Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-05-24


Through many sections of Belgium
through which l had to pass 1 encoun-
tered large areas of swamp and marshy
ground and rather than waste the time
involved in looking for better under
footing-which 1 might not have found
anyway used to pole right through
the mud
Apart from the discomfort of this
method of travelling and the slow time
1 made, there was an added danger to
me in the fact that the squash, squash
noise which 1 made might easily be
overheard by Belgians and Germans and
give my position away. Nobody would
cross a swamp or marsh in that part
Of the country unless he was trying
to get away from somebody. and I re-
allied my danger but could not get
around il.
Cows Yoked With Donkeys
1t was a common sight in Belgium to
see small donkey and a common or
binary mich COW hitched together. pull
ing a wagon. When L first observed the
unusual combination thought it was a
donkey and OK or bull, but closer inspec-
ton revealed to me that cows were be-
ing used for the purpose. 81
4 ,ROM what 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 doing the work formerly done By
horses and mules. Altogether spent
nearly eight weeks wandering through
Belgium, and in all that time 1 don't
believe I saw more than half a dozen
horses in the possession of the native
population.
One of the scarcest things in Ger
many, apparently, is rubber, for 1 no
ticed that their motor trucks, or lorries,
unlike our own, had no rubber tires
Instead, heavy iron bands were en-
ployed. 1 could hear them come rum
bling along the stone roads for miles
before they reached the spot where I
happened to be in hiding.
When 1 saw these military roads IN
Belgium for the first time, with their
heavy cobblestones that looked as If
they would last for centuries, 1 real
lied at once why it was that the Ger
mans had been able to make such a
rapid advance into Belgium at the start
of the war.
1 noticed that the Belgians used dogs
to a considerable extent to pull their
carts. and 1 thought many times that
if I could have stolen one of those dogs
it would have made a very good COM
panion for me and might, if the occa-
sion arose, help me out in a fight But
had no way of feeding it and the
animal would probably have starved to
death. 1 could live on vegetables, which
could always depend upon finding IN
the fields, but a dog couldn't, and so I
gave up the idea
Fires Too Dangerous.
The knack of making fire with two
pieces of dry wood 1 had often read
about, but I had never put it to a test.
and for various reasons I concluded
that it would be unsafe for me to build
a fire even if 1 had matches. In the
first place, there was no absolute need
for it. 1 didn't have anything to cook
nor utensils to cook it in even if had
While the air was getting to be rather
cool at night, 1 was usually on the go
at that time and didn't notice it. In
the daytime, when 1 was resting or
sleeping, the sun was usually out
To have borrowed matches from a
Belgian peasant would have been feas-
ible, but when 1 was willing to take the
chance of approaching any one, 1t was
just as easy to ask for food as matches.
In the second place, it would have
been extremely dangerous to have built
fire even if I had needed it. You
can't build a fire in Belgium, which is
the most thickly populated country in
Europe, without every one knowing it,
and I was far from anxious to adver-
tise my whereabouts. -.
The villages in the part of Belgium
through which I was making my course
were so close together that there was
hardly ever an hour passed without my
hearing some clock strike. Every viii
lage has its clock. Many times could
hear the clocks striking in two villages
at the SINE time.
But the hour had very little interest
to me. My program was to travel as
far as 1 could from sunset to sunrise
and pay no attention to the hours IN
between, and in the daytime had only
two things to worry about: keep cop-
cealed and get as much sleep as posi-
BILE.
Mart