Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-10-04

piece of stewed rabbit, which l confis-
Gated eagerly and took back with me
to the house.
Perhaps 1 felt little sorry for the
cat, but l certainly had no qualms
about eating the animals dinner. l
was much too hungry to dwell upon
niceties, and a piece of stewed rabbit
was certainly too good for cat to eat
when a man was starving. l ate and
enjoyed it and the incident suggested
to me a way in which l might possibly
obtain food again when all other ave-
nues failed.
From my place of concealment I fire.
gently saw huge carts being pushed
through the streets gathering potato
peelings. refuse Of cabbage and similar
food remnants. which, in America, are
considered garbage and destroyed. In
Belgium they were using this gar
bage" to make their bread out of, and
while the idea may sound revolving to
us, the fact is that the Germans have
brought these things down to such a
science that the bread they make this
way is really very good to eat. 1 know
it would have been like cake to me
when was in need of food; indeed 1
would have eaten the garbage" d.
rect, let alone the bread.
Although, as / have said, 1 suffered
greatly from hunger while occupying
this house, there were one or two
things i observed through the keyhOle
or from the windows which made me
laugh, and some of the incidents that
occurred during my voluntary impris-
Onment we're really funny.
From the keyhole could see, for in
stance, a shop window on the other
side of the street, several houses down
the block. All day long German sol
diers would be passing in front of the
house and l noticed that practically
every one of them would stop in front
of this store window and look in. Oc-
casionally a soldier on duty bent would
hurry past, but think nine out of ten
of them were sufficiently interested to
spend at least a minute, and some of
them three or four minutes gazing at
whatever was being exhibited in that
window, although l noticed that it
failed to attract the Belgians.
have a considerable streak of curl
osity in me, and couldn't help won
dering what it could be in that window
which almost without exception
seemed to interest German soldiers but
failed to hold the Belgians, and after
conjuring my brains for while on the
problem / came to the conclusion that
the shop must have been a book-shop
and the window contained German
magazines, which, naturally enough,
would be of the greatest interest to
the Germans but of none to the Bel
gians.
At any rate resolved that as soon as
night came l would go out and in
vestigate the window. When got the
answer l laughed so loud that was
afraid for the moment 1 must have at
tracted the attention of the neighbors,
but I couldn't help it. The window
was filed with huge quantities of
sausageI The store was a butcher
shop and one of the principal things
| they sold apparently was sausage. The
display they made, although it con-
sisted merely of sausages piled in the
window, certainly had plenty of pull.
ing" power. 1t pulled" nine Ger.
mans out of ten out of their course and
indirectly pulled" me right across the
street The idea of those Germans be-
ing so interested in that window dis
play as to stand in front of the win.
dow for two, three or four minutes al
time, however, certainly seemed
funny to me, and when l got back tC
the house 1 sat at the keyhole agaiI
and found just as much interest as
before in watching the Germans stoI
in their tracks when they reached the
window, even though l was now aware
what the attraction was.
One of my chief occupations durinl
these days was catching flies. 1 woulC
catch fly, put him in spiders wei
(there were plenty of them in the oil
house), and sit down for the spider t,
come down and get him. But always
pictured myself in the same predica
ment and rescued the fly just as tn
spider was about to grab him. Severa
times when things were dull wa
tempted to see the tragedy through
but perhaps the same Providence tina
guided me safely through all peril
was guarding, too, the destiny of thos
flies, for / always weakened and tn
flies never did suffer from my lust 70
amusement.
The house was well supplied wit
books--in fact, one of the choicest L
braries l think / ever saw-but the
were all written either In Flemish O
French. could read no Flemish an
very little French. ! might have mad
a little headway with the latter, BIT
the books all seemed too deep for m
and / gave ID up. There was one thin
though that [ did read and rerea
from beginning to end; that was
New York Herald which must have a
rived just about the time war was d.
clared. Several things In this Il
terested me, and particularly the bas
ball scores. which / studied with {
much care as real fan possibly coul
an up-to-date score. couldn't refrai
from laughing when l came to an q
count Of Zimmerman (Of the Cub:
being benched for some spat with II
umpire, and it afforded me Just
much interest three years after it hs
happened-perhaps more-than son
current item of worldwide intere
had at that time
rummaged the house many tim
. from cellar to garret in my search f
something to eat, but the harvest
It three years of war had made any su
r cess along that line impossible. 1 W
l. like the man out in the ocean in a bo
and thirsty with water everywhere b
not drop to drink.
70 | was tempted while in the city
~ go to church one Sunday, but my bett
judgment told me it would be a usele
D. risk. OF course, someone would sure
D. say something to me and / did
he know how many Germans would
ID there or what might happen, so ga
OF up that idea.
IN During all the time was conceal
le in this house saw but one automob