The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-05
since the
Courtrai.
'"qa7t Id the prison q,

The woman of the house was ,.o,
ably seventy-tve years old and p, n
evidently worn wooden shoas AZ ,au
lie, for She had callous SPOT on n .s
side of her foot the size of HAZE T
lar ana it looked 50 hard that 7 dO u
whether you could have driven n"D
into il with . hammer! "'i
As sat there drying myself-s
was in no hurry to leave tbo s'
human habitatioa l had entered - 4
four weeks--l reflected on NV ~
happy lot and the unknown tro,h,n
"nd dangers that lay ahead of W.
Here, for more than a month. 7 hall
! been leading the life of n h,r,os
animal-yes, worse than a hur,osi
animal. for nature clothes her ,oss
favored creatures more appropriate.
" for the life they lead than 7 wosI
clothed for mine-and there wac no.
the slightest reason to hope that con.
! ditions would grow any better.
Perhaps the first warm food 7 had
eaten for over month had released
unused springs of philosophy in mo
! as food sometimes does for man
l pointed to my torn and wato,.
soaked clothes and conveyed to them
as best l could that l would be crate.
full for an old suit, but apparently
they were too poor to have more than
they actually needed themselves and
l rose to go. l had aroused them out
of bed and knew l ought not to keen
them up longer than was absolutely
necessary.
AS | approached the door got
glance at myself in mirror. l was
the awfulest sight had laid eyes on!
! The glimpse | got of myself startled
me almost as much as if | had seen a
dreaded German helmet! My left eve
was fairly well healed by this time
and l was beginning to regain sight
of it, but my face was SO haggard and
my beard so long and unkempt that
looked like Santa Claus on bat!
AS they let me out of the door Il
pointed to the opposite direction to|
the one intended taking and started
off in the direction l had indicated.
Later l changed my course completely
to throw off any possible pursuit.
The next day 1 was so worn out from
exposure and exhaustion that threw
ouou ynu oo.t thipEipu that tho Ioos
weight I had to carry the better I'll
would be for me, but when night came
I regretted my mistake because the
nights were now getting colder. Il
thought at first it would be better for
me to retrace my steps and look for
the coat l had so thoughtlessly dis
carded, but l decided to 60 on with
out it.
1 then began to discard everything
that l had in my pocket, finally throw.
ing my wrist watch into q canal. A
wrist-watch does not add much
weight, but when you plod along and
have not eaten for a month it finally
becomes rather heavy. The next
thing l discarded was a pair Of flying
mittens.
These mittens / had gotten at Camp
Borden, in Canada, and had become
quite famous, as my friends termed
them "snow Shoes" In fact, they
were a ridiculous pair Of mittens. but
the best pair I ever had and really
felt worse when I lost those mitteni
than anything else. could not think
of anybody else ever using them, so
dug hole in the mud and buried
them and could not help 5uts laugh
at the thought if my friends could see
me burying my mittens, because they
were a standing joke in Canada, Eng
land and France.
I had on two shirts and as they were
| always both wet and didn't keep me
| warm, il was useless to wear b0tn
! One of these was shirt that had
bought in France, the other an Amer
! lean army shirt. They were botf
khaki and one as apt to give me away
as the other, so I discarded the Frencl
shirt. The American army shirt
brought back with me to England ant
it is still in my possession.
When I escaped from the train stu
had the Bavarian cap Of bright RED v
my pocket and wore 1t for man!
nights. but I took great care that d.
one saw 1t. It also had proven vef!
useful when swimming rivers. Tor
carried my map and q few otA9 "
longdngs In 1t and I had fully mao
up my mind to bring 1t home .
souvenir. But the farther l wen
the heavier my extra clothing became
80 was compelled to discard ess'
the cap. I knew that 1t would % .
tell-tale mark II l simply threw
away, so one night after swimming
river, dug a hole in the soft muo =
the bank and buried it. too, with coz
siderably less ceremony than my ~
ing mittens had received perhaps; 3
that was the end Of my Bavarian ".
NV experience at the belglan
house whetted my appetite for mols
food and figured that what hao ~ '.
done once could be done asa I'D
Sooner or later. / realized ! "ou's
probably approach Belgian anu -. ~.
: a German instead, but in sucn ~.
tingency I was determined ~ ~ Il