The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-22
LAUGHS AT HUNS
Ex-Santa Fe Man Was Cap
tured by Them.
Captain O'Brien Jumped From
Train and Made Escape.
WAS GUEST OF KING GEORGE
Had a Nice Little Chat With
the British Ruler.
Decorated With a Real Medal
"Made in America

New York Jan. 22.-German SPIES
all and sundfy. are invited oy Lieut.;
Patrick Alva OBrlen. OF the I.oSa,
Canadian flying corps, formerly
Santa Fe engineer, to repair forthwith
-. Momence. H., and there 20 make
note of the fact that he is very 1nucH
alive and enjoying a full modlcum OF
liberty. If they get there by tonlshe
thew will witness an interesting cere-
mony. of which the flying lrishman
will be the central figure, with Gov
ernor Lowden acting as Wiling ana
mighty proud side light.
Before taking the Twentieth Cen
turv Limited for Momence where he
is to be decorated by having a made
in-America pin fastened to his uni
form he sat in the Hotel Knicker-
booker and told newspaper men how
he escaped from Germany.
bright grin, when he had finished re-
lating his adventures, please say
'Potsdam papers please copy will
you, as a favor to me? 1 want the
kaiser to know I arrived safely
He made just one other personal
request. After describing how he es-
capped. keeping a bare half lap ahead
of the boches and death as he jour
neyed thru Germany, Belgium and
Holland, and finally landed as the pri-
vate guest of King George at Bucking-
ham palace. he told how he had hob
forty-two minutes by his watch. THE
king is the most democratic fellow 1
ever met. Just give him good boost,
will you?"
Captured by Huns.
Lieutenant O'Brien's plane was shot
down last August by a German air
plane behind the enemy lines at Ypres
From that time until he landed in
Buckingham palace as King Georges
guest he experienced a series of thrills
which followed one another thick and
fast.
Il was shot in the mouth-right
here" said he, showing a scar by part
ing his sandy mustache, land then I
began to fall down, down; it seemed
as if it would never end. 1 kept say
ing to myself, I'm killed. I'm killed
but you see L exaggerated, for here 1
am The next thing 1 knew a German
doctor was showing me the bullet he
had, dug out of my head in an enemy
hospital
They kept me there six days when
l was taken before the intelligence
bureau of the flying corps, where I
was questioned at great length by a
Hun. He said the Americans would
mobilize 100000 men, but would
send but 100000 to France, as the rest
would be needed for service against
Japan.
Guess again. told him, and he
Courtrai."
Jumped From n Train.
While being transported three
weeks later to prison camp in the
interior, he decided to escape from the
train. He leaped from a window
while the train was making thirty to
forty miles an hour. He spent eighty
three days plunging thru the mud of
Luxembourg and Belgium, and then
reached the frontier of Holland, hay-
ing Travelled $50 miles to make the
seventy-two miles.
Il ate beets and turnips and pears
l never want to look a beet or
turnip in the face again. For most of
royal flying corps uniform. Maybe
it didn't look much like a uniform
though, with the mud all over it,
He described how he raided a boche
clothes line and borrowed" a pair of
German trousers.
At the Dutch frontier he found a
nine-foot fence charged with cleo
tricity. He made a ladder of twigs
and branches but it crumbled when
he climbed 1T and he was severely
shocked by the electric current. How
ever, he managed to tunnel under
the fence when he found himself on
neutral soil.
81 made my way to the American
consul at Rotterdam" said he, land
the rest was comparatively easy.
after my three months leave is up
I'm going back again. 1 want to meet
the Hun flyers again. They really
are not a bad lot. There is chivalry
among the airmen of both armies
They treated me pretty decently."