jn —— i
Benorraic; atc
Bellefonte, Pa., February 7, 1919.
am
The Enemy Within; er,
Rounding Up Spies en
the Western Front
Sergeant hate Guy
Empey
Author of “Over the Top,”
“First Call,” Etc.
o-0-0
Mr. Empey’s Experi-
ences During HisSeven-
teen Months in theFirst
Line Trenches of the
British Army in France
(Copyright, 1917, by The McClure Newspaper
yndicate)
We were in rest billets in the little
French village of S——, about ten
kilos from the front-line trench. Nume
ber Two's gun crew were sitting on the
ground in a circle around their mae
chine gun, while a sergeant, newly,
returned from a special course in mae
chine gunnery at St. Omer, was ex-
pounding the theory of scientific ma-
chine gunnery. He himself had never
actually been under fire with a ma-
chine gun, but from the theoretical
point he sure could throw out the
book stuff. I must confess that his
flow of eloquence passed over my
head like a Zeppelin, and I noticed
an uneasy squirming among the rest
of our crew.
Happy Houghton, who was sitting
next to me, leaned over, and with his
eye on the sergeant, whispered in my.
ear:
“Blime me, Yank, isn’t it arful the
way he chucks his weight about?”
I agreed with Happy.
Across from me sat Ikey Honney,
with our mascot, Jim, in his lap.
Every now and then Jim would take
his hind leg and furiously scratch at
a spot behind his ear. Honney, no-
ticing this action, would reach under
his armpit and also scratch.
Sailor Bill was intently watching
Jim and Honney; he, too, started
scratching.
In a minute or so Hungry Foxcroft
started on a cootie hunt; and I had
an irresistible desire to lean back
against the barrel casing of the gun
and also scratch.
It is one of the chief indoor sports
on the western front, especially dur-
ing a monotonous lecture by some offi-
cer or noncom, for one of the fed-up
listeners to start scratching himself.
This generally causes the whole gang
to do the same, the instructor includ-
ed. It is just like a minister in the
midst of a very dry sermon suddenly
stopping, stretching himself, and yawn-
ing, this action causing the rest of the
congregation to do likewise.
As the whole circle scratched, our
sergeant instructor commenced to
shift his weight from one foot to the
other in an uneasy manner. We all
gazed at him intently and each began
to scratch furiously. Sure enough,
the sergeant gave in and started un-
buttoning the front of his tunic to get
at some real or imaginary cootie. A
nudge went the rounds of the circle.
We had accomplished our purpose.
The sergeant’s mind took an awful
drop from the science of machine gun-
nery to that of catching that particu-
lar cootie.
We constantly glanced at our wrist
watches, Fifteen minutes more and
the lesson would be over. The ser-
geant was becoming confused, and was
trying to flounder through the rest of
his talk. We had no mercy on him,
but kept up the scratching. At last,
in desperation, the sergeant said:
“You men have actually been under
fire with machine guns several times.
Can’t one of you relate some incident
of how, through some ruse, you put it
over on the Boches?”
Ikey Honney, grasping this golden
opportunity to break up the lecture,’
ant slyly winking at us, started in
and told how a certain gun’s crew lo-.
cated and put out of action a German '
machine gunner by playing a tune on
their gun. which the German tried to:
imitatc, reby indicating tc “em hy
sound xact location o (Jor
man gun cvhich was later
action by concentrated machine-gun
fire freon their section.
Of course we all listened very in-
tently, but it was an old story to us,
because we were the gun’s crew which
had accomplished the feat that Hon-
ney was describing; but anything was
better than listening to that sing-song
froning of book knowledge which the
sergeant had been pumping into us
for the last hour and a half.
