The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1912-1984, 1916-01-14
LINCOLN BOYS UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES
J. c. Hackley, European Al GENT for The Western
Electric Co., Had Exciting Times at Begin
ming of War In Belgium.

its If one of the most wonderful de-
velbpments in modern telephony. The
recent very successful trans-oceanic
wireless telephone. conversations be-
tween Paris, France and the United
States indicates an enormous step
in scientific development which has
been achieved ty the Western Elec-
trio Company's staff of skilled engi-
neers. Such achievements are
brought about nowadays by the sheer
force of many able men equipped
with every device known to science,
working together to the attainment
of definite thing. Great inventions
lige this are now forced into exist
enee, as it were, by the united eff
forts of many able men working to-
gether, and are not required to grow
up slowly, as they did during the last
century when men worked somewhat
Independently.
Mr.. Hackley was in Antwerp when
the present European war broke out
where he saw the people go through
all the gyrations which such a new
experience would naturally produce
in any people. On this occasion, the
Belgians were so much aroused about
their liberties that every one who
was a foreigner was fit subject for
arrest, on the least suspicion. Dur
ing these troublous times, he was
on one occasion arrested as a spy,
and taken through an immense
throng of excited people to a mill
tary tribunal but later released. On
this occasion the soldiers who had
arrested him spoke no English and,
seeing that the crowd looked threat
ening, he saved himself from trouble
at their hands by telling the soldiers
in French that the crowd seemed me-
nacing, and he must tell them in
French and Flemish that he was an
American citizen and spoke English.
The soldiers obliged him by saying
to the crowd in the two languages
that Mr.. Hackley claimed to be Eng
fish and seemed able to speak Eng
lish. On one occasion he was sus-
pected of knowing something about
a German officer whom he former
ly knew at Antwerp, but avoided
trouble by giving the exact facts
about the matter, which were fully
known to his questioners before they
approached him.
Mr.. Hackley remained in Antwerp
until the gallant Belgian soldiers be-
gan to fall back on the fortified po-
sitions of Antwerp when he set out
for London. At this time guns
bristled everywhere; Antwerp was
surrounded by two lines of trenches
and barbed wire entanglements, and
being a fortified place, surrounded
by ramparts and forts, was under
the strictest military rule. Under
these conditions he found it neces-
sary to transfer all his business pa
pers to London. After consulting
with the British consul, the American
consul and the Belgian general in
charge of the defenses of Antwerp,
and finding that permit to take out
the papers to London could not be
secured, he resolved to set about do
ing it without permit. Leaving all
personal effects behind he set out
with two trunks filled with business
papers for London. After being
held up once on the way to the sta
ton and then passing through line
of soldiers with bayonets on each
side, to get into the railway station
the journey was begun. In constant
dread that the trunks would be
opened and something found which
might give pretext for arrest as q