The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1918-09-06

small bitches. They intercepted ms
at every half mile or so, sometimes
more frequently. The canals and the
big rivers l could SWIM OF course, I
got soaked to the skin every time
did it, but l was becoming hardened
to that.
These little bitches, however, were
too narrow to swim and too wide to
jump. They had perhaps two feet Of
water in them and three feet of mud
and 1t was almost invariably case OF
wading through. Some of them, no
doubt, l could have jumped If / had
been In decent shape, but with bad
ankle and In the weakened condition
in which l was, 1t was almost out OF
the question.
One night l came to a ditch about
eight or nine feet wide. | thought (
was strong enough to jump 1t and 1t
was worth trying as the discomfort I
suffered after wadlng these bitches
was considerable. Taking long run,
Jumped as hard as / could, but I
missed 1t by four or five inches and
landed in about two feet of water and
three of mud. Getting out OF that
mess was quite a job. The water was
~ dirty and too scanty to enable me
to wrsh on the mud with which was
covered and 1t was too wet to scrape
of. Just had to wait until 1t dried
and scrape 1t off then.
In many sections OF Belgium through
which l had to pass / encountered
large areas of swamp and marshy
ground and rather than waste the
time involved In looking for better
nderfooting-whlch I might not have
found anyway used to pole hight
through the mud. Apart from the
discomfort Of this method OF travel
Ing and the slow time I made, there
that the squash, squash noise which
I made might easily be overheard by
Belgians and Germans and give my
position away. Nobody would cross
swamp or marsh In that part of the
country unless he was trying to get
away from somebody, and l realized
my danger but could not get around it.
| IL NuS u NOAilboh Sibht III DNiB tohAA
to see a small donkey and common
= ordinary mich COW hitched together,
pulling a wagon. When / first OBJ
served the unusual combination, !
thought 1t was a donkey and OK or
| bull, but closer inspection revealed to
me that COWS were being used for the
, purpose.
hof T a n
there must be very few horses left In
Belgium except those owned by the
| Germans. Cows and donkeys are now
horses and mules. Altogether I spent
! nearly eight weeks wandering through
, Belgium, and in all that time l don't
' believe l saw more than half a dozer
8 horses in the possession of the native
, population.
: One Of the scarcest things In Ger
many. apparently, ID rubber, for
e noticed that their motor trucks. or lor
:. ries, unlike our own, had no rubber
d tires. Instead heavy iron bands were
d employed. / could hear them come
t, rumbling along the stone roads fo
g miles before they reached the spo
where / happened to be In hiding
10 When / saw these military roads II
If Belgium for the first time, with thei
"a heavy cobblestones that looked as
40 they would last for centuries, I rea
20 lied at once why 1t was that the Gel
n mans had been able to make such
"a rapid advance into Belgium at til
10 start Of the war.
l noticed that the Belgians use
If dogs to q considerable extent to pu
,e their carts, and I thought many time