The sergeant glanced at his watch
and dismissed us. We dismounted our
gun, put it in its box and stored it
away in our billet; then we reassem-
bled under an apple tree in the or-
chard, and, while the rest of us in-
dulged in a shirt hunt, Hungry went
after our ration of tea. Hungry was
sure On the job when it came to eat-
ing. Pretty soon he returned with a
dixie one-fourth full of tea, two tins of
jam, a loaf of bread, a large piece of
cheese, and a tin of apricots which he
had bought at a nearby French es-
tarhinet. He dished out our rations,
not forgetting a generous share for
himself. After we had finished, out
;ame the inevitable fags, a few puffs
from each man, and the ball of con-
versation started rolling.
-— we
i Curly Wallace cleared his throat and
| started in with:
| “Remember that village we passed
i through on our march up the line
about two weeks ago; you know, the
one where that big church with all the
shell holes in it was right on the cor-
ner where we turned to the left to
take the road at St. A——7”
quiring glances in Curly’s direction.
“Well, this morning, when I went
sergeant), to draw coal, I met a fellow
at division headquarters who told me
a mighty interesting story of how he
and another fellow rounded up a cou-
ple of spies.
“This bloke, through modesty, and
to cover up his own good work, tried
to make me believe that it was only
through a lucky chance that he stum-
bled over the clue which lead to the
| spies’ arrest, but I'm a-thinkin’, and I
know you'll all agree with me, that it
was not so much luck as it was clever
thinking. I'm not much at telling a
story, but I'm going to try and give it,
as far as I can remember, just the
way he handed it to me.
“It seems that this fellow, who told
me the story, and another chap, had
around division headquarters waiting
for something to happen.
“Now, here's the story as he reeled
it off to me:
“¢About three kilos behind division
headquarters was the old French vil-
lage of B——. One of our important
roads ran through it. This road was
greatly used by our troops for bringing
up supplies and ammunition for the
front line. It was also used by large
numbers of troops when relieving bat-
talions in the fire sector.
“¢0f course, on account of this road
being in range of the German guns, it
could only be used at night; other-
wise the enemy airmen and observa-
tion balloons would get wise and it
would only be a short time before the
road would be shelled, thus causing
many casualties.
“ ‘For the last ten days reports had
been received at division headquarters
that every time troops passed a cer-
tain point on this road, marked by an
old church, they were sure to click
heavy shell fire from the Boches. On
nights when no troops passed through
there would be very little shelling, if
pny, but if a battalion or brigade hap-
pened to come this way they suffered
from heavy shell fire.
“ ‘Upon receipt of the first two or
three of these reports we put it down
as a strange coincidence, but when the
fifth report of this nature reached us
it was evident to us that a spy was
at work, and that in some mysterious
way the information of the movements
of our troops were communicated by
him to the enemy. -
“ ‘Myself and another bloke, who
had been working with me for the last
two weeks, were assigned to the task
of discovering and apprehending this
spy. To us it seem~d an impossible
job, as there were no clues to work
upon. As is usual, our general, “Old
Pepper,” called us in, and said:
颓There is a spy working in the
village of B——; go get him.”
¢ ‘Foolishly, I butted in and asked
for further information. I got it, all
right. With a lowering look which
made me tremble, he roared:
“¢4Go and dig up your own clues.
What are you with the intelligence de-
partment for? Intelligence department!
It ought to be called the ‘brainless de-
partment’ if you two are a sample of
the rest.”
“ ‘Somehow or other we didn't stop
to argue with “Old Pepper.”’”
At this point Sailor Bill butted in:
“Blime me, he’s just like an admiral
we had in our navy, this ‘Old Pepper.’ ”
A chorus of, “Oh, shut up, you're in
the army now,” cut off Bill’s story. We
knew Sailor Bill. If he ever got start-
ed talking navy, nothing short of a gas
attack could stop him.
Sailor Bill, with an indignant glance
around the circle, relapsed into silence.
Curly Wallace exclaimed :
“To ‘ell with your admiral; do you
want to hear this story? If you do,
shut up and let me tell it.”
