Evening star., 1901-08-15
TRICKS Of DEsERrERs.
Devices Of British Soldiers Who Tire
-. .ss-,,-- of Army Life.

Devices OF British SO161erS W no Tire
-zt-f..s -.,. Of Army Life.
From the Regiment. o5l.s
To desert fromseither the army or the
navy is not the easiest thing In the world,
and even when accomplished 1.-The culprit
lives In daily fear OF being recaptured and
sentenced to a. heavy term OF fmprison-
mcnt Therefore the devices employed by
some deserters are aA4ngeniOus as they are
exciting, Acknowledgements be said to be
always crawNeds with success For sneer
audacity the case of an irish soldier who
deserted In south Coast town some years
ago would ber hard9to beat. Just at that
time a number of ofzdeser;ions had occurred
in the neighborhood, and the authorities
were therefore unusually sharp to prevent
furt her .offenses Of this nature. But the
man in Question was dissatisfied with. SOL
diefing, and having a number of friends in
the town who were disposed to help him.
and being possessed Of an unusually large
modicum of pluck, resolved to delay his re-
turn to civil life no longer
One morning early he slipped out OF bar
| racks and made his way to friends
house without being seen. Arriving there,
he shaved off his mustache, and donning a
policeman's uniform, boldly promenaded
the main streets of the town. He was. Of
course, missed in the barracks and knew
that the surrounding country was being
secured in the hopes OF finding him. On
one occasion his sergeant came up to him
and asked him if he had seen or head any
thing of missing man. and he of course
replied that he bad not, but he would keep
his eyes open! For, more than fortnight
he preserved his disguise, without 1T being
penetrated even by: the police themselves,
and he then calmly left the town when the
hue and cry had subsidized somewhat. New
erthsless his enterprise came to naught.
for he was. arrested In trying to work his
passage back to- Ireland.
Scarcely less audacious was the ruse en-
ployed by another dissatisfied son Of Mars,
and In this case, likewise It proved futile.
He happened to Arow that a certain publi-
can In the town was In anything but af-
fluent circumstances. for he visited the
house regularly. and from remarks dropped
was heavily in debt to a Scotch spirit mer
chant. One morning as soon as the pubif-
can opened his doors the soldier arrived.
after having first disguised himself with "a
beard and wig and donned civilian attire.
With him came a friend who agreed to
act as a, representative Of the law. and he
promptly told the astonshed publican that
he had orders to leave man in possession
merchant was paid to him there and then.
The publican, of course, could not pay. so
the deserter was quartered upon him, and
lived In his house and at his expense for
more than week before the deception was
discovered. Perhaps the most successful
deserter-for a time-was William Conrad.
Through one of his comrades he heard Of
man whose ed son had gone t. gold
for nothing more had been heard Of him.
though the parent still believed he would
see him again. Conrad therefore hit upon
the ingenious idea of leaving the army by
stealth, and. going to the man, informing
him that he was the missing son. AS his
knowledge Of Australia was considerable,
he lost no time in putting his plan into ex-
ecution, and the parent. believing in him
despite the supposed alteration In his ap-
pearance, provided him with a home and
money galore, a .conmodity he confessed
he lacked. But infer tunately for: him, at
the end OF ieighfsen months the real SON
turned up. and iYhat followed can better
be imagined than described.