The daily progressive-miner., 1918-07-26
NEWARK BOY HITS HUN WITH PICK AND
 ESCAPES

MARINE, June 2O-(By MaiD-James A. Donahue of Newark. N. J.. felt around in the dark till he got hold of broken pick. Then he hit his sleepy German guard over the head and two days later-yesterday-he made the following report to second division headquarters -on what 1t is like to be a prisoner in the German army:
 I went down in the woods (Belleau) and joined my command-what there was left of it. They were all split up and mixed up. heard whistle blow and went forward. Every time flare would go up I would drop down. There was lot of rifle firing. Just ahead I saw four or five men and thot they were our fellows: I ran right into them and when got there one of them hit me on the head with something. When came to they took me up before an officer He said: How many Americans are there over there?" said 'thirty-two divisions of Americans (7SO,OO0 men) and 40 div isions of French. He said 'Ach, schwein! schwein!" Then they booted me and showed me away. going out I got a couple more kicks. They took me down the road a piece. Detach- ments coming along would give me the once over and say 'Aih, American! schewin!" I don't know how long I walked. but it was long time. I didn't sleep all night.
 Next morning I got an ax about the size of this helmet handed me and without anything to eat they put me to work cutting with them. They had machine guns all through the woods. Then they took me across an open, field and back into another woods and had me cut more brush. They were digging supplements. They would dig one and set machine gun in it and try it, turning it all around and then move to another place and try it. Then they would cut more brush and camouflage the poles.
 That night I tried to sleep in an old covering. About the time would get started to sleeping they would come along and give me boot and take me to another place. Then they took me on another march,
 That evening three men in Ameri- can uniforms walked up to an officer and talked with him. Then they turned and walked back toward the
 line Then about seven French off cers, or men in French uniforms, walked up and talked to this officer and then they turned and walked to- ward the line.
 Soup and Black Bread.
 ''They would give me soup and black bread to eat. That was enough to drive man crazy. Then they would sit in front of me and eat cheese and bread and drink something that looked like coffee to tantalize me. They kept me chopping all the time. They had about 15 or 20 men carry ing the brush away while I was chop ping it. They were using it to cam ouflage the ditches that had ammuni- tion in them.
 T was there about seven or eight nights. Icould not keep track of the days So between showing me around and kicking me around, thought 1 would try to escape and take a chance of being shot. So when another sen try came on, I watched him and he sat down by tree and looked like he was sleeping. moved bit and no move out of the sentry. He just kept right on snoring away. l rolled over and got a little closer and still no move out of him. I reached around and gets hold of an old pick handle and thought it was no good to me. So felt around and found the rest of the pick with a little piece of the handle.
 'So hit him on the head with the pick and not a sound or grunt out of him. slipped right away then. Then ran across those Red Cross .dogs of theirs. They have got little canteen On both sides of them. went on little piece and stayed in the woods for while when the dogs were around but there was not a whimper out of them, they were just running around
 "I would go on and when I would run close to a bunch l would drop down and stay until they had gone away and then l would go on piece farther I would travel by night and lay in the woods in the day time. It took me two days to get up here. Well, I kept on coming and found cnce a bag with some old hard bread i in it and some little pieces of cheese. came across a stream and soaked the bread and eat it. I kept on com ing until I got up where the shells
 were dropping all around me and then out where the shells from both sides were falling and sure thought 1t was all up with me.