The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1914-08-27

and drawing up orders. They were not
minute for fear some news would leak
out. This building is heavily guarded
| saw the guards and was told by a
German from Munich. So you can see
that the Germans have been providing
for this for years-not three weeks,
but for the last ten years. We were
told by our consul and by people whom
we thought would be in a position to
know that we would be allowed to
drive anywhere in Germany, but could
not take the ear out of the country and
as trains were uncertain we decided to
make for the German frontier at Ian
dau, leave the ear, cross Lake Constant
and get into Switzerland. By so doing
we figured that we could get to some
seaport, get boat home or remain in
Switzerland and be out OF the trouble
for time. | purchased two American
and two German flags and placed them
on the front of the car. We ate our
dinner at 1880 and this happened to
be the last meal we had in four days
We left the Hotel 'Bayericher Hof. -
We were notified that we would prob
ably be stopped just at the city limits
and examined and that this would
be all.
We drove about thirty-fve miles.
1t was a bright moonlight night and we
began to think that it was easy. After
passing through town called Inning,
we came to road that branched off
and as there were number of men
and boys on the street we stopped and
asked about the road to Landau. They
crowded about the car, but would not
answer but something told Robert that
we would have trouble if we remained
longer so we drove on but slowly,
and of course on the wrong road but
we did not know it, until we had gone
about ten miles. We turned about and
drove back and when we reached the
town they had barricaded the road
with wagons, boxes and boards and as
soon as we drove up they made rush
at us, yelling and cheering. Two police
officers put their cooked A calibre re-
volvers to our heads and pulled us from
the car The crowd surged and pushed
and called out in German HFrench
spies" several times. They made us
pull up the carpet, take up the top, ex-
amined under the seats and the tool
boxes. and even went SO far as to ex-
anime, inside of the spare tires.
We had to take all our baggage off
and into small building and they went
through it thoroughly. They searched
us down TO the skin and when they
found my automatic Colt revolver then
they knew" that they had a spy.
They were very ugly and we expected
every moment to get slugged. There
were about hundred and fifty in the
crowd and all tried to get into the lit
tie room and all were talking at once
The two police officers had all they
could do to protect us from being badly
dealt with for number in the crowd
were armed with fevolvers and clubs.
We asked if any one could speak Eng
lish but there was po one in the crowd
That could, but woman who came up
and spoke "'French = and Robert talk
ed with her and that made them sure
that we were French and as the car
bore French number with a large
letter "F'' on the back we could not
make them believe but that we were
French and trying to get away, We
showed our passports which were writ
ten in German. My letter from the
state department was of no service T
showed personal letters dated from
America, the name date and other in
scriptions In my watch, my Chicago
Yacht Club ticket, my furlough blank,
our trip ticket, our letters of credit,
our road maps, letters from New York,
but nothing would satisfy them. We
were taken to what they called a hotel
and all our papers and belongings were
taken away and we were told to STAY
IN the room they had taken us to and
IN the morning they would let us know
what would be done. Then they sent
Ter the Burgomaster and his daughter
who could speak little English, and
between Robert s German and her Eng
llsh | think they finally thought that
we were not quite as bad as they had
at first suspected, but the wild crowd
would not have it otherwise and we
were held all night under guard. Sun
day morning the police officers return
ed aud we were given back our prop
erty and told we could go.
We Were afraid to continue to Ian
dau as it was Sunday and with every
one idle the people were collecting
IN mobs in the towns, so we figured
that we had better return to Munich
and leave the car there and take our
chance to get away by train. We
We're afraid that we would be stopped
going back to Munich so Robert hired
the Burgomaster to go back with us. !
When we got outside of the town we
took off the French number and passed |
on to Munich without any trouble We
invited the Burgomaster to lunch with |
US and he felt very badly and offered |
to so with us to Landau, but at that |
time we did not have gasoline enough. /
The old fellow cried when he left us. |