The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-05
"OUTW|TTlNG
THE Hun"
--= By #
LIEUTENANT
PAT O'BRIEN

my bearings entirely. ana OayllSnt
found me with nothing accomplished.
The sun, however, did come out that
day, and l welcomed its warm rays,
as they, perhaps, have never been well
coined before. l was very tired-just
about all in-but spent q better day
in the woods than the previous one,
That night the stars came out; l
located my friend, the North Star, and
tried to make up for lost time. But
when one Is making only seven or eight
miles a day, or rather a night, one
night lost means a whole lot, especi-
ally when each day keeps him from
freedom. Such i'll fortune and dis
couragements as this were harder TO
endure, l believe. than the actual
hunger, and the accompanying worry
naturally reduced my weight. At times
1 was furiously angry with myself for
the mistakes 1 made and the foolish
things l did, but / always tried to see
something funny about the situation,
whatever it might be, that relieved
the strain of habit and helped to pass
the time away. l think if a man Is
overburdened with a sense of humor
and wants to get rid Of it, this trip l
took would be an excellent remedy
for it. Right at this time I would
have welcomed anything for compan-
ion. I believe even snake would
have been a Godsend to me.
With a name as Irish as mine, 1t Is
only natural that l looked for goats
along the way, thinking that I might
be able to milk them. There are very
few cows in this country. and the OPP
portunities for milking them fewer
than the cows themselves because they
are housed In barns adjoining the
homes and always alertly watched by
their fortunate owners. did hope
that I might find goat staked out
some place in the fields, but in all my
travels I never saw goat or a pig.
and only few cows. Several times l
searched nests for eggs, but somebody
always had beaten me to 1t, as l never
even found SO much as q nest egg.
There was no chance Of getting away
with any bullying" stuff in Luxem-
bourg. 4 knew, because the young men
have not been forced into the army
and are still at home, and as they are
decidedly prc-German, 1t would have
been pretty hard for me to demand
anything in that part of the country.
It was not like taking things away
from old men and women or rObbing
people that could not stop me If they
chose to do So. / thought at this time
that I was suffering about the worst
hardships any human being could ever
be called upon to endure, but l was
later to find that the best of my jour-
ney was made along about this time.
There were plenty of vegetables, even
though they were raw, and these were
much better than the things l was
afterwards compelled to eat or 60
without
We frequently hear Of men who have
lived for q certain number Of days on
their own resources in the woods just
on a bet or to prove that the 'back-
to-naturen theory still has the merits
and win still work. My advice to some
of those nature seekers Is that II IN
the future they wish to make real
good record, try the little countries OF
Luxembourg and Belgium with q slice
! Of Germany thrown In.
1 suppose that during this expert
ence OF mine I made many mistakes
and travelled many unnecessary miles
which one with Q knowledge Of wood
manship might have avoided and
| failed to take advantage Of many
things which would have been quits
apparent to pne who knew. Il mus
not be forgotten. however. that I did
not undertake this adventure volun
| tarily. Il was wished on me-
simply had to make the most Of thu
knowledge I had.
At about this time blisters began t
appear on my legs and my knee.
swelled. In addition was pretty wei
convinced that I had lost the sight o.
my left eye. I hadn't seen a thing on
Of 1t since my leap from the train.
When I imagine the villainous ap
pearance must have presented at thi!
time-my unhealed wounds eighteei
days growth of beard and genera
haggard and unkept visage-I thinl
the fear I felt about meeting stranger
was perhaps unwarranted. TIL
chances are they would have been in
| finitely more scared than /!
As it was. was nearly out of Lux
embourg before came face to face
with anyone. 1t was about 6 o'clock il
the morning and was travelling alon:
regular path. Just as l was ap
preaching a cross-path, heard foot
steps coming down it. stopped short
stopped over and pretended to be ad
justing my shoelace, figuring that /
the stranger turned into my path b.
would probably pass right by me. A
luck would have 1t, he continued Of
his way and never noticed me at all.
After that I frequently notices
groups Of Luxembourg peasants II
the distance but ] usually saw then
nrst and managed to avoid them.