“Go on, Curly, never mind; he’s
harmless,” ejaculated Happy Hough-
ton.
Curly carried on, with:
“Getting our packs and drawing
three days’ rations, we started hiking
it for the village of B——. We arrived
there about four in the afternoon, and
after prtting our packs and rotions in
an ola .,.. n which we inter J use
as om .et during our sta » vile
lage, wr: left on @ general tour of in-
spection.
“ ‘There were about three hundred
civilians in the place, who preferred to
brave the dangers of shell fire, as there
was a rich harvest to be reaped from
the sale of farm produce, beer and
wines to the troops billeted all around.
Two estaminets (French saloons)
were still open and did a thriving busi-
ness.
“ ‘Occasionally a shell would burst
in the village, but the civilians did not
seem to mind it; just carried on with
their farming and business as usual.
“‘We decided to make a thorough
search of all houses, bares and build-
ings for concealed wires, and did so,
but with barren results. Nothing sus-
picious was found. This search wast-
ed five days, and we were in despera-
tion. Watch and question as we would,
not a single clue came to light.
“ ‘During this time two large bodies
of troops had passed through and each
time they were heavily shelled, with
dire results.
“‘On the sixth night of our assign-
ment, utterly disgusted, I, being in
charge, had decided to chuck up the
whole business and report back to
been detailed to the divisional intelli- !
gence department, and were hanging |
{ed to stick it out for six months, if
i eral rounds of drinks.
We all remembered it and turned in- | low had never, during my acquaint-
| ance with him, offered to spend a ha*
down with the quarter (quartermaster i
Old Pepper that we had made a mess
out of the investigation. My partner
pleaded with me to stick it out a cou-
ple of days more, and after he gave
me a vivid description of what Old
Pepper would hand out to us I decid-
3
i
necessary. To celebrate this decision
my side-kicker offered to blow to sev-
Now, this fel-
penny, so I quickly accepted his offer
and we went to the nearest estaminet.
“Sitting around a long table, drink-
ing French beer and smoking cigar-
ettes, was a crowd of soldiers, laugh-
ing, joking, arguing and telling stories.
“‘We sat down at the end of the |
table, and in a low tone tried to work
impossible theories as to how the spy,
if there was one—by this time we
were doubtful—could get the informa-
tion back to the German batteries.
‘“ ‘Right across from us were two
soldiers arguing about farming. Sud-
denly my side-kicker pinched me on
the knee and whispered :
“¢“Listen to what those two fellows
across the table from us are saying. It
sounds good.”
“I listened for about a minute and
then paid no further attention. At
that time farming in no way interested
me. I wanted to catch that spy, and
started devising impossible theories as
to the ways and means of doing so.
At last I gave up in disgust. My part-
ner was still attentively listening to
the two across the table from us. An-
other poke in the knee from my part-
ner and I was all attention. One of the
fellows across the way was talking:
“¢ “Well, I don’t see why this French
blighter should change horses in his
plow every afternoon. I've watched
him for several days. Now, in the
morning he uses two grays, and then
about two in the afternoon he either
hooks up two blacks or a gray and a
black. French ways may be different,
but this frog-eater is very partial to
the colors of his team. He works the
grays all morning and then changes
them in the afternoon. Now, figure it
out for yourself. He starts work with
the two grays about six o'clock in the
morning; works the two beggars up
till noon. That’s six hours straight.
Then he sticks them in the stable, lays
off for two hours, and in the afternoon
about two o'clock the new relay of
animals comes on and works up till
four. Now, anybody with any brains
in their nappers knows that is no way
to keep horses in condition, working
one team over six hours and the other
team only two hours. I know, because
we have been farmers in our family
back in Blighty for generations.”
“7 was all excitement, and a great
hope surged through me that at last
we had fallen on the clue that we were
looking for. Restraining my eager-
ness as much as possible I addressed
the fellow who had just spoken:
“¢ “Well, mate, I don’t like to intrude
into your conversation, but I've also
been a farmer all my life and I don’t
see anything queer in the actions of
this French farmer.”
