Gilpin observer., 1915-04-08
WARR|OR-WR|TER
GIVES TO WORLD
HIS GRIM STORY
Makes Lightning Change From
Novel Writer to Leader of
Men in Battle.
STRAIN WHITENs, HIS HAIR
Wars Wild Drama Holds No Further
Thrills for oskar Hocker-Ages
ct Experience Crowded Into
His One Short Tour Of
Trench Duty.

HIS one snort our OF
Trench Duty.
Berlin.-Until a certain day last
summer Paul Oskar Hooker one of
Germany's leading best seller" writ
ers. divided his time between writing
novels and plays and admiring the
roses in his little garden close to Ber-
lin. Then, with the suddenness of
lightning stroke, he realized, as did
hundreds of thousands of others, what
"a nation in arms" means Paul Oskar
Hooker, novelist, playwright and lover
of flowers, became overnight Captain
Hooker at the head of company in
men, clothed all alike in the famous
German field gray, men who the day
before had been, one q painter, anoth-
er a cook, another sculptor, another
a sravedigger,
With hundreds of others they piled
GUM. Exactly once more, the last
time for many months, was Hooker re-
minded of the life he had left behind
him. That was when a young girl ap-
preached him as he was washing his
face at one of the last German stations
where the troop train stopped and
blushingly asked:
"They--they tell me you are Hook
er, the famous novelist? Is it true?'
Left His Autograph.
Captain Hooker nodded
Then, will you please give me your
autograph"
While the warning whistle of the
train announced it's speedy departure,
Paul Oskar Hooker. novelist, wrote
down his autograph and received the
girls smiling words of gratitude A
couple of days later Captain Hooker
of the reserve was giving the order to
a firing party to shoot down Belgian
accused of "sniping." A few weeks
later he and the painter and the sculp-
tor and the gravedigger got their bap-
tisr of fire near Lille Then it was
that Hooker had the narrowest possi-
BILE escape from death. Shortly after
remained there for weeks without
room to stand up or lie down. while
countless shells screamed overhead
and racked his nerves to the breaking
point.
Writes In Rain Of Fire.
All this Hooker has set down in a
little book of his war experience called
"At the Head of My Company" which
has just appeared in Berlin, one of the
most graphic and convincing pieces of
writing to come out of the war. He
wrote its various chapters in the hell
of Belgium and northern France, send
ing them back to be published as fast
as they were completed.
Hocker's company was one of hun
dreds upon hundreds that marched
through Belgium in the wake of that
German army that almost smashed its
way into Paris last September He and
his men passed through Wise, near
Liege, while 1t was still burning Soon
after amid clouds Of suffocating smoke
that blinded them and hid their roads.
they tramped over the streets in the
outskirts of another burning town -
Louvain.
in a filthy stable; on another he sat
comfortably with the young vicar Of q
Belgian village on whom he was quar-
tered and talked not of war and its
atrocities, but of "Preraphaelites,
Turkish dialects and new kinds of
roses." After that came more uncom-
Portable night lodgings; then. Just as
a spice of variety, night in a magni-
ficent villa, sleep in a bed used in
former years by King Leopold of Bel
GUM. One woman, obliged to give the
captain lodging for the night in her
house pleasantly remarked to him;
Anything can do for you? Anything
can get for you? Would you like me
to send you a barber?"
Declines Belgian Shave.
The captain said politely that he
happened to possess safety razor.
THE idea Of being shaved by Bel
gian didn't appeal to me at ALL" he
grimly remarks
Just as they crossed the French
frontier packet Of letters from home
arrived, giving Hooker the news that
play by him dealing with the wars
in Germany 100 years ago had Just
been performed in Berlin. On receiv-
ing that letter he tells us he sat down
and reflected:
Where was | when that play OF
mine was being given in Berlin? Oh,
yes, sleeping on mattress by rail-
way line threatened with Belgian at
tack, my revolver by my side"
From such duties Captain Hooker
and his men moved southwark into
the real fighting zone and got their
baptism of fire with vengeance in
the outskirts of Lille. siding along
narrow alleys amid the whistling of
bullets from roofs and windows, creep
ing on all fours through the ditch lin
ing high road. charging into burning
oil no 1au vuhtIo nncoop arav,tac rrnrod