Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-02

inc IeTIldnS. COWS ana uOnheNS are
now doing the work formerly done
| by horses and mules. Altogether l
spent nearly eight weeks wandering
through Belgium, and in all that
| time l don't believe l saw more than
| half dozen horses in the possess
/ sion of the native population.
/ One of the scarcest things in Ger
/ many, apparently, is rubber. for L
noticed that their motor trucks. or
| lorries, unlike our own, had no ruh-
| ber tires. Instead, heavy iron bands
were employed. | could hear them
come rumbling along the stone roads
| for miles before they reached the
| spot where | happened to be in hid
! ing.
| When l saw these military roads
! in Belgium for the first time, with
their heavy cobblestones that looked
| as if they would last for centuries,
| realized at once why it was that
the Germans had been able to make
such a rapid advance into Belgium
| at the start of the war.
l noticed that the Belgians used
dogs to a considerable extent to pull
| their carts, and l thought many
! times that if could have stolen one
of those dogs it would have made a
very good companion for ME and
might, if the occasion arose, help
me out in a fight. But l had no way
, of feeding it and the animal would
probably have starved to death. I
could live on vegetables, which L
could always depend upon finding
in the fields, but a dog couldn't and
so l gave up the idea.
Fires Too Dangerous
The knack of making fire with two
pieces of dry wood l had often read
about, but 1 had never put it it to
test, and for various reasons l con-
cluded that it would be unsafe for
me to build a fire even if l had
matches. In the first place, there
was no absolute need for it. / didn't
have anything to cook nor utensils
to cook it in even if l had. While
the air was getting to be rather cool
at night, l was usually on the go at
that time and didn't notice it. In the
daytime, when. l was resting or
sleeping, the sun was usually out.
To have borrowed matches from
a Belgian peasant would have been
feasible, but when l was willing to
take the chance of approaching any
one, it was just as easy to ask food
as matches.
In the second place, it would have
been extremely dangerous to have
built a fire even if / had needed it.
You can't build fire in Belgium,
which is the most thickly populated
country in Europe, without every
one knowing it, and l was far from
anxious to advertise my where
abouts.
The villages in the part of Bel
H. I liz
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 / could hear the
clocks striking in two villages at
the same time.
But the hour had very little inter
est to me. My program was to
travel as fast as I could from sun
set 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
set as much sleep as possible.
Sick of Turnips and Bects
The cabbage that ] got in Belgium
consisted of the small heads that the
peasants had not cut. All the
strength had concentrated in these
bitter as gall. I would have to be
pretty hungry to-day before / could
ever eat cabbage again, and the
same observation applies to carrots,
turnips and sugar beets-espeeially
sugar beets.
1t is rather a remarkable thing
that to-day even smell of turnips,
raw or cooked, makes me sick, and
yet few short months ago my life
depended upon them.
Night after night as I searched for
food, l was always in hopes that /
might come upon some tomatoes or
celery-vegetables which l really
| lliked-but with the exception of
once, when 1 found some celery,
was never so fortunate. 1 ate so
much of the celery the night I came
upon it that l was sick for two days
thereafter. but / carried several
punches away with me and used to
chew on it as l walked along.
OF course, ! kept my eyes open all
the time for fruit trees, but appar-
emily it was too late in the year for
| fruit, as all l was ever able to find
were two pears, which got out of
tree. That was one of my red-letter
days, but ! was never able to repeat
it.
In the brooks and ponds that /
passed l often noticed fish of differ
ent kinds. That was either in the
early morning, just before l 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
simple matter to rig hook and line
and catch some of the fish, but had
no means of cooking them and 1t
was useless to fish for the sake of
CTO BE COntInued)