Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-18

manner. 1t is there to serve three
purposes: first, to prevent the Bel
gians from escaping into Holland
second, to keep enemies, like myself
from making their way to freedom
ana third, to prevent desertions on
the part of Germans themselves.
one look at it was enough to con-
vince anyone that it probably accom-
phshed all three objects about as
well as any contrivance could. and
one look was all I got of it that night
Tor while lay on my stomach gazing
at the forbidding structure / heard
the measured stride of a German
sentry advancing toward me, and ]
crawled away as fast as I possibly
could, determined to spend the night
somewhere in the fields and make
another and more careful survey the
following night.
The Death-Bearing Barrier
The view | had obtained, however
was sufficient to convince me thai
the pole-vault idea was out of the
question even if had a pole and was
proficient pole vaulter. The three
fences covered a span of at least
twelve feet, and to clear the last
barbed wire fence it would be neces.
sary to vault not only at least ter
wide with the certain knowledge thai
to touch the electrically charged
fence meant instant death. There
would be no second chance if YOU
came cropper the first time.
The stilt idea was also imprac.
ticable because of the lack of suit
able timber and tools with which tc
construct the stills.
1t seemed to me that the best thing
to do was to travel up and down the
line a bit in the hope that some
spot might be discovered where con.
dttions were more favorable, al
though I don't know just what ex-
pected along those lines.
1t was mighty disheartening to
realize that only few feet away lay
certain liberty and that the only
thing preventing me from reaching
it were three confounded fences.
thought of my machine and wished
that some kind fairy would set it in
front of me for just one minute.
| spent the night in a clump OF
bushes and kept in hiding most OF
the next day, only going abroad for
an hour or two in the middle of the
day to intercept some Belgian peas
ant and beg for food. The Belgians
in this section were naturally very
much afraid of the Germans and |
Jared badly. In nearly every house
German soldiers were quartered and
it was out of the question for me to
apply for food in that direction.
The proximity of the border made
everyone eye each other with more
or less suspicion and / soon came to
the conclusion that the safest thing
! could do was to live on raw vege-
fol h trFl1 n L Al.
fields at night as I had previously
done.
Looked Absolutely Hopeless
That night I made another survey
of the barrier in that vicinity, but II
looked just as hopeless as it had the
night before, and ] concluded that /
only wasted my time there.
| spent the night wandering north,
guided by the North Star, which had
served me so faithfully in all my
travelling. Every mile or two would
make my way carefully to the bar
rier to see If conditions were any
better, but 1t seemed to be the same
all along. 1 felt like a wild animal
in cage, with about as much chance
of getting out.
which / was now wandering was
very heavily wooded and there was
really no very great difficulty in
keeping myself concealed, which |
did all day long, striving all the
time to think of some way in which
could circumvent that cursed bar
rier.
The idea of huge stepladder oc-
CURED to me, but / searched hour
after hour in vain for lumber or
fallen trees out of which I could con-
struct one. If l could only obtain
something which would enable me 10
reach. a point about nine feet in the
air it would be comparatively sim
pie matter to jump from that point
over the electric fence.
Then | thought that perhaps ]
could construct simple ladder and
lean it against one of the posts upon
which the electric wires were strung
climb to the top and leap over, get
ting over the barbed wire fences in
the same way.
This seemed to be the most likely
plan, and all night long l sat con-
structing ladder for this purpose
1 was fortunate enough to find a
number of fallen pine trees from ter
to twenty feet long. | selected two
of them which seemed sufficiently
cts 1eR al