“‘He answered: “Well, blime me,
there might be a reason for this
blighter doing this, but I can’t figure
it out at all. If you can explain it, go
ahead.”
“¢‘] answered: “Well, perhaps if
you can give a little more details about
it, it would be easy enough to explain.
Who is the farmer, and where is his
farm located?”
“‘He swallowed the bait, all right,
and informed me that the farmer was
plowing a field on a hill about five
hundred yards west of the church at a
roint where our troops were being
shelled.
“Buying a round of drinks, I
nudged my partner and he came in on
the conversation. The two of us, by
adroit questioning, got the exact loca-
tion of the field and a description of
the farmer.
“‘I pretended to be sleepy, and,
yawning, got up from the table, say-
ing that I was going to turn in, and
left. My partner soon followed me.
Upon reaching our billet, we outlined
our plan. We decided that next morn-
ing we would get up at daybreak and
scout around the field to see if there
was a hiding place.
“ ‘Sure enough, along one edge of the
field ran a thick hedge. We secreted
ourselves in this and waited for de-
velopments.
“‘At about six in the morning, the
farmer appeared, driving two grays,
which he hooked to the plow, and car-
ried on his work. To us thcre ap-
peared nothing suspicious ’n nis ac-
tions. We watched him all mocning.
At noon he unhooked the horses and
went home. We remained in hiding,
afraid to leave, because we wanted to
take no chances of being seen by the
farmer. We had forgotten to bring
rations with us, so it was a miserable
walt until two o'clock, at which time
the farmer reappeared, driving two
blacks, which he hitched to the plow,
and carried on: until four o'clock, and
then knocked off for the day. That
night troops came through and, as usu-
al, were shelled. 2
“Next morning, at daybreak, we
again took our stations in the hedge,
this time bringing rations with wus.
The farmer used the same grays in
the morning, but in the afternoon he
appeared with a black and a gray, and
again knocked off around four o'clock.
No troops came through that night,
snd there was no shelling.
“Next day the farmer repeated the
previous day's actions—two grays in
the morning and a black and a gray
in the afternoon. No troops, no shell-
ing.
“We were pretty sure that we had
him, but this arresting a spy on slim
evidence is a ticklish matter. We
didn't want to make a mess of the af-
A i
fair, or perhaps send an innocent man
gt — Pury
| Cincinnati.
! to Indianapolis to see his boy, his only
| son who had been away from home for
. four years.
! and was being transferred.
¥ | be in Indianapolis
; wired his father to meet him.
| how. father and son missed connection
i in the -arion station.
| appeal to the women of the Red Cross
| canteen booth.
i “He hasn't shown up.
| tion of son.
| BROUGHT BOY TO HIS DAD
i Red Cross Workers Set Out to Find
the Yong Sco!dier and of Course
They Succeeded.
Dad was from some little town near
He had come all the way
The boy was in the army
He was to
on Sunday and
Some-
Dad decided to
“I was to meet him here,” dad said.
I know he’s in
{ndianapolis somewhere.”
The canteeners got busy. Dad and
| nis boy had to be brought together.
i First
the canteeners summoned the
military police. They got a descrip-
The M. P.'s started out
| to find him. The canteeners also start-
Hooked to the Plow, and Carried on |
His Work.
tc his death, so the following day we
again took up our stations. Sure |
enough, it was two grays in the morn- |
ing, but in the afternoon he used two |
blacks. That night troops came |
through and were shelled. We had |
solved the problem. Two grays in the |
morning mean nothing. The actual |
signal to the enemy was the change |
of horses in the afternoon; two blacks
meaning “troops coming through to- |
night, shell the road;” a gray and a |
black, “No troops expected, do not |
shell.” i
“When it got dark and it was safe |
to leave the hedge, we immediately re- |
perted the whole affair to the town |
major (an English officer detailed in '
charge of a French village or town
occupied by English troops) who, ac- |
companied by us and a detail of six
men with fixed bayonets, went to the
farmer’s house that night and arrest-
ed him. He protested his innocence, !
but we took him to military police |
headquarters where, after a grueling |
questioning, he at last confessed.
