Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-04-10
DARING ESCAPE
MADE BY OFFICER
FROM WAR PRISON
Exploit Of Jean Vatican Ri
vailed by Frenchman IN
Getting Away From Ger
man Detention Camp,

Associated Press Correspondence
Parts, March IA prominent
French army officer has Just gone
through a thrilling escape from a
prison detention camp in Germany
which parallels IN real life that fam
Gus escape Of fiction in which Victor
Hugo's hero took the place OF the
corpse and was carried off to burial.
The officer of this recent expert
enee WAS the military attache at Vi
emma up to the breaking out Of the
war He Joined his regiment when
the war opened. aud in dash ahead
Of the main BODY Of troops was taxi
en- prisoner and sent to a German
prison camp not far from the Dutcn
frontier. Here, besides the physical
hardships two things occupied him
closely first, taking careful mental
notes. with the training Of a military
attache, on German conditions in the
nearby agricultural section; and,
then, escape.
The notes on German conditions
are proving valuable. now that the
prisoner is free. Most information
on German conditions paint very
bad picture. in order to please the
French authorities But these notes
are designed 10 inform rather than
to please, and they show favorable
as well as unfaVorahle conditions nov
prevailing In Germany They show
German farmers, with whom the
French prisoners were taken to work,
in prosperous and contented state,
with good crops and normal stocks Of
cattle. swine, poultry etc. In par
ticular it was noted that horses for
farm labor have not fallen off seri-
ously through the military require
ment for artillery and cavalry horses.
But in the entire time this officer
was In the German prison camp, go
ing daily through the surrounding
agricultural country he did not see
one automobile used for private pur-
poses. although there We're hundreds
of military automobiles In general
his observations, as an expert MILL
tary observer were that the internal
conditions Of Germany particularly
the farming regions, were not az had
been painted, that there was little ev-
idence of internal exhaustion and
considerable evidepce Of prolonged
means of RESISTANCE
Escapes IN bump Cart.
Meantime, pertding his observations
and the routine iof prison duties, the
Officers had noted the daily coming
aud going OF large dump cart, used
for carrying away horse manure
from the cavalry stables TO the near
bv fields The sides of the cart were
high and rigid. and the tail piece was
removable to let the contents slide
out. It occurred TO the officer that
If he could be carried cut in load
Of manure and be deposited under a
dung heap in the fields, he might
work his way to freedom. And So,
with a companion, he tried ii.
There was the difficulty first Of
getting in - 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, ana
they were lying in the cart under a
thin covering of straw when the
morning cleaning began soon the
big cluds of manure descended IN
showers over the sides of the cart
end gradually the officer ana ms
companion were pinned down under
a smoking, sweating, sinking pile 81
manure. six feet deep, with two Ger
man troops on top as it rolled off to
the fields
Here there was another danger be-
yond that of suffocation and stench'
that when the cart was dumped the
top contents would so out first ana
the bottom with the prisoners would
come out on top nut the slide was
even, top and bottom going out to-
eethcr in crash which left the
French officer and his companion
buried under the dune-heap in the
midst Of the field
The rest was Waiting tof tis A"N
orable moment Of darkness to let the
two men dig their way out and get
into the nearest wood They were
we'll away that night, and after eX-
IRENE privation from hunger and eN-
posure, came in sight of the putch
boundary only TO find sentinels post
ed at regular intervals along the
frontier 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 des-
peration they found themselves Crap
ping. not a live sentry. hat a figure
Of wood. roughly fashioned Out Of a
tree trunk, with German uniform
about 1t. topped by q German helmet,
with gun across the shoulder. The
whole line Of frontier scntinels was
seen 10 be these figures in German
uniforms at shoulder arms
The French officer ana his com
panion gained Dutch soil and We're
later back in France, eager to take
their place al Verdun