Soldiers’ Newsletter, 10 December 1917

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL NEWS LETTER NO. 8

December 10, 1917

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

A MERRY CHRISTMAS to the boys in the U.S.A.!

We had hoped to make this a Merry Christmas for you all, but we have the right of way to the P.E.D. letter , so we fear Santa will have paid his visit and hied him on his way before this reaches the boys in foreign parts. And old Greybeard 1917 will be making his exit, and young Kewpie 1918 will be coming toward the center of the stage. He will look out upon a storm-tossed, weary world as he enters. But we all earnestly hope that things will change, and the sunshine over master the clouds before he has had time to grow very old and sedate. The friends at home most heartily and eagerly wish for each of you only good things for 1918: that you may each one keep your good health and courage for whatever you may be called upon to face. Be assured always that the home folks are ever “pulling” for you with all their might. When 1918 has, in his turn, become old and hoary, we trust he will find you all back with us, stronger and richer in every way for this experience, well equipped for conquering the legal world , as you will have conquered the military.

Since the Holiday Season is the time when we naturally turn our thoughts homeward, we will make this primarily a letter about home affairs. First in importance, however, comes the result of the strenous labor of the second training camp at Fort Sheridan: to-wit –

1st Lieuta.

W.JJ. Brewer

F. O. Hutchins

S. J. MacKinnon

R. D. Shanesy

 

2nd Lieuts.

F.V. Hiebsch

T. Kuflewski

A. E. Denton

L.J.West

J.R.Field

A. Messelheiser

C.H.Poole

The enrollment this semester was 215 against 345 last year, Many of the registrants have since left to go into government clerical service at Washington, and into the Q.M. and Ord. Corps. Some, too, have rone into the Nat’l Army and the aviation service. The last report of the N.U. squad of the school of M.A. at Champaign showed the names of Messrs. R.E.Brown, Henderson, Sherwood, Garten, Lorin Taylor, Keig, Klee, Jaccard, Jos. Wright. Messrs. Lloyd Taylor, Ffrench, Grubb, and Puterbaugh are the flying school in Austin, Tex. Harry Jones and Benj. Wohl have completed their ground school work and have gone abroad to fly the U.S. flag on high.

You will be interested in the scholastic Honor-roll. Mr. Coon leads the 1919 list; Miss Rader the 1919.

1918

Highest Honors

Greenspahn

Hall

Coon

Allen

Golding

Groth

Henderson

Kohn

Midowicz

Petacque

Sherwood

 

1919

Highest Honors

Button

Raeder

Brown

Horton

Jones

Larimer

Lindley

McKenzie

Ritholz

Ritzlin

Wade

DeWitt

 

The officers for the third year class:

President R.O.Farrell

Vice Pres. Geraldine Smith

Secretary F.X. Lecin

Treasurer H.H.Schulte

 

House Committee: Hood, Martyn, Rohn.

 

For second year: President F.R.Crane

Vice Pres. Ruth Ruskin

Secretary P.R.Simon

Treasurer Phyllis Shaw

Mrg. Syl.. J. Bomash; Ed.Syll. C.F.DeWitt. House Comm. Lowitz

J.T.Kelly

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Mr. Button holds the Sage scholarship for 1917-18, and Mr. Midowicz the Koepke prize. The Illinois Law Review student editors are Messrs. Schroeder, Button, Midowicz, DeWitt, Greenspahn, Misses Smith and Raeder.

With the exception of our Major Dean and Professor Hyde, our faculty remains about the same as last year. Prof. Harley has taken over the Contemp. Legislation work; Prof. Millar is lecturing on Evidence and Prof. Scholfield is leading the Freshie thru tortuous Torts.

Dan Cupid has again been hovering around our door. This time he nabbed Clyde DeWitt and ran him up to Evanston to the home of Miss Ernestine Leigh, and when Dan came out again Miss Leigh was no more. But Clyde keeps on smiling.

The law school is going to break clear into SOCIETY, now that you are far away. Yes, it’s to be a dinner-dance, and at the Edgewater Beach! On Saturday, Dec, 15th; $1.50 for a six-course dinner and all the dances than can be run in. The (r) ousing committee in charge is Rowe, Rockhill, Ruth Ruskin and Kelly. A good time will doubtless be had by all. Come on in.

If plans now rapidly maturing gang night aglee, the corridors of the law school will soon be greatly glorified. The officers of the Class of ’17 are setting about to make possible the donation to the school of an Old Glory flag, about 8’ x 16′. The members of the Faculty are donating a Service Flag, to bear a star for every 1917 student now in service, and one for each alumnus so far as we have knowledge of them. This flag will have room for 200 stars and is being made up by the ladies of the school, under the able generalship of Miss Lawrie. This flag is also to be 8 x 16, and the two flags are to hang – for the duration of the war – on the wall between the office and the faculty room doors on either side the bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln. In addition to these, Miss Lawrie is making and presenting a smaller service flag, containing a star for each man in school last year or this, now in service. There will be some 85 stars on this flag at the outset, and it will hang in the window near the bulletin board.

