Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-17
Shaffer's Last
Flight

There were about a thousand OF
us and the question was where were
they going to put us. After some de-
bate we were put in large school. l
was feeling pretty blue about ina.
time for l only had one blanket WIN
me and the thought of sleeping on
that cement floor with nothing pue
one blanket between me ana the
floor was not very pleasant.
Luck was with me though for
young Belgian girl engaged in giving
out supplies began talking TO
Frenchman near me. She invited
the Frenchman to her home and ne
putting in a good word for me. l
was included. That made it nice
for which we were introduced to her
mother that kind lady gave us eacn
room insisting that We stay with
them as long as as we wished and
she also invited us to dinner, put
ditfidently asked us il we had our
own bread
We each had a whole loaf. Seeing
how the land lay L opened the pack
age my kind hostess had packed for
me in Namur and gave this Soou
old lady some of the sandwiches
therein. She sure did appreciate the
gift. When l saw how hungrily she
ate them l gave her some more.
That evening we sat around the
fire and heard some more stories all
OF them the usual kind heard IN
Belsium-sad ones. Honest! l had
had heard so many stories of wan
ton cruelty and inhuman conduct
that l nearly got the "wlllles.
Everywhere l went l heard these
stories and sure was getting fed up.
L was used to seeing the sunny slue
of life but there was none in TINS
sad country. actually. l had not had
hearty laugh in two months. And
they didn't start any there.
Huns about 200
They told me that when the Ger
mans came through their city in
1914, they took 200 of the inhabi-
tants out, lined them up against a
wall and shot them. That was
shocking enough. But it was not so
much what they did but how they
| did it. You see, the wall was only
wide enough to accommodate six per-
sons at a time. And thus they were
shot down, six at a time while the
others awaited their turn like any
| crowd in front of q theater window
Mothers saw. their children shot
down before their very eyes; nus
bands saw their wives die the same
way. Think of it mother. Do you
wonder they even hate the sight of
Boche.
That same night 1 met an Ameri-
can soldier on the street He had
his arm in sling, and being a
liberated prisoner like myself | asked
| for this story. AS per usual 1t was a
! sad one. When he was captured
he had a bullet through his arm. 1t
was a serious wound too. as the bull
! let had cut an artery. But did the
Boche do anything for him? They
did not.
Merely told him to get in line and
march with the rest of them. one
| of his comrades fixed his arm so 1t
| stopped bleeding. alse he would
| have surely died right there. After
| that he had to march 20 miles-and
during all that time he was given
nothing to eat. The only reason he
didn't die from the treatment was
that he was a mighty healthy man
when they got him.
The next day we taken to Maui
! beuge by motor truck. This is one
| of the most ancient and famous
cities in Europe and has been the
scene of many and long hot seiges.
| 1t is entirely surrounded by high
thick wall and the usual moat of by
/ gone days.
It looked interesting and I was
deciding to stay several days and
view the scenery thereabout, as we
rolled through the crooked narrow
streets but changed my mind about
the tourist stunt when / found there
was little to eat there. SO many ref
ugees and liberated prisoners had
piled into the city that the authorf-
! ties were literally swamped. and had
not enough supplies to feed them
and decent place to sleep was just
! about as scarce.
Get Cold Quarters
In fact the place we were given
to sleep in was cold, dreary and
dirty that I refused TO stay there.
I was afraid of catching coolies
again. 1t was while I was telling