The Alaska daily empire., 1915-07-15
BELGIAN ESCAPES
 AND COMES TO
 ALASKA 10 SHAY

ms way 70 Douglas, ftdud lht 'hN 't ] C. A. Honty's stories of adventure and brings the conditions ol warridden Beigipm home Co us In vivid outlines.
 Mr Da Looro. who is a married mn, left his wife aud family in Bel. gium dependent upon the Germans. for the purpose of being able to take care of them atier war and possibly bring them to America It Is impos. sible to find work at present in Bel gium aud all the Belglans are issued rauons by the German army After the war according to Mr. Da Loore. the conditions win be awful as the whole country has been taid waste He win locate permanently in Aiaeka if it is possible for him to find em- ployment
 The story of the escape from Bel gium was told to an Empire represen- tatiye in the following words
 'lu company with a comrade ] de. dided to come to Americn, as the outlook in Belgium was very gloomy. We applied to Che American and Hoi- land Consuls at Ghent for passports but they were denied us SO after waiting while we found a mana snuggler-who told us that he was willing to get us out of Belgium for 80 each and so we accepted Che prop. ositioD
 "On Monday morning February DO, we started from Ghent to try to pass through the German lines but we were arrested by German soldiers just at the moment we were crossing the line We were made prisoners of war and the Germans searched us from head to foot for evidence that we were spies but they found nothing
 After the search they put us in certain place where we could sleep on straw When morning came we were taken to zelzate, town one mile from the Holland border and the next day we were sent back to Ghent In the Court House at Ghent we were searched again and the German ofiic- CTS found my comrades money In a belt around his waist The belt contained ten S2o gold pieces These the Germans took away from him and gave him German paper script in ex- change.
 After we had been In the Court House four days we were questioned as to why we tried to escape from Belgium. We told them we were look ing for work and they treated us like dogs. The Germans gave us eight more days in prison In the meantime my wife. Knowing that [ was in prison, tried very hard to get me out. but the Germans would not listen to her.
 "The seventh day the Germans told ms they would let us SO for 50 marks CS1O) each. SO to get out of prison we paid the fine During our i'm. prisonment the food given us by the Germans was not good enough for pigs Our breakfast was black bread and coffee at lunch we were given plate of bean soup and our supper consisted of mashed potatoes and on- ions. We were unable to eat Che fare and after the eighth day we were sent home as weak as eats
 All the time we were in prison we were not allowed to correspond with anyone The cell in which we were in- carcerated was only four feet square and was guarded by German sol diers
 After heinz home for few days we found another smuggler and told him our experiences. He said that for 50 francs S1O) he would guarantee to put us across the Holland border We struck bargain with him and on April 10th we started for the border the second time
 We walked a distance Of about 20 miles from Ghent where the snug gler made us stop At this time there were nine of us in the party four men three women and two small chil- ! dren. As it was< dark by this time the smuggler went ahead to see ifl the road was clear to cross the IIol- land border After a while he re. turned and told us that everything was all right and for us to follow him.
 After very short walk we came to Leopold river which is was neces- ] sary for us to cross. There we saw in the water four blanks nailed to- gether with a big hole in the center containing a wash tub On the Hol- land side was man standing with a rope in his hand and as soon as two people were in the tub the man conn menced to pull the rope, which was fastened to one end of the blanks, and the people were soon. as we sup-I posed on the Holland side. This op- eration was repeated until we were all across. The night was dark and at the place where we crossed it takes the German sontries one half an hour walking before they meet We crossed while they were walking away from each other
 "Opr troubles were not over, how ever, as we had to cross another chan mel that was harder than the first We were 80 close to the German line that the smuggler saw the sentry and we could all hear the dogs barking, but the man led us in another direc-