Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-08-16

One OF h ScarceSt things In Ger
many, apparently, is rubber, for ]
noticed that their motor trucks, or lor-
Fies. unlike our own, had no rubber
tires. Instead heavy iron bands were
employed. 1 could hear them come
rumbling along the stone roads for
miles before they reached the spot
where I happened to be in hiding.
When l saw these military roads in
Belgium for the first time, with their
heavy cobblestones that looked as II
they would last for centuries, / real
lied at once why it vas that the Ger
mans had been able to make such a
rapid advance into Belgium at the
start Of the war.
1 noticed that the Belgians used
dogs to q considerable extent to pull
their carts, and I thought many times
that IL l could have stolen one of
those dogs it would have been a very
good companion for me and might, If
the occasion arose, help me out in a
fight. But I had no way of feeding 1t
and the animal would probably have
starved to death. I could live on veg
etables, which I could always depend
upon finding in the fields, but a dog
couldn't, and so 1 gave up the idea.
The knack of making fire with two
pieces of dry wood 1 had often read
about, but 1 had never put it to a test
and for various reasons I concluded
that it would be unsafe for me to
build a fire even If I had matches. In
the first place, there was no absolute
need for it. I didn't have anything
to cook nor utensils to cook it in even
If 1 had. While the air was getting
to be rather cool at night, I was usu-
ally on the go at that time and didn't
notice it. In the daytime, when 1
was resting or sleeping, the sui was
usually out.
To have borrowed matches from a
belgian peasant would have been feas-
ible, but when 1 was willing to take
the chance of approaching anyone, it
was just as easy to ask for food as
matches.
1t the second place, it would have
been extremely dangerous to have
built a fire even if 1 had needed it.
You can't build a fire in Belgium,
which is the most thickly populated
country In Europe, without everyone
knowing it, and 1 was far from anx-
ious to advertising my whereabouts.
The villages in that part of Bel
GUM through which 1 vas making my
course were so close together that
there was hardly ever an hour passed
without my hearing some clock strike.
Every village has it's clock. Many
times I could hear the clocks striking
in two villages at the same time.
But the hour had very little interest
to me. My program was to travel as
fast as I could from sunset to sunrise
and pay no attention to the hours in
between, and in the daytime I had
only two things to worry about: keep
concealed and get as much sleep as
possible.
The cabbage that 1 got in Belgium
consisted of the small heads that the
peasants had not cut. All the strength
had concentrated in these little heads
and they would be as bitter as gall. I
would have to be pretty hungry to-
day before I could ever eat cabbage
again and the same observation ap-
plies to carrots, turnips and sugar
beets-especially sugar beets.
1t is rather a remarkable thing that
today even a smell Of turnips, raw or
annEnd yooEoc mn cioIy md unf a fnyv
short months ago my life depended
upon them.
Night after night as I searched for
food, I was always in hopes that 1
might come upon some tomatoes or
celery-vegetables which 1 really
liked, but with the exception of once,
when I found some celery, I was never
SO fortunate. 1 ate so much of the
celery the night I came upon it that
1 was sick for two days thereafter,
but I carried several punches away
with me and used to chew on it as I
walked along.
OF course, I kept my eyes open all
the time for fruit trees, but apparently
it was too late in the year for fruit, as
all that I yer vas able to find were
two pears, which I got out Of a tree.
That was one Of my redletter days,
but I was able to repeat it.
In the brooks and ponds that I
passed I often noticed fish of different
kinds. That was either in the early
morning just before I turned in for
the day, or on moonlight nights when
the water seemed as clear in spots
as in the daytime. 1t occurred to me
that it would be a simple matter to rig
a hook and line and catch some fish,
but I had no means of cooking them
and it was useless to fish for the sake
Of 1t.
One night in Belgium my course
took me through a desolate stretch of
country which seemed to be absolutely
uncultivated. I must have covered
miles during the night, without
a single farm or cultivated
field NV cfOok of furniDc Whioh 7