Evening star., 1915-11-14
CraWIs Through Ten Miles of
Mud Flat and Finally Gets
| Into Holland.
NECK DEEP IN THE OOZE.
BULLETS FLY OVER HIM
Edmund Rosenthal Quit Belgium
Not Because He Was Oppressed,
But for Real Freedom.
BY HERBERT COREY.
lCopyright. 1917


PARIS, October 21-''Three times l
sank in the rivers of mud said Ed
mund Rosenthal My head went un-
der. But the smugglers saved me-
RosenthaI has just arrived in Paris
after escaping from Brussels. His story
conveys vivid idea of the terrors of
that passa ge. For five hours he was in
imminent, momentary danger of suffo-
cation in mud. He was shot at by the
German guards after he left Belgian
soil and by the Dutch guards as he
wriggled his muddy way into Holland.
But he thinks the reward is worth the
pains
Il am free, said he.
Rosenthal is a dentist OF Brussels.
little round bald headed man. Two
years ago he would have shrunk from
adventure as he would from the plague.
He wore goloshes and macintosh
on wet days. He never thought of going
out of the house in cold weather with
out tying a muller about his throat
Led Placid Life.
His life was that of a prosperous, un
imaginative. prosaic professional man.
On warm evenings he slipped his cof
fee in front of one of Brussels lively
cafes. Once a week in winter he heard
the opera. His hope was that nothing
would interfere with the pleasant rou
tine. In a few years he would be able
to retire.
Il had planned to revisit America,
Harvard in 1852"
When the Germans came they pro-
posed TO keep the people we'll az the
land of Belgium. The little kingdom
q frnv Palc crtS n
try to escape into Germany and SO that
way was left unguarded. The German
lines stretch between France and Bel
GUM. On the Holland border a wire
fence was built, with guards every few
hundred feet. 1t offers the only practi-
cal way of escape. Where that fence
runs on solid ground the guards are
numerous The end of the fence runs
into the sea.
Ten Miles of a Mud Flat.
THE fence makes great curve
about mud fat,' said Rosenthal. ITO
get into Holland We had first to crawl
under the fence and then to ford that
mud fiat at low tide for a distance of
ten miles"
RosenthaI and his two companions
waited for dark night before they
made the effort. Previously they had
been put in touch with some honest
Dutchmen who carried on pretty
business of smuggling during times OF
peace along the same fiat. When war
came they merely varied their under
taking. Nowadays they smuggle out
BeIgians who are tired of the German
rule and smuggle in papers to the
Belgians who want to know the news
of the world war One of the single
sheet Paris papers sells in Brussels for
10 cents or less. The news it contains
establishes it's value. A London paper
N iC-
profitable, this smuggling, though dan
gerous-
III we had been caught" said Rosen-
thai I'VE Belgians would have been
let of with six months Imprisonment.
The guides would have been lucky if
they had escaped with ten years in
prison
So the two runaways paid the guides
20 each-which Rosenthal observes
is very reasonable price-and met
them this dark night well back of the
wire fence. They stayed in hiding un-
Ill midnight Then they single filed
toward the exit from Belgium. BY
and by they splashed into the suburbs
of the mud fiat. The wire fence has
been carried through that fiat until it
reaches deep water. The German
guards heard them Rosenthal thinks
it is improbable they were seen. He
before his face From the various
guardposts rife shots cracked over the
mud. They could see the little stabs
Of flame in the blackness of the night.
craw1ed Under Wire Fence.
lie down here said the guards,
and crawl"
The wire fence was perhaps five feet
high. But it is not good form to climb
a wire fence when the other man is
watching for you with a rife. lie is
apt to hear the wire harps twang.
Then all he has to do is to sight his
gun down the topmost strand of wire
The guides scooped hole under the
bottommost wire-a walloW into
which d soupy mud trickled as fast as
IL was cleared out-and mild, domes-
tically inclined. peace loving Rosen
thai laid himself down upon his round
little stomach and squashed through.
The barbs caught on his coat when
he tried to draw his house softened
flesh away from the cold mud, and he
. into the mire. II was his first taste
of adventure.
The guide swore,' Rosenthal OBJ
serves. parentheticalIy.
He was shivering with excitement
and coated with cold. fsh-smelling.
dauby mud. The guides produced
rope and the FIVE held to it. One guide
went on ahead and the other brought
up the rear From the black void be-
hind them the Germans still fred
srasmodicaIly. Sometimes they heard
bullets whtz overhead. but the guides
said it was nothing.
They cannot shoot-the German