IMF ON f-BOAT IS RACKING TO THE HUMAN BODY Like Living Inside the Mechan ism of a Watch. EVER ON WATCH FOR ENEMY Correspondent Says Human Beings Could Not Remain Submerged in Submarine Fifteen Hours a Day for Many Days—Heart of the Ship Cen ters About the Two Periscopes. Wherever one sees a Frenchman these days, whether on land, on water, or in the air, the thick of the fighting is near. The same is true of fighting un der the water. I have just returned from passing two days and three nights under the Adriatic sea in the M , a French submarine, says A. R. Decker, in the Chicago Daily News. We were cruising for hostile undersea craft that sail on their piratical expeditions from Cattaro for the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and for enemy surface ships which might dash out at night from be hind the Dalmatian islands to attae.k the southern Italian bases, or the drifter line across the Otranto straits. I Commander R of the submarine in which I was to sail led the way down a perpendicular ladder into the main -corridor of the M and showed me the compact but comfortable quarters small, wood-trimmed state rooms for the officers and a locker where I could Install a shakedown. It was already hot as sin and I was glad to strip and don the blue jumper and overalls which were loaned me. Then I could at least perspire without think ing of my clothes. , Slipping Out of Harbor. I gave but a hasty glance around at the countless valves and conduits, and then hastened above, taking care to protect myself against the cold. We are getting under way. Commander R was in the conning tower. He had slipped on a tunic over his jumper and wore his service cap, as did the other officers, one of whom was at the stern and the other at the bow, superintend ing the departure. I climbed out of the conning tower and took a place amongst the crew grouped near the wire railing. The evening air was cool and refreshing, as we backed, turned and went ahead until we swuflg on our course toward the outer harbor. The silent-sunning electric motor brought us along so smoothly we seemed to slip through the water, gathering headway until neat, well-turned waves fell off the bows. With much puffing and snorting the duty of turning the screws was taken from the electric motor and turned over to one of the oil engines, while the remaining oil engines charged the accumulators against the time when we should have to submerge. Our speed Increased and in a half hour the old castle and the landmarks of the quaint southern Italian town had fused in the glow of a vivid sunset. When the moon rose I was still breathing the cool salt air, for one stay of five min utes In the heat below decks had driven me above. I stood in the con ning tower, ready at a moment's no tice to dive out of sight. Sailors were in a forward hatch, the only remaining one left open. Not a soul was on the bare decks which seemed weird In the moonlight. Long ago, the wire ratling had been dismounted and stowed be low. Our sharp prow cut Its way through a slightly ruffled sea, spread ing a gloom of phosphorescence In our wake. A full moon lit up the Adriatic, ■enabling us to see a long distance. But the call of sleep won over the rareness of the situation. Before day light I was awakened" by the stopping of the oil engines. Climbing Into the conning tower, I found that Comman der R was preparing to submerge. Sailors Won't Close Hatches. We already had been partly sub merged, that is, a sufficient number of the water compartments had been filled so that the filling of a few more would cause the M to dive. We were nearly balanced. During the night hours the Diesel engines had been storing energy into the accumulators and now the switch was made. A last order came through the speaking tube and we slowly sank. Commander R 's arrival told me that we were entirely under water. He was the last man to descend the conning tower lad der after he himself had closed an 3 bolted the hatch. It is strange but sailors on submarines do not like to open or close the hatches. They fear that the water will enter and engulf them. However, the weight of the wa ter is such that it is impossible to budge the hatches once the ship is partly under water. At 4:30 o'clock we were under the Adriatic and our real submarine life began. No physical sensation told me that we were below the sea. My breath ing was normal and the only objection able feature was the heat. Qut as th( hours wore away I began to realizt that submarine life is one of the mosi painful that human beings can endure The heat is terrible, 32 to 35 degrees centigrade (89 to 95 degrees Fahren heit) in the section of the Adriatic ai this time of the year, and the liumidlt3 Is as bad, condensing on the structura werk and trickling down one's neck un noticed because of the perspiration tha is already pouring down. It was so ho that most of my photographic films were spoiled. Gradually I became somewhat accus tomed to the heat and started out to explore the M . As I progressed my confidence increased and I soon felt as safe as If on dry land. The I M is a real ship and as stable as a destroyer. As I walked down the long corridor from the officers' quarters I felt as though I were inside the works of a watch, so complicated did the ma chinery seem. There were two inner decks, the lower one for the heavy ac cumulators and the upper for the two sets of engines. On the upper deck aft j was a narrow lane banked by the