“It was a mystery to us how this
farmer knew that troops were com- |
ing through, because he never made |
a mistake in his schedule. After fur- |
ther questioning he explained to us |
that if we searched in his cellar and |
raised up an old flagstone with a |
ring in it, we would find a telephone
set. The other end of this set was
established in an estaminet in a little
French village eleven kilos distant.
His confederate was so situated on
the road that troops coming into the |
village had to pass the door. As |
troops march only at night while in |
the fire sector, his confederate could
safely figure out that the passing
troops would be quartered in his vil-
lage until the next night, when, under
cover of darkness, they would start
for the next village, and would have |
to pass the point in the road by the !
old church. He would immediately |
telephone this information to the
farmer, who would change his horses
accordingly. The hill on which he
did his plowing could be easily ob-
served from an observation balloon
in the German lines, and thus the sig-
nal was given to the German artillery.
“We still carried on with our third
Cegree, and got further valuable infor-
mation from him.
“‘f, in the plowing, two gray
horses were used on two consecutive
“] Have a Good Mind to Send You
Back to Your Units.”
afternoons, it meant that the use of
the road had been indefinitely discon-
tinued for troops and supplies.
“Under a strong guard, which cons
cealed itself in the hedge, the farm-
er was made to use two grays for two
afternoons. The scheme worked. For
weeks afterward that road was only
occasionally shelled, and our troops
and supply trains used it at will. The
spy at the other end was rounded up
and both were taken to the base and
shot.
#“‘We reported back to Old Pepper,
expecting to be highly commended for
our work, and we were—I don't think,
All the blooming blighter said was:
“euWell, you certainly took long
enough to do it. I have a damn good
mind to send you back to your units
for incompetency and inefficiency.”
. “We saluted and left.
“‘You see, we didn’t deserve any
great credit, because it was only
through a lucky chance that we stum-
bled over the clue, so I guess “Old
Pepper” was right after all.’”
After finishing his story,
turned to us and asked:
“Don’t you think it was pretty nifty
work?”
We agreed that it was.
After a few minutes more the party
broke up and turned in.
Curly
——Subsecribe for the “Watchman.”
| up toward the station door.
i dad and his boy—arm in arm.
ed scouts. They visited every down-
town corner and haunt of the soldiers.
An hour later the canteeners looked
In cane
“I did just as you told me,” the fa-
ther said. “You told me to go uptown
and stand on that corner. You said
he’d pass there, and pretty soon he
did. The military police kept coming
by to ask if I had a trail of nim. And
then he came. My, but he was glad
to see me!”
Of course he was glad to see him.
The boy’s smile told how glad he was
to see his dad.—Indianapolis News.
BACK TO HIS OLD FREEDOM
Stormy Petrel, After Brief Stay With
Tame Birds, Returns to His
Accustomed Place.
“The stormy petrel has left us,” said
Sergeant McGee of the park police.
“He appeared to be getting along with
the mudhens like a house on fire, but
on Monday or Tuesday last he just
i; faded away, and now he is back on his
ocean wave or wherever else petrels
go when they get tired of the compan;
of mudhens.
“But a successor has come from
the briny deep to keep up the tradi-
tions of the blue-water birds on
Stow lake. He is only a seagull, and
a seagull is not such a rara avis on
terra as our lost friend, the stormy
petrel. Nevertheless he is the first
wild one of his kind that has ever
tarried with us for two weeks, and
seemed to keep comfortable.
