The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-04-09
HUCO'S HERO CORPSE
FICTION IS RECALLED
BY the Thrilling Escape of al
French Army Officer from a
Detention Camp.
Correspondence Of Associated Press,


PARIS. April S.-A prominent
French army officer has Just gone
through a thrilling escape from pris-
on detention camp in Germany, which
parallels in real Life that famous es-
cape Of fiction in which Victor Hugo's
hero took the place Of the corpse and
was carried on to burial.
The officer of this recent experience
was the military attache at Vienna
up to the breaking out Of the war. He
Joined his regiment when the war
opened, and in dash ahead of tho
main body Of troops was taken pris-
oner and sent to a German prison
camp not far from the Dutch frontier.
Here, besides the physical hardships,
two things occupied him closely: first,
taking CAREFUL mental notes. with the
training ola military attache, on Ger
man conditions in the nearby agricul-
tural section; and, then, escape.
German Conditions Noted.
The notes on German conditions are
proving valuable, now that the pris-
oner Is free. Most information on Ger
man conditions paint very bad pic
ture, In order to please the French
authorities. But these notes are de-
signed to inform rather than to please.
and they show favorable as well as
unfavorable conditions now prevail
ing in Germany. They show German
farmers, with whom the French pris-
oners were taken to work. in a PROS
porous and contented state, with good
crops and normal stocks of cattle,
swine. poultry, etc. In particular it
was noted that horses for farm la
Dor have not fallen OF seriously
through the military requirement for
artillery and cavalry horses. But in
the entire time this officer was in the
German prison camp, going daily
through the surrounding agricultural
country. he did not see one automo-
bile used for private purposes, al
though there were hundreds of mill
tary automobiles. In general, his OBJ
servations, as an expert military OBJ
server, were that the internal condi-
tions of Germany. particularly the
farming regions, were not as had been
painted; that there was little evidence
OF internal exhaustion and consider
able evidence of prolonged means of
resistance.
Meantime, pending his observations
and the routine Of prison duties, the
officer had noted the daily coming and
going of a large dumpcart, used for
carrying away horse manure from the
cavalry stables to the, nearby fields.
The sides Of the cart were high and
rigid, and the tail piece was remov-
able to let the contents slide out. 1t
occurred to the officer that il he could
be carried out in load of manure,
and be deposited under dump heap
In the fields, he might work his way
to freedom. And so, with companion
he tried it.
Showers OF Manure. t
There was the difficulty first OF get
ting in the cart, so that when 1t was
drawn up early in the morning for
the manure to be thrown aboard, the
two men would be underneath. But
this part they managed, and they were
lying In the cart under thin covering
Of straw when the morning cleaning
began. Soon the big clods of manure
descended in showers over the sides
Of the cart, and gradually the officer
and his companion were pinned down
under smoking, sweating, sinking
pile Of manure, six feet deep, with two
German troops on top as 1t rolled off
to the fields.
Here there was another danger be-
yond that Of suffocation and stencil;
that when the cart was dumped the
top contents would go out first and
the bottom with the prisoners would
come out on\top. But the slide was
even, top and bottom going out to-
gether in crash which left the French
officer and his companion buried I'M
der the dung heap in the midst of the
field.
Dig Way Out.
The rest was waiting for the IA
vorable moment Of darkness to let
the two men dig their way out and
get into the nearest wood. They were
well away that night, and after ex-
IRENE privation from hunger and ex-
posture, came in sight of the Dutch
boundary only to find sentinels posted
at regular intervals along the from
tier to bar exit or entry. There was
rush at the nearest sentry, with
the hope that in the struggle one of
the prisoners would get by. And as
they sprang forward in desperation
they found themselves graphing, not
a live sentry, but figure Of wood,
roughly fashioned out of a tree trunk,
with a German uniform about 1t, top
ped by German helmet, with gun
across the shoulder. The whole line
OF frontier sentinels was seen to be
these figures in German uniforms at
shoulder arms.
The French officer and his compan-
ion gained Dutch soil, and were later
back in France. eager to take their
place at verdun.