front of nine miles instead of half a mile or less, gives an idea of what it was. So far it has been the shortest, sharpest, most clean-cut victory of its size in the war, and our losses were extraordinarily slight. "As for myself, the gas took ef- fect 54 hours afterwards, when I spend a bad half hour or so and was ordered to the clearing station. From there I was sent to Base Hospital and am at present none the worse for my experience." men to, billets by the | Women in Session The regular monthly | the North Shore Catholic Women's club will be held at the Winnetka i Women's club, Thursday, March 14, lat 2:30. Nomination of officers for ithe coming year will be in order. ! Mrs. Edward Gudeman will speak on {food and markets. Miss Louise | Thompson will be' the soloist. The [hostesses are: Mrs. Vollman, Mrs. | Ryan, Mrs. Inglid, and Miss Ethel | Bryan. meeting of NORTH SHORE APPLE DEALER HELD FOR TRIAL E. A. Blake, 18533 W, a peddler, was held to the grand jury by local Police Magistrate J. "R. Crocker' for selling bar- north shore towns. The complain- ant was Mrs. John R. Montgomery of Green Bay road. Monroe street, vesterday It was said that other housewives along the North Shore had com- plained of Blake's duping activities. Commercial Association Meets The annual election of officers of the New Trier Commercial associat- ion, will be held Wednesday evening. March 13, at the Winnetka Com- munity House. None of the present officers are seeking reelection and keen compe- tition among new candidates is ex- pected. * Refreshments are to be served following the election of of- ficers and the regular business session. Ae rit #aruaibeo Soa the people. 3 We efficient stand for 1 mathe de iT ae Sw of all feparem the village. 4. We believe in continye thorough preparation, both {legel and ¢ C side; | solution of the a westion of separation, { | These four general statemien [policy., were adopted individually | and unanimously by the meeting. A general discussion of the wor done by the Village council during {the past year and of its plans for the coming year took place, led by Wm. D. McKenzie, president of the vilage:. The meeting adjourned to meet N Tuesday evening, March 12, at yd time the nominating-commniittee is to bring in report. The meeting was a representative one, men and women from all parts of the village being present. its a if GERTRUDE M. THURSTON OUT FOR RE-ELECTION | Township Supervisor and Winnetka Woman Leader asks Privilege of Retaining Office. Gertrude M. Thurston, 882 Oak avenue, has announced her candidacy [for reelection to the office of Town- ship Supervisor, being the only re- presentative of Winnetka thus far to file a petition for a Township office. Mrs. Thurston's candidacy has met with no opposition up to the present time. She again appears as a candidate on the Citizens' League Ticket. The candidates who have filed for Township offices are: Candidates for Township offices are: Collector, Hoyt King, of Wilmette. Supervisor, Gertrude M. Thurston, of Winnetka. Assessor: George R. Harbaugh, of Wilmette. Highwya Commissioner, H. Sherer, of Glencoe. Clerk, Walter Scott Crozier, of | Glencoe. Constable, Herbert | Asbury P. Crume, ot Wilmette. Entertains at Church dh-- | Ralph Bingham, entertainer. will appear in a program in Pilgrim Hall, Wilmette C ongregational church, Saturday evening, under the auspices #7 of the Crescent Circle of the church. | /

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