Evening star., 1919-04-06
STRANGE OLD CUSTOMS AGAIN
IN VOGUE AMONG ALSATIANS
Revived on One Occasion Memorable to
Journalists -Strassburg Gives Dinner
at Palace of the Governors.

I asked of loyal Alsatian after the
crowd had booed them Justify.
Because they are so funny" he re-
Piled. And they were.
We had one of the first soviets out
side of Russia" said a young man'to
whom / talked. Il was member.
That man opposite us who is editor
of the Freie Presse. or rather the
Presse Libre. as we call it now. was
head of the soviet. We had a bully
time" he added and chuckled.
What did you do?" l asked.
There were several German regi-
ments here and they were getting
disgruntlec," he replied. $50 we knew
that the revolution was about to
start. We had frequently expected it,
but it had never come So to antici-
pate them we started it ourselves in
order to save Strassburg from be-
ing destroyed. That was before the
armistice. The soldiers went over to
and the men threw aside their gray
coats. We divided up the resimental
property between us. Then the ar
mistice came and Strassburg was safe.
We sold everything. We sold cap
tive balloon to a clergyman for 25
marks Cs6.25). You could buy a ma
chine gun for 20 marks go
Hun Soldier When War Began.
army them" | asked
Yes, | was soldier when the war
broke out he replied. Il was una BILE
to desert. The Germans first sent the
Alsatians to the Russian border, and
when the story of how the Germans
We're bothered from. the inside comes
to be written you will find an Alsa-
tian at the bottom of many of the
pranks played. on the Germans. For
instance. for a long time / was sta
toned at Danzig, where 1 was en-
gagged as clerk. An occasion arose
papers, which described me as an
Alsatian. This l did so that suspi-
cion was no longer attached to me.
; Word was passed along to my COM
patriots that was an AlSatian, SO
that when an Alsatian came to Dam
zig and wanted to be helped home or
out of trouble l was able to expedite
matters.
"On one occasion / and another
man expected the revolution to break
out soon. We. therefore. secreted
300 rifles in forest near Russian
| luton broke we intended to get the
Russians out. march them to the for
! est and make them a nucleus for a
rising in Danzig. 1t happened that
tHe OLHeT' regiments got suspicious
. and my friend came to me and Said
You are not identified, but they are
| searching for the conSpirator. and 1
suggest that you hide in the Russian
camp l went to the camp, put on
Russian uniform and lived there
for two weeks. When I came out the
! trouble had blown over. l was glad
it did, for those two weeks almost
cured me of conspiring.
Their Hands in Everything.
But think how we Alsatians got
our hands into everything. A friend
of mine worked in the military office.
where all the troop trains were dis
patched. and we knew of every move
before an offensive. There were days
V:1en he would tell me just where the
offensive of the Germans was planned.
We would pray for a French secret
agent to come so that We might tell
him the news.
Did any ever come your way?" I
asked.
No" he replied. hesitatingly. and
then added with a smile: But the
French seemed to know where the
Germans we're going to attack nearly
every time.
We laughed and raised our glasses
glasses with the imperial arms-to
Alsace.