“He has no use for either the ducks
or the mudhens. That is to say, he
does not mix with them. But he has
struck up a friendship with Anthony
and Cleopatra, the two pelicans of
the Nile, and there is no driving him
away from them. Maybe he thinks
they will protect him from the mud-
hens, maybe it is a case of ‘the de-
sire of the moth for the star,” and he
is in love with one of them. If so, it
is only a matter of time when one or
the other of them will get jealous and
gobble him up in one gulp.”—San
Francisco Bulletin.
Chip of the Old Block.
It is curious Low episodes of the
Boer war are recalled by the world
conflict, says a writer in the Yorkshire
Post. In our issue for May 16, 1900,
for instance, we published an account
of the bravery in the field of Private
© EF. Wischusen, who threw a live shell
over a cliff during an engagement,
Now his son, Private Eric Wis
chusen, duke of Cambridge’s Middle-
sex regiment, has proved himself to
be no less brave. As a parchment
certificate from his commanding offi-
! cer shows, in a raid near Voormezeele.
on June 19-20, he was “conspicuous for
his determination and bravery.” De-
spite a heavy artillery and machine-
gun barrage, he reached the enemy
trenches, cleared them, and finally cov-
cred the raiders’ withdrawal, “show-
ing complete disregard to his own
safety.”
Private Wischusen, who is only
twenty, is now in hospital at Lowes-
toft with a shot wound in his leg. His
home is in Hornsey.
Oii Near Old indian Cemeteries.
Geologists are unable to explain the
fact, proven in Osage county, that oil
wells drilled adjacent to Indian ceme-
teries are good producers. Many such
burial sites have been invaded by
drillers and in more instances than
one riches in crude oil have spouted
forth. The largest producer in the vi-
cinity of Pawhuska was drilled beside
an Indian graveyard. It is on the
summit of a high, rocky hill that over-
looks the town.—From the Oklahoman.
Records Seeds’ Value.
In a patented seed tester of A. F.
Esslinger, a Michigan inventor, a
strip of cloth or other material is
folded over a pad and then stitched
across and lengthwise so as to form
little square sections. The seeds to
be tested are placed In these squares.
The pad retains moisture for a consid-
erable time, long enough to produce
germination of the good seeds, and
numbers on the squares give a means
of record and identification.
More Uses for Electricity.
As might be expected, the use of
wire resistances in fabrics to give elec-
tric heating has suggested a great va-
riety of applications. Besides the
electric pad as a substitute for the
hot water bottle these devices include
electrically heated bath robes, sweat-
ing robes, heating bags, rugs, foot
warmers, ear warmers, motciman’s
gloves and even an electric blanket
for the old and rheumatic horse. Elec-
tric current may be taken from light-
ing circuits or special batteries.
n — . ———
FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN.
DAILY THOUGHT.
Hail to thy returning festival, Old Bish
op Valentine! Great is thy name in the
rubric, thous venerable arch flamen of Hy-
men. Like unto thee, assuredly, there is
no other mitred father in the calendar.—
Charles’ Lamb.
St. Valentine was a saint of
Church who suffered martyrdom fhe
der Emperor Claudius about A. D.
270, and as a diligent ancient writer
sagely observed, “We have no occur-
rence in his life that could give rise
5 the custom practiced on February
If you have decided to give a tea
on St. Valentine’s day the tea table
must be heart shaped to be appropri-
ate to the occasion. A heart-shaped
tea table sounds difficult, but in reali-
ty it is not at all hard to arrange.
Take an ordinary kitchen table and
screw to the top a huge heart cut from
very thick pasteboard or fashioned
from thin boards. Cover this with a
white cloth which is decorated with
festoons of hearts cut from red card-
board and strung on red baby ribbon.
The candles and shades also should
be red. To each candle shade there
should be tied a heart-shaped shield
made of red paper carnations, each
shield being pierced with an arrow
made of silver cardboard. The cen-
terpiece should be formed of a flat
heart of red carnations. Sandwiches
should be cut in heart shapes, ice
cream frozen in heart-shaped moulds,
and bon-bons should be red and white
hearts.
