time. He commanded the 19th Hussars from 1889 to 1903 and then rose steadily in rank until he was made General Inspector of the Forces and finally Field Marshal in 1903.

There should be no discrimination in naming those who have represented America in the country's activities at war, but because they came into the world's line of vision by being sent abroad for service there are some American commanders whose names will ever be remembered.

Vice-Admiral William S. Sims is one of these. He is a Pennsylvanian who was born in Canada. His father was A. W. Sims, of Philadelphia, who married a Canadian and lived at Port Hope, where Admiral Sims first saw the light of day. He went to Annapolis when he was 17 years of age and was graduated in 1880. After this he secured a year's leave of absence and went to France, where he studied French. Subsequently he was assigned to the Tennessee, the flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron and passed through all grades of ships. He received promotion to a Lieutenancy when he was about 30 years of age. For a time he was in charge of the Schoolship Saratoga, and later was located at Charleston Navy Yard, and also with the receiving ship at the League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia. After this he went to Paris as Naval Attache at the American Embassy. He was similarly Attache at the American Embassy at St. Petersburg.

Admiral Sims was relieved of his European assignment in 1900 and joined the Asiatic fleet, and while abroad studied the methods of British gunnery. When he returned to America later he inaugurated reforms which increased the efficiency of the gunnery in the service 100 per cent. His successful efforts led to his appointment as Naval Aide to President Roosevelt. He made a report on the engagement between the British and German naval fleets at Jutland which was startling, and declared that the British battle cruisers had protected Great Britain from the invasion of the enemy.

When he reached the European waters in command of the United States naval forces, with a destroyer flotilla, and the British officers who greeted him asked when the flotilla would be ready to assist in chasing the submarine and protecting shipping, Admiral Sims created a surprise by tersely replying: "We can start at once." And he did. Admiral Sims married Miss Anne Hitchcock, daughter of Former Secretary of the Interior. The couple have five children.

Major General John J. Pershing, of the United States Army, Commander of the forces in France and Belgium, is one of the most picturesque figures in American military circles. "Black Jack" Pershing is what the officers call him, because he was for a long time commander of the famous Tenth Cavalry of Negroes, which he whipped into shape as Drillmaster, and which saved the Rough Riders from a great deal of difficulty at San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. He was also at the battle of El Caney where he was given credit for being one of the most composed men in action that ever graced a battlefield. He served with signal results in the campaign against the little "brown" men in the Philippines; was in charge of the expedition which chased Villa into Mexico.

General Pershing was born in 1864 in Laclede, Missouri, and is tall, wiry and strong. Every inch of his six feet is of fighting material. He is a man of action and has a penchant for utilizing the services of young men rather than staid old officers of experience. Pershing is a real military man, and has been notably absent from such things as banquets and other functions where by talking he might get into the limelight. It is true that he was jumped over the heads of a number of officers by President Roosevelt, but he has carved his way by his own efforts, and no man could have more fittingly been sent to take charge of the American forces abroad than "Jack" Pershing.

CHAPTER XX.

CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.

SUBSTITUTES FOR COTTON-NITRATES PRODUCED FROM AIR-YEAST A REAL SUBSTITUTE FOR BEEF SEAWEED MADE TO GIVE UP POTASH-A GANGRENE PREVENTITVE SODA MADE OUT OF SALT WATER-AMERICA CHEMICALLY INDEPENDENT.

T IS when men are put to the test that they develop initiative and are inspired to great things. In the stress of circumstances there were created through and in the great war many unusual devices and much that will endure for the benefit of mankind in the future. It is probable that the advancements made in many lines would not have been attained in years but for the necessity which demanded the exertion of men's ingenuity, and in no field was this advancement greater than in that of chemistry.

Any struggle between men is, in the last analysis, a battle of wits, but it remained for those planning and scheming to defeat their fellow men or protect themselves in the world conflict to make for the first time in history the fullest use of the chemist's knowledge. Largely the successes of the war have been due to the studies and activities of the chemists, working in their laboratories far from the actual field of strife.

Not only has their knowledge been turned to the creation of tremendously destructive explosives, the like of which have never before been known in warfare, but the same brains which have been utilized to assist man in his death-dealing crusades have been called upon to thwart the efforts of the warring humans and save the lives of those compelled to face the withering fire of cannon, the flaming grenade and the asphyxiating gas bomb.

In the food crisis which confronted the nations, chemists drew from the very air and the waters of the river and sea,

gases and salts to take the place of those which became limited in their supply because of the demands of the belligerents.

The chemist is one of those who fights the battles at home. The resisting steel, the penetrating shell, the poisonous gas, the power-producing oil, the powerful explosive-all these are his contributions to the war's equipment, but he also is the magician who waves the wand and out of the apparently useless weeds and vegetable matter produces edibles. He turns waste products into valuable chemicals or extracts needed chemicals from by-products.

GERMANY'S GREAT PRIVATION.

Germany, deprived of many imports by the sea power of England, first transformed herself into a self-supporting nation through the agency of the chemist. Substitutes had to be provided for food products which the Germans could not get, and it is said that the ability of the Kaiser and his henchmen to withstand the attacks of the Allied forces was due as much to the service rendered by the chemists as by the army and navy.

Not only were artificial foodstuffs manufactured, but natural food products previously neglected were prepared for use. What had been regarded as useless weeds were found to possess food value. A dozen wild-growing plants were found that might be used as a substitute for spinach, while half a dozen others were shown to be good substitutes for salads. Starches were obtained from roots, and cheap grades of oils and fatty wastes of all sorts were turned into edibles.

Up until the advent of the present war cotton formed the base of most of the so-called propellant explosives used in advanced warfare. Such terrible explosives as trinitrotoluene occasionally mentioned in the published war reports, as well as many others, have as the principal agent of destructive force guncotton, which is ordinary raw cotton or cellulose treated with nitric or sulphuric acid, though there are, of course, other

chemicals used in compounding the various forms of deadly explosives.

At the same time there are innumerable explosives which are of a distinct class. Lyddite, mentioned occasionally as one of the modern death-dealing explosives, has for a base picric acid. The Lyddite shells referred to occasionally in various articles about the war are shells in which Lyddite is used as the explosive. The largest percentage of explosives used in modern gunnery are those formed of nitrated cellulose -guncotton.

TWO GREAT FACTORS.

Therefore any shortage in the supply of cotton and cellulose is a serious matter in war time, for the country which has the most plentiful supply of ammunition is the one that has the greatest relative advantage. It was, for instance, stated from Washington several times after the war started and the United States commercial and industrial forces were being mobilized, that America could make enough almost unbelievably powerful explosives to blow Germany off the face of the European map, were it possible to transport the dangerous materials. Dozens of new explosive compounds were placed before the Government for consideration and in application for patents. One of the new ones, it was said, was so powerful that little more than a pinch of it exploded beneath such an immense structure as the Woolworth Building, New York, would destroy the entire edifice.

The curtailment of the supply of cotton to Germany when the war started, because of England's blockade, and later when America entered the conflict, threatened disaster to the "Fatherland." The German chemists began working immediately to supply substitutes for cotton, to be used both in the manufacture of explosives and fabrics. and fabrics. They They developed the processes of producing cellulose from wood pulp to take the place of cotton for making guncotton, and certain forms of