two , Diesel engines and the two electric mo tors. The torpedo tubes were set in the sides. Forward were the oil tanks and storerooms. A rapid firing gun was attached to a trap, ready to be swung rapidly into position on the outer deck. The crew's quarters were forward and aft. Here the half-naked, sweating men off duty lay on the ceiling, or in hammocks, trying to get some sleep. The cook was busy in his electric kitchen preparing light food that gave out no odor and did not re quire an oven. The wireless room was not occupied, as we were submerged. Watching for the Enemy. But the heart of the ship centered about two periscopes, thick, electrical ly operated shafts whose lower ex tremities terminated in the navigation room. Here the commander or lii.s officers and underofficers kept half hour watches which were painful in their intensity. Our existence depend ed upon our seeing the enemy the frac tion of a minute before he saw us. However, this was not the spirit of the ship. Our aim was to find enemy sub marines, and never in all my experi ence have 1 seen men so intent upon finding the Germans. Perhaps it was because the loneliness of our position welded us Into one family. The little navigation chamber housed a number of men. Two sailors sat on little benches on the starboard side before two vertical dials, which, by flashing lights, told our angle of forward pitch or side roll. We were traveling about seven knots an hour with our peri scopes five feet above the waves. The two men controlled the side planes which governed our depth. As the angle lights flashed to zero, 5 or 10 de grees, they would whirl the wheels and bring up to the desired depth. The M was very sensitive be cause Commander R 's first care when we submerged had been to bal ance the ship—that is, to fill the com partments with just the right amount of water to make the M a shade heavier than water. This Is the French and also the German method. Many navies maintain the submarine slightly lighter than water. Our side rudders and speed kept us at the re quired depth, like a dirigible balloon. On the port side one sailor controlled our course by means of a Sperry gyro scope compass and a wheel operating the vertical stern rudder. Other sail ors stood by at pumps and valves ready to aid us in diving, or to empty the water compartments if we needed to mount to the surface very quickly. An officer directed the motors and dis tant valves through speaking tubes and buzzers. Silence Is Necessary. All these men were in a circle of I about fifteen feet. Silence reigned and the discipline was severe, for in a sub marine one must act quickly 4 seconds i may be precious. When one conversed it was in whispers and briefly. On a platform Commander R stood gaz ing intently through the periscope, a hand on either support turning the shaft so as to sweep a little more than half the horizon. His head was in a sort of cavity and it was hotter there than elsewhere. He was perspiring as in a steam bath. A few feet away an underofficer was searching the other half of the horizon. I took the underofficer's post and glued my eye to the lens. It surprised . me that one could see so well. It was ' like looking at a moving picture, the l leaping waves that made no sound, the salt spray which had no odor of salt ! and the distant low shore which sent ;us no breeze. Soon my eyes tired from [ the strain of the lens and I was glad ' ; to stop. Then Commander R decided to ' emerge for a quarter of an hour. This was possible since we were far from " the enemy's base and his airplanes - I could not see us. We all received this I news with joy and the valvemen 1 jumped with alacrity to expel the wa -5 ter. As w T e mounted, Commander t R first carefully scanned the hori -1 zon through the periscope, then he 3 himself opened the conning tower t hatch and searched the Adriatic with - his glass. There was nothing in sight, r so we came to the surface and re e mained quietly rolling in the trough of t the sea. One by one the sailors came - out for a breath of air and I am sure } it was needed. A strange fact is thai t the pure salt air actually smelled pu a trid, like burning flesh. I can onlj r account for this by the theory thai f the mucous membrane of the nose was t- burnt by the sudden excess of oxygen 0 Our breathing spell was over all toe 8 soon, and in less than a minute we were again under the Adriatic, perspir e ing and watching. The long afternoor e hours wore on and the air became e vitiated. From time to time a can 01 1- oxylite, a dangerous, inflammable, hlgl 1- oxygen compound, was placed befor< e the ventilator and there was a tem e porary exhilaration as the air becam< it | surcharged with the precious gas. Bu ?. the effect soon wore off. s ; Then I was introduced to tea and 1- was surprised to find that tea is th< it submarine sailor's life saver. Bowls 0: y hot tea brought our morale back t< il normal and made life endurable or:c< 1- more. it That night at 8:30 we emerged ant >t tran«ferred to the crude-oil motors to. s the purpose of recharging the batteries. At 4:30 in the morning we submerged i- once more and recommenced the ago -3 nizing watch for the enemy subma -3 rines. i Up at Nightfall. a At noon we came up for another i i breathing spell of a quarter of an hour * and, much to the relief of everyone. [ we emerged completely at 8:30 p. m. 5 ' after a preliminary look through the - periscope. The first part of the night r we