VALENTINE GAMES.
Get a list of famous lovers.
Among these are Romeo and Juliet.
Robert Burns and Highland Mary.
History and fiction provide many
others.
Write the names of each on a slip
of paper.
Pin a name on the back of each
player, who must try to guess whom
he represents.
He may ask questions of other play-
ers, who can only reply to his queries
by the words “yes” or “no.”
After all have guessed their iden-
tity, each tries to find his mate, who
becomes his partner for refreshments.
For the Valentine dance the pro-
grams should be as dainty as possi-
ble. They may be of water color pa-
per and hand painted with Cupids,
doves, flowers and hearts.
For place cards for a dinner have
large double roses of red tissue paper
with green foliage. From the center
of each should peep a small china doll
decked out as Cupid. He should have
a necklace of tiny hearts around his
neck, and the name should be gilded
on an end of white satin ribbon tied
around the stem.
A fetching ornament for a Valen-
tine tea table is a tall red rose sup-
ported by two Cupids rampant. This
can be used to hold candles or from
the heart can stick a narrow ribbon
which, drawn, reveals a valentine
motto.
For a Valentine pie for a children’s
party there is a big heart-shaped af-
fair, apparently a dish of carnations,
real or artificial. Ends of red rib-
bons peep out from the flowers which,
when pulled, show favors pertaining
to the day.
Valentines or the valentine post-
cards make appropriate place cards
or score cards for the bridge party.
For favors there are hearts cover-
ed with white satin printed with mass-
es of blue forgetmenots. These make
dainty jewel or trinket boxes when
the candy is eaten.
How to Announce an Engagement
at Such an Affair—A Valentine
luncheon or supper is an. appropriate
time to announce an engagement, as
it can be cleverly managed in keep-
ing with the decorations.
A novel idea is to have a slender
Cupid poised over a plateau of pink
carnations arranged in heart shape.
Over his shoulder should be slung a
quiver of gold paper filled with tiny
white envelopes, each decorated with
two pink hearts instead of postage
stamps.
From each of these notes a pink
baby ribbon or gilt cord runs to each
plate, where it ends in a big question
mark made of pink carnations, rest-
ing against a wired lattice strung
with greens. The meaning of this
pretty decoration will arouse much
questioning.
When the table is cleared for des-
sert the guests will be told to care-
fully draw the ribbon, when each will
receive a note from the quiver con-
taining the names of the affianced.
Another announcement is to have
the ices frozen in the form of two big
pink or red hearts placed on a silver
platter. Frozen in each is an an-
nouncement card wrapped in paraf-
fine paper. The guest who finds it in
her slice opens and reads it aloud.
A novel decorative method is to
have at each plate two small cakes in
heart shape, one in white, iced in red,
with the name of the girl, the other
iced in red, with white decorations,
and the name of the lover in white.
The cakes should be placed side by
side on a small tray decorated with
silver paint. ; ; J
Instead of cakes, plain white satin
candy boxes in heart shape may be
substituted, the lettering done in rais-
ed gold. Set the heart boxes side by
side on the doilies of paper lace, with
Cupid or other appropriate decora-
tions. ;
A simpler method will be to send in
a tray covered with valentines direct-
ed to each guest. These may be
bought or original—the latter are
more fun if witty verse can be man-
aged. Each guest is supposed to
read her valentine aloud. One of
these mottoes is a rhyme telling of
the engagement, and is read by the
hostess at her turn.
One hostess who will announce the
engagement of a girl friend at a
luncheon has arranged to have her
three-year-old sister, dressed as Cu-
pid, appear at dessert carrying a
gilded basket of pink roses, one for
each guest. Tucked in the heart of
each rose are two tiny cards, with the
names of the engaged couple, tied to-
gether with pink ribbon, through
which is thrust a small pierced heart
and dart.