The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1916-07-07
TRICKS WAR FOE;
WALKS 48O MILES
Detention Prisoner DupeS Cana
dianS After He Is Held for
Months.
MAKES LONG TRIP ON 50
Two Loaves of Bread a Day Is Ra.
tion of Austrian in Journey From
Buffalo to New York-Doesnt
Like Canada.

New York. "A bedraggled, oil.
smeared, ruddy little man with some,
thing akin to fear in his big, brown
eyes, stepped softly into the office of
Arthur Concors, superintendent of the
Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant
Aid Society, recently.
"Ich bin hier," he announced calm.
ly, as though that were the most im.
portant thing in the world. And it
was, to him, for twenty-three-year-old
Eugen Spitz, Austrian reservist and
expert upholsterer, had walked all the
way from Buffalo to New York with
deadly fear of the Canadian army
squirting him on
Twenty-four days had Eugen been
on the road, and his expenditures for
food during that time had been just
the three dollars, all that he had on
starting For eight months before he
began his 4S0-mile walk he had been
a prisoner in a Toronto detention
camp, and his hike was inspired by
the overwhelming desire to put just
as much territory as possible between
himself and Canada.
Spitz came to the United States
from Brunn, which is near the Ger
man border of Austria, on June IS,
1914. He went to Buffalo to work in
a dye factory few months later.
The most peculiar part of his story
is that last fall German offered him
a good job of indefinite nature, and
took him to Toronto without letting
him know they were entering Can.
ada.
"As soon as we got off the train"
Spitz explained in broken English,
that man disappeared. The police
man came, and they took me on train
to Il big stone house, where were two
or three hundred Germans and Aus
trians
There | lived in room with sixty
others for six months. We slept on
the floor, with blankets for cover, and
we had soup and bread to eat, but the
only work we had to do was clean up
the camp. But all the time | was
afraid, and then three Of our number
tunneled under the outside wall and
tried to escape.
One man got away, but the soldiers
killed one of the others and captured
the third.
"Too Near Canada"
"All the time l kept telling the
guards that l was Roumanian. and
at last they believed me. So finally
they told me | could go. | walked to
the railroad, where a lot of Italians
were working, and | told the conduc.
tor was an Italian. He let me ride
on the train to Buffalo"
why didn't you get job in Buffa-
TO- then, instead of coming here?" he
was asked
"Buffalo-no, MOI" Spitz exclaimed,
excitedly, his face flushing. TOO near
Canada.
81 sell my suit for SO and l put on
my overalls. Then | start to walk to
New York along the railroad tracks.
Sometimes | slept in freight cars and
SOm6Jlu6S III WdICHuGu uOub6SS DuL
all the time l walked and walked.
ate two loaves of bread every day, be-
cause / had money enough to buy that,
and at Syracuse a poor Jew took me
to his house, made me stay all night
and gave me food.
Il got tired, but | walked-because
Canada was behind. Now am here
| am glad"
Mr.. Concors examined the little
mans papers and found they bore out
his story Then he gave the refugee
some fresh clothes and a bed, and
within few hours Spits was ready to
look for a job.
But not near Canada" he warned.