The Ocala Evening Star

Three weeks from today, the Marion County Fair opens.
It will be a victory for the kaiser if Hilquitt wins in New York today.
The new union station has greatly improved the scenery of the lot it is built on. However, a big fire would have done the same thing.
The need of food by Mexico has drawn that nation closer to the United States, and a Mexican commissioner is to be sent to treat at Washington.
Eight billion dollars in merchandise, war supplies and gold has traversed the submarine-ridden seas between America and Europe during the last nine months, despite the German "blockade."
In spite of the war, there will be a number of excellent county fairs this fall. Among them will be the Alachua County Fair, which opens two weeks from today, and the Marion County Fair, which opens a week later.
According to a story in the Times-Union, Jess Willard will spend the winter in Jacksonville. The government should round up that big stiff and make him do something useful. A prizefighter is not worth his rations at this time.
The British are not bragging about it, but they have a considerable fleet of submarines themselves, and they are doing good work. Mines are constantly being laid at the entrances of German harbors, and the German high seas fleet dares not come out into the open ocean.
The first issue of the "Ocaleean Ensign," the new high school paper, will be out Thursday. We are having the fun of reading proof on it and can testify that it will be as bright as the faces of the girls on its staff. It is going to be a publication for Ocala to be proud of, and every patron of our schools should read and support it.
The Germans will probably invade Finland, in the hope of cutting off one of the routes by which Russia receives supplies thru Sweden from the Allies. Such an enterprise would have been hopeless if it hadn't been for the revolution. But if it hadn't been for the revolution, Russia would probably have quit altogether.
A dispatch from the British front in Belgium says: Belgian women and girls are being compelled to build concrete dug-outs under artillery fire. The statement that this form of slavery has actually been practiced is recorded in the diary of a German soldier who was recently captured. He belonged to a landwehr division and was personally in charge of a large number of these unfortunate Belgians who were daily herded together and taken to a zone near the German lines to perform manual labor of the hardest kind in constant danger of death.
Frank H. Simonds, the military expert, says the Allies are not responsible for the Italian defeat. The blame is on the Italians themselves, who advanced their forces out of proportion with their lines of communication, and did not guard against the Teuton offensive, although that was the thing they most had to fear. He thinks that had the Allies sent a large force of men and guns to that line, they would only have added to the disaster. When the Teutons made their final attack hundreds of Italian guns were silent because they had no shells.
The Arcadia News expresses the kindly hope that when the war is over America will take care of German orphans whom the conflict will leave homeless. The wish does Editor Jones honor, but he must remember that America's first duty will be to its own orphans and those of its allies. We are afraid there will be so many of those there will be little left for the Germans. The war is a hideous wrong to the children of all the nations and an American may well be glad his country is not responsible for it.
Returns to the Jacksonville headquarters of the Florida branch of the food administration up to Saturday night indicate that over 85,000 food pledge cards had been signed in the state, and it is believed the number will go to 100,000 or over. As there are not more than 250,000 families in Florida, a third of them colored, a hundred thousand will be doing mighty well.
An exchange says that Great Britain has two objects: To secure a permanent peace for herself and to punish Germany. An American writer suggests that when it comes to the conference at The Hague the first thing the British representatives lay upon the table will doubtless be a demand that Germany annex Ireland. -Orlando Reporter-Star.
In which case the Irish would soon find they had made a bad swap, and the Germans would find they had bitten off something they couldn't chew.
A high Italian official says that America can well aid Italy by declaring war on Austria-Hungary. It is difficult to understand why the administration insists on remaining at peace with a nation which is not only waging ruthless war on our allies, but has been caught in the act of carrying out conspiracies against our people on their own soil. Americans have been charged with shirtsleeve diplomacy but the present state department seems to be acting from another point of the garment.
Many people in Ocala were much worried over the dispatch in Monday's Star, announcing thirty cases of pneumonia at Camp Wheeler and four deaths. They must remember there are over 20,000 men at Camp Wheeler, and the number of cases of pneumonia is probably smaller than there would be among the same number of people at home. We have no doubt but that the sick are having the best of care, and it is no use for home folks to fret over these things that must be.
When the Boches have taken a few of our boys. What are you going to do about it—continue to "slack" or do your bit?—Tampa Times.
Some of the people who said Americans had no business on the Lusitania will say Americans have no business on the western front. We say some of them, for many of them, to our personal knowledge, are cured of that unmanly sentiment.
The Times-Union very sensibly recommends that the Florida counties which have home guards should provide their men with shotguns or sporting rifles. It also gives the following good advice, which we are afraid will pass unheeded by the majority: "Indeed, each head of a household should keep at least one serviceable weapon with an abundance of ammunition in these times."
Mr. W. T. Gary requests us to state that we were in error in naming him as permanent chairman of the recently organized Y. M. C. A. committee. Rev. Bunyan Stephens was elected to that position.
In reply to Senator Fletcher's protest against breaking up the First Florida Regiment, the war department replies that such a measure is made imperative by the existing conditions of war, and what has happened to the First Florida is only what has happened to other regiments. The war department asks that public sentiment back up its action, and it seems to the Star that it gives good reason for its request.
Twenty-seven years ago, a certain wealthy man in this state caught a trusted employee stealing. He discharged him but did not prosecute him. The employee, by political pull, secured a public office, in which at the behest of his bosses he did some decidedly dirty work. He now holds a federal position, in which he draws a good salary for doing little or nothing, and we have no doubt that he will die in the odor of sanctity.