PIQUANT PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.

When H. F. Bell’s regiment left for Texas he was one of three left in Chicago to do recruiting work.

Vincent Bell is one of the latest applicants for the high fliers.

Benj. Black is in the M.R.C. at Camp Grant, and is very enthusiastic over his work there.

R.E.Brown writes from Champaign ” I am trying to walk in the paths that Harry Jones trod in his progress towards aerial education. And, believe me, it is some incline.”

Serg. Chipman is in the Infirmary Dept, Camp Shelby, Miss.

Lieut. Cole recently took a trip to Texas accompanied by 500 men from Camp Grant. He came back alone. The men were mostly former residents of the W. Madisn and Halsted St. District, but “King” was looking husky, hearty and handsome after the ordeal.

Mr. Forgy writes interestingly of his life and experiences in Texas

Mr. Fredenhagen is now a resider in the Great Lakes colony.

Lieut. Groth writes: “One cannot help waxing eloquent on the personnel of THE ARMY. A finer body of men will never be assembled. Rather startling statement to be sure, but one which will be amply borne out on the march to Berlin. In our battery we have the scions of the Gold Coast rubbing shoulders with a factory worker, and, strangest of all, NEITHER GRIMACING. Quite a cosmopolitan body of men; from every walk of life, but all entering into the work with one grim, great resolve. The password of the old men to the bewildered, and in some cases, hesitant, now rookie is “you’ll like it.” And they surely do. They seem to expand both mentally and physically the moment they don the uniform, when the first step toward making a Sammy is completed.”

C. F. Jacobson is in the Field Sig. Batt., Camp Custer, Mich.

Lieut. “Tex” Johnson, as happy as ever, in N.Mex. writes, “The war doesn’t seem to worry us a bit down here. We are having Garrison school now, and of course we refer to it occasionally, but that is all. Once in a while someofficer is lucky enough to get detailed to some other place, and then we all go down to the station and ask him where he got all the political pull, and who is his congressmen.” P.L. Lindley, ‘19, is in Camp Jackson, So. Carolina.

S.J. MacKinnon, ’18, while in the trenches at Fort Sheridan, ran up against an ex-prize fighter. Result: one broken rib in MacKinnon.

Lieut. F.G.Marshall i s one of the four minute orators from Camp Grant.

W. S. Perlman is a later recruit in the [Ordnance?] Dpt., Rock Island.

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O.P. Stelle is married, and also in the Q.M.C. at Camp Dodge, Ia.

“Ted” Stone is delighted to announce that he’s a corporal now. He has ambitions for the third camp. We surely hope he makes it.

J.F.Wilson, ‘17, is a Y.M.C.A. secretary at Camp Sherman, Ohio.

Mack Wylie is reported as being with the U.S.M.C. at Galveston.

James J. Trainor is a boarder at Camp Grant, in the Field Hospital section, but we understand has his eye on the aviation branch of service.

There was a fine military ball at the Champagin aviation school las tweek. Extra papers announce that Max Henderson stood on guard while the other fellows danced. Quelque life, this militaire. N’cest pas, Max?

1st Lieut Hutchins fairly glistens in his new bars and braid. He tries to look frail and emaciated as he announces that he is to be sent south for his health this winter (Camp Greene, N.C.). He doesn’t succeed as well as he did in winning a commission. Am fraid when the authorities see him they will ship him to a far northern port.

1st Lieut. Brewer, also decidedly “there, goes to Camp Lee, Va. where only balmy breezes blow. Pretty soft, eh Camp Granters?

“Mrs Major” Wigmore writes that she believes the Major “has never been more busy than he is right now”, and we can all testify that is“going some”. He is hoping to have a little respite from his strenuous labors about the middle of this month. We understand his present working hours are 8 A.M. to 2 A.M.

The editors send their thanks for encomiums on the news letters. Ifmore of you wrote more often the letters could more often appear.

Here’s hoping that none of you get so far away that Santa does not find you, and wishing you all the joy and good cheer of the season, we are

The Friends you Left Behind You.

P.S. We stop the press to record the following mailgram from Cadet Harry Jones: “Arrived in England last week, but my stay there was very short. Am in France now on my way to the Flying Field. Here is my “nom de guerre” until I qualify for my wings and bars.”

Aviation Section Signal Corps. 11th Detachment,

A.E.F.

Second Stop: Ex-Sous Chef L.G.Caldwell has just landed on the dock at an eastern port.