The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1918-09-19

ANAL ditches. They intsfegpted n
at every half mile Or 20. sometimes
more frequently. The canals and the
big rivers could swim. OF course.
got soaked to the skin every tlma I
did II. but was becoming hardened
to that.
These little ditches. 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 II was almost invariably q case Of
wading through Some Of them. no
doubt. could have jumped II I had
been In decent shape. but with bad
ankle and In the weakened condition
In which I was. Il was almost out AZ
the question
One night came to q ditch about
eight or nine feet wide. thought Z
was strong enough to jump It and it
was worth trying n the discomfort
suffered after wading these bitches
was considerable. Taking long run,
I Jumped as hard NJ I could, but
missed II by four or Ave inches and
landed In about two feet Of water and
three of mud. Getting out Of that
mess was quite job. The water was
too dirty and too scanty to enable me
to wash OF the mud with which was
covered and It was too wet to scrape
OF. just had to wait until It dried
and scrape It Off then.
In many sections Of Belgium through
which I had to pass encountered
large areas Of swamp and marshy
ground and rather than waste the
time involved in looking for better
nderfooting-which I might not have
found anyway used to pole right
through the mud. Apart from Che
discomfort of this method Of travel
ing and the slow time I made. there
was an added danger to me In the fact
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 realised
my danger but could not get around 4.
II was q common sight In Belgium
to see q small donkey and common
ordinary milch COW hitched together.
pulling q wagon. When FIRST OBJ
served the unusual combination, Z
thought II was q donkey and OK or
bull. but closer inspection revealed to
mo that cows were being used for the
purpose.
From that I was able to observe
there must be very few horses left In
Belgium except those owned by the
Germans. Cows and donkeys are now
horses and mules. Altogether spent
nearly eight weeks wandering through
Belgium. and In all that time don't
believe ! saw more than half do3sn
horses In the possession Of the native
population.
i One Of the scarcsst things In 0eg-
many. apparsntly. u rubber, for
noticed that their motor trucks. Of lor'
riss, unlike our own. had no rubbsl
tires. Instead heavy iron bands were
! employed. I could hear thsm cool
rumbling along the stone roads fog
miles before they reached the spo(
where happsred to be In hiding
, When I saw these military roads ID
Belgium for the nrst time. with thell
, heavy cobblestones that looked as Il
, they would last for centuries. I real
, ICED at once why It was that the Ger
mans had been able to make such Z
rapid advance into Belgium at -
, start Of the war.
! noticed that the Belgians uss(
| dogs to a considerable extent to pub
, their carts. and thought many time