Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-12
JOFFRE PRESCRIBES
"CLOSED SEASON" FOR
VIVID WAR WRITERS
Game of Corresponding"
Not So Picturesque as in
the Olden Days" Seeing
War" With a Chaperon.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP sIMMS
PARIS, Sept. 90 Cby maiD.


Burglars in a miser's money box are
welcome parties compared to corre-
spondents on the firing line War "corre-
spending" has come to be prison offense
in France. General Joffre simply won't
have 1t.
"1 have just passed two days under
guard at the front, one day under guard
in Paris-part of the time in the famous
military prison of the Cherche- Midland
eight days of parole, all because General
Joffre refuses to have correspondents CIV
ing his war operations the once over at
close range.
"And was not the only member of this
seeing the war party. There were seven
of us in all--four of us Americans, in
cludins Richard Harding Davis, an old
offender in the war corresponding game
Having previously been "pinched' by
almost every other army in Europe, Davis
remarked dolefully after the French
nabbed him
''Bv gravy! This war is my Waterloo;
I understand he is leaving today, his
eight-day parole being Up. his time"
served and fines paid.
There were three of us and a chauf-
feur in or own party We had by rare
good luck witnessed an action around the
French left wing and were bound toward
the centre at Rheims when it happened.
1t was merry captain who arrested us.
Hey" he called out gaily, where are
you folks going?"
ITO Rheims, we chorused. How far
Is it?"
Let's go ask the general" he said, and
laughed like sphinx, mysterious like,
h,,f ,,yttl, lFa In, tbo ch
Slowly we realized what the Joke was
1t was on us. The general said Rheims
was seven miles away and quite too far
to walk.
"Oh, we have a car" we chirped un-
comprehending the generals grim humor.
"Oh, I've requisitloned that he said.
Captain, will you escort the gentlemen
out"
The captain would and did escort us
out. Also in. Imagine a country village
where there isn't even railway depot,
where a postoffice, Government tabac,
three farmhouses and several COW lots
are punched together and you will have
the scene of our arrest. Imagine again
a stone farmhouse built in u formation,
with a stone fence across the top of the
u and the ground plan of our prison
will be clear. II you add to the centre of
the COW lot tableland of hay and other
stable rakings, the whole thing wet and
very Smelly lue COlu uIlGnIep lIIS
picture will be fairly complete.
Through a gate in the stone wall we
were conducted by our smiling captain
On the right was a door leading into
the sentinel's quarters. the rooms of the
farmhouse. At the back, across the
fertilizer plateau. were two more doors
through one of which 1 spied two of the
biggest COWS l ever saw, one lying down
chewing her cud and the other standing
in that bent-double position assumed by
kline when making their toilet She
ceased licking her flank to eye us new
comers. The second door was open and |
was labeled in chalk:
Prison"
We were ushered into this. The room |
was identical with the cows bedchamber |
German prisoners. French deserters, |
spies. suspects and pillagers stood or lay |
about on the hay which covered the |
floor.
We were put on parole not TO try to
get away. They took our word for 1t
that we would not run. but to make sure
they kept sentry at the gate with In
structions TO shoot If we showed any in.
to get absent-minded. They |
were very, very nice about It, insisting
all the time that we were positively not |
considered prisoners-as prisoners were
entitled to soldiers rations and we were
not
A kick about quarters among the pris-
oners-since, we were not prisoners and
would be shot only If we ran-got for us
an empty hayloft and the proper use of
money got us hay to sleep on.
The snoring was fine.
On the morning of the second day we
were given our car back and taken TO
Paris, an armed gendarme along with us.
Arriving late in the evening, we had din
Ter in the corridor OF the Cherche-Afidi
prison. Almost we had the eX-
of sleeping there, where Captain
Alfred Dreyfus was shut up but mys-
erious forces suddenly shifted US, be-
ween midnight and a. m. TO the In
ralides where, in the shadow of Napoleon's
omb, we slept in officers beds. Then
We were let go.
Yes, the war correspondents game is
;one-that is, the game as it used to be. |
20 more will the correspondent tell gem
rails how to night their battles. and also,
erhaps, no more will the generals have
Inc battle cries put into their mouths and
ecome famous for having uttered them.
he prison doors yawn for war writers
nd the 'Ii5 ia on "