HINDENBURG IN GOLD AND IRON

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 552, 21 December 1915, Page 2

HINDENBURG IN GOLD AND IRON

All is not well with the colossal. Hindenburg idol erected at Berlin m front of the Reichstag building, and whose dimensions were proudly published by the Press to a wondering Fatherland. It now seems that although more than a month has elapsed j since the huge thing was erected, only : patches of the field-marshal's boots and tho hem of his military cloak have been covered with nails. Every effort has been made to give him his "iron armor." The school children have : had holidays m order' that they might proI ceed m their thousands to hammer m their nails, each of which costs a shilling. Soldiers m baxracks have had; leave- for the same purpose, and several newspapers are raising funds which are to be distributed among necessitous patriots eager to drive m a nail but not eager to pay for it. And yet the york does not progress much. The great image of the field -marshal is nearly 40ft high, and has vast expanses m which not' a sing_e nail lias yet been driven. Now, a square tenth of a metre costs £7 10s to henail. The hem of the cloak is -ova. 30ft long, and before it is covered with nails £700 must be expended. After a month's- drumming by the chief Mumbo Jumbo men they have managed to cover half a yard of hem. M-.st nailers show a preference j for Hindenburg's booh., which are painted a bright yellow. Consid._i(#,ble progress has been made here, although the boots are over / two yards high; but much still remains to be done, for' the '.Tagliche Rundschau' tails us that gaping patches of yellow wood are still visible. A gallery ha 6 been built round the idol, approached by ladders from ths ground. On the occasion of Hindenburg's recent birrhday there was a good deal of crowding, and citizens with no desire to waste time brought their own hammers — hundreds of theni. The most difficult problem for the Mumbo Jumbo men is the outlining of the iwrno Hindenburg with gold naEs. Each ot" the. c naiLs costs £5. and m order to cover the most modest of the letters — namely, I — 280 nails ara necessary, representing .a total of £1,400 for I alone. 'There are very many rich citizen, m Berlin", but only 400 have been found to hammer m a gotd nail. Thereare unpleasant rumors afloat that the £5 nails are not gold at all, but only gilded. In order to erect this ugly nightmare £5,000 was spent. It was hoped that it would bring m £150,000, but these hopes have been crushed. Berlin will certainly not cover Hindenburg with iron, and appeals are now being made lo the provincial cities. The appeal wiil hardly be successful, as nearly overy large town has an idol of its own at w'veh its citizens are busily hammering Exchange.