cruised about our rectangle, keep - ing a sharp lookout for the enemy, ) without seeing anything more suspi t cious than a low star, which fooled me ) for a time. So in the early morning - we shoved the two oil motors into high i speed and hurried for port at 18 or > 19 knots an hour, picking up the old i castle around oa. m. Our number was ; hoisted to the flagstaff and soon we : were reporting at the first sentry boat 1 in the harbor. This cruise on the M confirms ■ my belief that the German U-boats navigate almost entirely on the sur face. They must do so in order to en dure t:. » i. nth-long cruises and more than that the Germans undertake. Hu man beings could no* remain in a sub merged submarine 15 hours a day for t :ore than a few'days. And it is not necessary for the Germans to remain submerged. They have plenty of time to disappear long before a patrol boat could approach them. The Germans' task is simple—to watch for a steam er's smoke and place themselves ahead of its course until the merchantman comes within torpedo range. Given the i right atmospheric conditions, the Ü boat runs no risk. Its action is limited I only by its torpedo-carrying capacity i and its range of vision. Seaplane Can Find Subn-rarine. A campaign of submarines' against i submarines is effective only ro a lim | ited extent, for the very reason of the i invisibility of a submarine. From a periscope one can see only within a ra dius of 2y 2 miles, and a five-mile circle on the sea is nothing. Perhaps there is something to be done with subma rines working in conjunction with scout planes, for to date submarines, while submerged, cannot Watch the sky. In clear water a seaplane, by flying low, can see a submarine IS fathoms below j the surface. But a seaplane finds it impossible to bomb a submarine and its efforts are confined to scouting. The secret of successfully combating the U-boats c p is in increasing the means by augmenting the number of patrol b* :,s, seaplanes, diri.-ibles, drifters, trawlers and mine fields and by bombing the submarine bases from vast squadrons of airplanes. Future operations of the German Ü boats are going to cause the allies to regret that the fighting material was not increased during the summer months, when U-boat fighting was easiest. Enemy submarines are now cruising in squadrons of six or more and are audaciously attacking convoys. This coming winter, I learn from a reliable source, 2,000-ton U-boats, armed with 11-inch guns, will be oper ating in the mid-Atlantic. Winter storms will soon decrease anti-subma rine fighting, but they will not decrease U-boat operations. However, it is still time for the United States to build the material for next spring's campaign. And this is America's task, because the allies lack the necessary , resources. . •••••••• MAKING ICE FOR THE UNITED STATES ARNIY •••••••••••••••••••••••••• I m | . ; Irak i * Our soldiers in France will have cold drinks and properly preserved food, as the government has ordered e a number of portable ice machines. e The largest one is capable of making x 500 tons a day. The picture shows a l " soldier holding a cake of manufac •v tured ice. t WOOL FROM OWN SHEEP 0 e Women Had to Sheer Flock Before They Could Knit. n When members of the Akra branch e of the Pembina county, N. D., Red ,f Cross chapter ran out of knitting yarn h they did not stop their knitting, but e they sheared the wool from their own sheep, carded and spun it and now are e busy as before, knitting socks and rt wristlets for the soldiers from the gray wool which they made by carding white 1 and black wool together and later dye e ing it blue to conform with the Red if Cross regulations. o This announcement was made by e Mrs. B. S. vho is chair man of the branch, which is cor-p d mostly of I c'a rulers. --.ho ar ' n:v. u the worVi ov:r ; Ir z. AT 64 AMERICAN WINS WAR MEDALS Story Furnishes Material* Worthy of Modern Odyssey. FIGHTS AGAIN FOR FRANCE Veteran of the Franco-Prussian War Returns to Native Country to Join French Hosts in Battle Against Ger many—Takes Pride in Fact That He Is Also Fighting America's Battle. At sixty-four years of age he was a second-class private in the French army. Today at sixty-seven he is a lieutenant and wears on his breast the French military medal, the Croix - -f-trf-i TTTTTTTXT T TT T T T DISCHARGES COOK FOR NOT SIGNING PLEDGE ' s ' HBP&SI Mrs. Daniel Griflin, a patriotic worn- i an and wife of Congressman Griflin of New York, is now cooking her own meals. She discharged her cook for refusing to sign a food conservation pledge recently. Mrs. Griffin will do her own cooking hereafter. MESOPOTAMIA'S HOT SPELL Mercury Last July Touched 122.8 at Bagdad. This has been the hottest season in Mesopotamia of which record exists. The highest temperature at Bagdad was 122.8 in July, and at Basrah 122, while in the tents of the soldiers the thermometer rose to 10 degrees high er. This was 10 to 12 degrees higher than in 1910. August was also se verely hot, and September opened with a heat wave which drove the ther mometer to an average of 8 degrees above normal. The mercury at Basrah on August 28 was 118 and on Septem ber 5 was 116 in a damp atmosphere. In spite of the abnormal conditions the spirit of the troops has been ex cellent, and in the hottest weather sports have been enjoyed as usual. Early In June a football cup series was played at Samarah. The first week of September was marked by a regatta and race meeting at Bagdad