Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1916-04-13

training Of military attache, on Ger
man conditions in the nearby agr1cul-
tural section: and, then, escape.
The notes on German conditions are
proving valuables. now that the prts-
oner IS free. Most information on
German conditions paint a very bad
picture 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 I'M
favorable conditions now prevailing In
Germany. They show German farm
ers. 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 particular II was not
ed that horses for farm labor have not
fallen or seriously through the mill
tary requirement for artillery and cav
airy horses. But in the entire time
this officer was in the German prison
camp. going daily through the sur
rounding agricultural country, he did
not see one automobile used for prf-
vate purposes, although there were
! hundred OF military automobiles In
general, his observations, as an ex-
pert military observer, were that the
internal conditions Of Germany. par
ucularly the farming regions. were not
as had been painted: that there was
| little evidence Of internal exhaustion
and considerable evidence Of prolonged
means of resistance.
Meantime, pending his observations
and the routine of prison duties, the
/ officers 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 II
| occurred to the officer that IL he could
| be carried out in a load OF manure
! and be deposited under a dung-heaT
in the fields, he might work his way
to freedom. And so. with a compan-
ion, he tried it
There was the difficulty first of get.
ting in the cart, so that when II wa
drawn up early j nthe morning for tn,
| manure to be thrown aboard, the tive
men would be underneath But thii
part they managed, and they were ly
Ing in the cart under thin covering
of straw when the morning cleaning
began. Soon the big clods of manur'
descended in showers over the sides o
the cart, and gradually the officer ant
his companion were pinned down un
der a smoking, sweating, sinking pill
of manure. six feet deep. with tw
German troops on top as IL rolled OF
to the fields.
Here there was another danger be
yCnd that of suffocation and stencil
that when the cart was dumped the to
I
bottom with the prisoners would com
out on top. But the slide was ever
top and bottom going out together
n crash which left the French office
and his companion buried under tn
duEg-heap in the midst of the field.
The rest was waiting for the fav
orable moment of darkness to let tn
two men dig their way out and get in
to the nearest wood. They were we
l away that night, and after extrem
s privatiOn from hunger and exposurt
! came in sight Of the Dutch boundar
e only TO find sentinels posted at regu
7 lar intervals along the frontier to ba
3 | exit or entry. There was a rush at n
] nearest sentry, with the hope that
{ the struggle one Of the prisoners vouI
a get by. And as they spranE forwal
r in desperation they found themselv,
b ! graphing. not a live sentry. but a fil
y ure OF wood. roughly fashioned out
. q tree trunk. with a German unifor
o about it, topped by n German helme
> with a gun across the shoulder. tt
n whole line Of frontier sentinels W;
T seen to be these figures in German III
forms at shoulder arms
d The French officer and his compal
= ion gained Dutch soil. and were lat
= back in France, eager to take the
) place at Nerdun.