Adventure, August 1917 — page 187: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Camp-Fire One of the guys lived long enough to get his in Gallipoli in 1915. He left Toowoomba, in Queens- land, to join up in the Anzac crowd. Known to his most confidential friends as “Lady’’ Monahan, and I believe he was some time in the United States Army about nineteen years ago. He was aboard the Agamemnon at Mudros about June, 1915, shortly before he took the “One Way Trail” at Quinn’s Post. The other man is probably reading this now. I’ve seen him with the magazine and I believe he’s got a number. So if any get-rich-quick beats it for Dagupan I guess he’ll be sore when he’s through. OPE you are finding life pleasant enough to suit you in little old New York. It certainly is mighty interesting around here. It’s getting cold enough to freeze lightning, I guess, and the coun- try is. slowly getting a coat of snow. Life around here sure is dull. If I did not get a paper occasionally I guess I’d never realize that this was the great war. Well, I’ll quit, wishing you the best of luck and happiness—HAro Lp S. Lovett, H. M.S. Agamem- non, British Eastern Mediterranean Fleet. I HAVE received an anonymous letter telling me that we can not hope to make this magazine a success if we let such names as Hapsburg Liebe appear among those of our contributors. Though the writer of it does not come out in the open and say so, the plain inference is that he objects because the name Hapsburg Liebe sounds German. Anonymous letters deserve no answers, but, lest others may make the same mistake this fellow has made, things had better be made plain. I sent the letter to Mr. Liebe, knowing he could settle the matter once and for all. Here is his reply. He forgot to return the anonymous letter but it doesn’t deserve publishing anyhow. I have your letter of the 11th, and the anony- mous letter. Here is all there is to tell about myself. There is almost no German blood in me. My father’s people, their German name notwithstand- ing, came from Holland and settled in Virginia a long, long time ago; they were wealthy until the Civil War broke them up completely, and then my paternal grandfather and his family moved to east- ern Tennessee. My father himself is three-fourths English. My mother’s people, the Carters and Stanleys, a good mixture of Scotch-Irish and Eng- lish, came from England and settled in New Jersey somewhere around 1750 a.p. One of these Stan- leys, whom we all remember now as only ‘‘Grand- father Stanley,’ was a noted Indian fighter and pioneer, and he was a close friend of one of America’s greatest statesmen. One of the Carters pioneered, later, to eastern Tennessee. So much for my an- cestry; now to myself— I AM a lanky, squirrel-killing, banjo-playing, fiddling, hound-dog-loving ‘Tennessee moun- taineer and glad of it. I began my grown-up life as 185 a soldier; I served a hard term of enlistment in the’ Philippines, and more than once risked my life for the flag and my principles—which are not those of a writer of anonymous letters, by a sight. When I came home, I went ‘to timber-jacking and saw-milling. I am now an active member of The Vigilantes, and I was an advisory member of the American Legion. I ama Democrat when I ain’t a Socialist, I’d be a Methodist if I didn’t cuss so much, and I belong to the Knights of Pythias. As to my name, they christened me Charles William Liebe; I didn’t like my middle name, so I substituted Haven Hapsburg—without even knowing what Hapsburg meant. ‘Till Hell freezes I’m an AMERICAN! !!! HApssurG LIEBE. Nothing more need be said to establish the Americanism of Mr. Liebe and to show the chap who wouldn’t sign his name to his letter that it isn’t good common sense to jump at conclusions. And I wonder whether he is as much an American by blood, deed or spirit as is Mr. Liebe. I have an idea, however, that my own German surname had something to do with prompting that letter. If so, I can settle that suspicion too. Sight unseen, [ll wager I am more American by blood than is this anonymous writer himself. For at least two centuries ali my ancestors have been Americans. Among them all there is only the one strain that even bears a Teu- tonic name; the remainder are all Scotch, Irish or English. Many date from the earliest Colonial days. CON back to the general aspects of the case, what a foolish, unjust and un- patriotic thing it is to brand any man an enemy or a traitor merely because he bears a German name. He may prove more American in ancestry than the brander him- self, as we have seen. Or, though actually born in Germany, he may be as loyal an American as any one else. Of course he may not, but we must decide that question by facts, not by names or guesses. And if the German-born is thoroughly loyal to this country I make no bones of saying he is en- titled to more credit than are we American- born, for our loyalty to America is largely due to birthplace, blood-ties, race-ties, early associations, training and education, but Azs loyalty to America is in spite of these things. S TO German names appearing on our contents-page as contributors, out of the one hundred and seventy-one listed as our contributors during the last two or three CoOMmiclsoo 5}