and a large number of men are now in train ing for a big boxing tournament. PARLEZ FRANCAIS MODIFIED English May Now Be Spoken Into Paris Telephones. Wartime regulations in France pro hibiting conversation over the tele phones In any language but French have been modified. English can now be spoken over the wires within the limits of the city of Paris, but not In communicating with other cities or towns or in tJbe war zone. The unsuspecting American will now be saved the annoyance of having his tolk over the phone broken Into almost as soon as begun by the shrill com mand etf the demoiselle du telephone: "Parlez Francais, s. v. p., monsieur," OLD LINER NOW HOUSES SEAPLANES Is Mother of Eyes of the British Grand Fleet. VISIT TO SHIPS BY AIR Newspaper Correspondent Goes Out to; Meet Returning Battle Cruisers— ( Views Greatest Concentration of Fighting Vessels in the History of the World—ls an Inspiring Sight. Far up in the North sea there is an! old Atlantic liner which has been con-1 verted into a mother iship for sea pi fines guarding the fleet and scouting ahead in times of peril. The Nvw York Sun correspondent; visiting the grand fleer was taken; aboard and saw the wonderful work of reconstruction done by the admir alty in transforming a vessel which at the outbreak of the war had been scrapped as absolutely useless. To day she houses scores of aircraft, grading from small, baby seaplanes to the big American type capable of car rying three passengers. It is almost with the sense of enter ing an old cathedral that one boards today this rejuvenated liner and passes down the long aisles which formerly held hundreds of passengers traveling between New York and Liverpool. The cabins now house in the spacious quar ters forward men who operate bal loons or pilot aircraft. All the after portion of this vessel is occupied with giant gas bags, which are used for observation purposes. Can Speed at 18 Knots. Decks and cabins are filled with the paraphernalia of flyfng. So far In this war there hns been little said of the work of the grand fleet, but a visit to this ship gives an idea of the efficiency to which its work has been carried. This high-speed mother ship is capa ble of housing alrrrnft for all neces sary observation work. She speeds Into the wind at a rate of IS knots un til the air pressure of her headway, in combination with the speed devel oped by the huge seaplane motors is sufficient to carry them frora the deck before they reach rhe end of the float ing ship. Big derricks hoist planes from a portion of the deck upon which pnssengers formerly playea quoits or shuffieboard> Their engines are start ed and keyed up to flying pitch while deckhands hold to the stays or wheel* attached to the floats until the signal Is given for starting. Then the re leased plane soars fron* the deck out over the hartv>r. It Is almost uncanny to sail out over vessels which looked huge when tend ers were alongside, then watch them gradually diminish i» size until they become mere pygmies dwarfed by dis tance and lowered Into Insignificance by the great altitude. As we ascend ed a battle cruiser's siren screamed out and could be heard even above the roar of our We circled about the battle cruiser squadron, looking down upon ships which ordinarily would.'have been Impressive, but now were tiny elipsee on the broad expanse of the harbor. Visiting the Battle Cruisers. Another plane, just leaving the wa ter, looked like a fly attempting to get above the smoke of the surrounding vessels. All the auxiliary craft dis appeared or became mere dots upon the blue table. Far out toward the harbor entrance a long lane of smoke marked approaching vessels. We circled down toward the smoke and made a line toward the battle cruisers we knew were returning from patrol duty In the North sea. It waa the perfect alignment of the* battle fleet which struck the observer most forcibly, each vessel taking a position exactly to the rear of the one ahead and giving some idea of uhe perfect system of co-operation between the units which has made the British grand fleet supreme In naval affairs Outspread upon the forbidding-look ing harbor was the entire fleet of ves sels which has been guarding Eng land's shores for the last three years, although the harbor looked small from a distance of 3,000 feet. This is the greatest mobile concen tration of fighting vessels In the his tory of the world. Even when seen together it is hard to realize that this aggregation has kept England safe from attack and has prevented the German high seas fleet from coming from its harbor. Considering Its slze| from the great height aided material ly In realizing what an enormous treasure Britain has poured out In building such a tremendous fighting machine and what fortunes are being spent dally In maintaining It. In spired by the spectacle, It was possible to visualize this greatest unit of the British sea force co-operating with the American warships in making the wa terways of the earth safe for all traf fic. Just as In the days gone by, when Britain conquered piracy and made the lanes places of comfortable travel for American clippers, the same out rageous piracy exists today and It is with the help of American men-of-war that the British grand fleet once more will make the water routes immune from base depredations. .Anthrax Germs in Bandages. Quantities of anthrax germs have been discovered In bandages made by Red Cross workers In North Carolina. 4