The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1919-01-10
MADE FINE TUNNEL
How Prisoners Used War Bread
DoIed Out to Them.
Avenue by Which Captive Allies Had
Hoped to Escape Was Really .
Perfect Piece Of Work-Even
Germans Admired It

4UcES 10 CcItdluly mOIC dnSSuy
than comedy In the cruel disappoint-
ment Of unhappy prisoners thwarted
In q promising and almost successful
effort to escape; nevertheless, the gal
liant gayety that has marked so many
Of the allied fighting men does not fail
them wholly even in such circum-
stances. Lance Corporal Charles W.
Baker, who recently recounted his
prison experiences in the Metropolitan
Magazine, wastes no pathOs on him
self or on his fellow sufferers when
they failed to get safe away through
their ingenious tunnel, and can even
see funny side to the affair.
Some Of the other prisoners had be-
gun the tunnel and had worked upon
1t daily for a month before they let
him into the secret, which finally be-
came known to several hundred Of the
captives.
1t opened from the last hut at the
end Of the back row and was headed
for the only clump Of bushes anywhere
| near the camp. The soil was so sandy
that it was impossible to make tun-
mel in the ordinary way; long time
passed before the boys hit on plan.
| After our own packages had begun to
come and we had white bread to eat,
says the corporal, some genius had a
happy thought Of using the war bread
for bricks. The war bread is as tough
and as hard as rubber and Of about
the size and shape Of a small stone
block that you use for paving streets.
| We kept the bread buried until night.
| Then we piled 1t up in kind Of crate,
and when the sentries were out of
sight we rushed it over to the tunnel. 1t
was the most beautiful tunnel you ever
saw. The sides were built up like
brick walls, and the roof was a perfect
arch. The sand that we took out was
the same color as the sand Of the
camp, and as the ground was almost
always wet you couldn't tell the diff
ference. We would take it out in small
tinfuls and scatter it all over the, place
and with several thousand men walk.
ing round there was no way Of detect
ing 1t.
| OF course it was slow work making
the tunnel, for we had to accumulate
war bread, and so to amuse ourselves
we fixed 1t all up. We stuck pictures
from newspapers on the wall, and W.
even ran q wire down from the cool
house and lighted it all up with cleo
tricity. We took some Of the lamps
and when the guard wanted to know
where they were we said they had 60
broken.
A hundred and twenty yards hat
been built out of the hundred ant
fifty that the tunnel had to go when /,
!, miserable Frenchman, to curry favo
J with his captors, betrayed the secret
The other French prisoners cOncerne,
: were wild with rage and shame; an,
J when the whole camp was lined up 70
investigation and punishment tn
French nOncommissioned officer
stepped forward and begged ''for tn
honor Of the French army" to be al
! lowed to take not only their own shar
Of punishment but that of all the 9th
ers.
} But Of course, says Corporal Baker
t the British wouldn't have that, and tn
/ non-commissioned British officers CAV
themselves up. 1t was a regular bow
ing and scraping, -dea,
: AlphOnse" sort of proceeding. A fe,
: Of the men were given FIVE months Il
: solitary but most Of them got OF pref
! ty easy, because the German officer
r were SO much amused. They though
7 they had taken away every conceivabl
z thing that could be used for tunnt
building, but they never thought Of th
: war bread. German officers came froI
e miles round to see the tunnel. The
d wouldn't let US destroy It but kept
S as curiosity. Even the general Q
8 division near by came In to see 4
He said 1t was the finest piece of sal
:. ping he had ever seen.-YOuth's Con