The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-02-14
Lieut.. Pat. 0'Brien OF Illinois
Tells of Wild Adventures In
Germany.
JUMPS FROM MOVING TRAIN
American Strategy Trlumphs Over
German Effieleney-one Of His
Hardest Stunts Was Swimming
River Meuse.

Chicago.-Pat O'Brien of Momence
H., is back from the fighting front.
In the British flying corps the young
man from Momence is known as Lieut..
Patrick Alva O'Brien. He is famous
for several reasons. His real story be-
gan when he made a descent of nearly
two miles In his airplane after a Ger
man bullet In the face had rendered
him unconscious. The fall cost him a
bump on the head.
He jumped out Of the window of a
moving train on his way to a German
prison camp, and escaped. Then he
spent 72 days In getting to Holland, a
distance of 250 miles as the airplane
flies. And the story ends with one Of
the longest interviews with a king on
record-52 minutes by the royal stop
watch.
Many times during those 70 nights Of
travel through Germany, Luxembourg,
and occupied Belgium, American
strategy triumphed over German eff
cheney.
|; Usually" said Lieutenant O'Brien,
"when bunch of fellows get together,
they talk about women. But in our
first prison, In Flanders, we talked
only about escape and food, and got
very little Of either. There were eight
officers going to an interior prison
camp, and a guard with q rife for ev-
cry two prisoners.
Leaps From Train.
"We rode all day and all night.
Twice / put up the window to jump
and lost my nerve. II looked too much
like sudden death. AS / put It up
again, about four I'm the morning, the
guard gave me an ugly look. I knew
II was then or never and dove out.
"For nearly a month afterward I
thought my left eye was gone. The
scars are there yet. BY the time the
train stopped, half-mile on. or more,
was up and stumbled to hiding
place. Those Germans looked every
where-on the side Of the tracks to
ward the border. / was In the oppo-
site direction.
at was a month before I got rid Of
my English uniform. stole a pair Of
overalls one night. I got cap the
next and shirt later. A Belgian gave
me a scarf. That was all the help /
got"
AS an appetizer Lieutenant O'Bftep
ate turnip. The entree was sugar beet,
and the meal closed with a cabbage
stump that even the Germans scorned.
"And / never did like vegetables"
he said. II hope never have to eat
another" =
One night German soldier saw him
swimming q river. and raised the
alarm.
II felt sure they would be on top of
me In few minutes" he said $50 I
ran upstream and swan back to the
other side. I knew the ways Of the
Hun pretty well by then. They looked
everywhere on the other side, but not a
German came near me.
Swan the Meuse.
Zone of the hardest things I did
was to swim the Meuse river. I had
all my clothes on, to my boots, and
the river was half a mile across. 1t
nearly got me twenty-five feet from
shore. / was choking, and I admit
praying. My boyhood on the Kanka.
kee saved my life.
"When got up the bank I tainted.
1t was the only time / ever tainted"
Lieutenant O'Brien could not speak
German. AS boy, Momence baker
of Teuton origin taught him a phrase
Of German, but he did not know what
it meant. 1t was some ''ten lifetimes''
after swimming the Meuse he found
the nlne-foot death fence Of the Hol-
land frontier. Death all but got him
then, as his improvised ladder dropped
him on the charged wires.
"A few minutes later" he said, II
could have tripped the guard with my
ladder. After he had gone dug-dug
as I never dug before In my life. NV
back was half an inch from death when