These are from The Washington Times, Wednesday evening, Oct. 23, 1918:
LIEUT. WEHNER, U.S. ACE, IS SHOT DOWN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY NORTHWEST OF VERDUN, Oct. 23—Lieut. Joseph E. WEHNER, of Everett, Mass., who was credited with ten air victories, has been shot down, but it is not known whether he was killed or made a prisoner.
WEHNER was a fighting partner of Frank LUKE, of Phoenix, Ariz. They had just shot down a German balloon near Chamblee when five Fokkers that had been hovering above dived down to the attack. LUKE escaped, but WEHNER’s machine fell.
LUKE avenged his comrade the same afternoon by shooting down a Fokker.
BRIDE OF DAY, 14, TRIES TO END LIFE
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 23—Mrs. Lela DEDES, fourteen years old, bride of five days, tried to end her life by taking poison at her home. She told the police at the police at the City Hospital that she and Nicholas DEDES, thirty-four years old, were married last Saturday, and that he left her the next day.
A note written by the girl to her mother. Mrs. Bessie RAWLEY, said: "Nick is the cause of all this, for I love him and he doesn’t love me." She adds the request to "bury me in white, with lilies on my breast."
The girl’s father, John RAWLEY, is in the army.
TODAY
(a regular column by Arthur Brisbane)
This excerpt is two portions of the column of October 23.
This is written in a Pullman car as the Pennsylvania railroad train stops for a moment in Baltimore.
On the platform outside the window is a box of rough pine, in it the body of an American soldier.
An American flag is stretched across the top of the wooden box; a wreath of flowers with red, white, and blue ribbon is at the head; and at the feet a bundle wrapped with newspaper containing a few of the soldier’s effects and a small valise of imitation leather, held together with a piece of string. On top of the valise is the soldier’s military hat, going home with the body to the boy’s mother.
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Inside the box lies Otto BARTELL, late of Company D, Twelfth Battalion, U.S. Infantry. He died in the service of his country, in camp. He is going home, to his mother’s house, 8 North Fremont avenue, Baltimore.
Beside the coffin stands a soldier in full uniform, with cartridge belt and revolver. He is E. L. SHEA of the same company, escorting his dead comrade. Shea is of Irish descent and Otto BARTELL is of German blood.
"He was a good soldier," says SHEA. "I only hate to think of how his family will feel. We have all got to take our chances in a war."
It is indeed not pleasant to think how the family will feel, how the boy’s mother will feel when the son that she gave to his country, young and strong, is brought back to her, dead.
Thousands of American mothers unfortunately must feel as the mother of Otto BARTELL feels now.
The sight of that coffin, the bundle wrapped in newspaper, and the valise tied with a string, representing the worldly possessions of a man dead in his country’s service, should soothe the ruffled feelings of the war profiteer who complains that he must give back in taxes half of the millions that the war gives him.
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Wherever you meet efficiency, you must take off your hat and praise it. That is why we mention here "Little" Edna HIBBARD, who lately delighted a Detroit audience with her impersonation of a childless young wife. She brings back her husband with a telegram announcing the birth of a baby. She borrows a baby for the occasion—on the stage.
When the play was over, "Little" Edna HIBBARD went from the theater to the Harper Hospital in an ambulance, and there added to the earth’s population a healthy little boy weighing eight pounds.
She sent a real telegram to her real husband, Private James DUNNE, now in France. HIBBARD is only her stage name.
It is a pleasure to play the part of press agent for such efficiency, and to announce that this little lady will positively appear in Chicago in "Fair and Warmer" as soon as the influenza lifts and the baby becomes accustomed to his new surroundings.
"BUCK" MAYER DEAD
Word was received here today of the death from Spanish influenza of "Buck" MAYER, captain of Virginia’s 1915 team. MAYER was a Camp Johnston, Jacksonville, Fla., having enlisted a month ago in a machine gun company.
