Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-21
(Continued.)

that. the prisoners gathered to make
their little fires and cook their few
potatoes. turnips. ETC.. The Boche
| compelled each one to give up a
certain portion, and true to his char
acter OF making all the useless suf-
fering possible. he would pick out
the wood that was most dry. Many
a time have 1 saw n miserable
hungry poilu trying with all the
| fire-making art he possessed to
make a fire burn with nothing but
green wood. Thus, by the time the
| fire got going right II was dark, and
the guard for fear of airplanes,
came around and stamped it out,
And there you are! Some life, eh!
Golly, how glad 1 was that l was a
sergeant, and how sorry was for
those ill-treated soldiers. Some of
them had no shoes. Other had no
socks, and many there were like me
who had no overcoat. and since
morning roll call generally lasted
some three hours, one missed it.
For a substitute l used my one and
only blanket. 1t helped some, any
way. but not enough. so I chopped
piece off and made a belly-band.
That helped wonderfully in the heat
line, but it helped also in the breed
ing line, and when 1 discovered
some 5000 families more or less, OF
Boche "cooties" therein, 1 promptly
abandoned it. And you can take it
from me those Boche "cooties" don't
so in for race suicide, either. Yes,
1 feel quite sure l did more fighting
back of the German lines than
ever did on the French front. but
although the latter is the more dat
gerous l prefer it to the former
Ono can't lick an army that multi
plies itself six times over night No,
by golly! It's bigger job than the
Kaiser tackled and that was consid-
cradle, as he happens to know now.
Time continued to fly, with me
getting nowhere, but chafe as l
would l had to wait for the bread,
for by the best luck in the world,
three days were required to get
back through the lines. Every day
1 gained a few more bugs, and grew
more impatient to be off. Probably
five days had passed when / finally
got a loaf of bread. 1t only cost
about S2.00, but what was money
to leaving that eternal diet of cof-
fee and soup to say nothing of scald-
ing the whole Boche army (of COO
ties), was carrying in a hot gath.
Rumors of Peace.
Rumors were growing thicker as
to piece negotiations and the Eng
lishmen growing less enthusiastic
about escape all the time advising
waiting a few days more TO see how
things would turn out. Being an
American, this patience idea didn't
appeal at all. l had the grub and
wanted TO be on my way. Why
wait for peace? Thunderation. Let's
so meet it But still they held OF.
1 was not so strong on going it alone
because what 1 did not know about
trench warfare would fill one very
large book. Come to think of it,
the two Englishmen knew as little
as I did, so it was well that we did
not make the try together, for in
crawling back through the lines,
thorough knowledge of trench war
fare was necessary.
Organize for Escape.
Being stationed miles back the
lines and only flying over the trench
es at high attitudes, naturally, we
knew nothing about the way an in
fantryman fights. Blissfully ignor-
ant. though I was, however, I was
going to have a try. 1t only re-
maind, then to wait for the properly
wet night. Next day found out that
four Frenchmen in the same bar
racks with me had been planning an
escape for weeks. There were four
of them and they had both maps
and wire cutters as well, as COM
plete knowledge of trench warfare.
The party was set two days later
on a Sunday night. Bet 1 lost no
t., fN,,4s in,
ting picnic. Having my allowance
of bread and being pretty well liked
they let me in on the ground floor,
and gave all particulars. Their plan
was both daring and safe as was
possible. You see, there were four
guards, each guard having a side
for his beat. 1t was quite a long
beat at that, too. One side OF the
enclosure run right against main
road, much used by the Boche ar
my.
It was on this side the attempt
was to be made just as darkness
was falling. This time was chosen
because the two bright electric lights
on that side would not be lit, and
also the guard would be so busy
opening and shutting the gate to let
the returning working parties in
that he would never nollce our go
ing. The plan sounded good, so
good, in fact. that another French
man had got wind of it and wanted
to go along. So we were six, and 1,
for one waited very impatiently for
the Sunday services to commence.
To March in Is Minutes.
You can imagine our feelings
when early Sunday morning orders
come to be ready to march in 10
minutes. That meant that the
whole camp was moving farther
back, owing to the successes of the
Allies. However, the success of the
Allies did not help us any. 1t busted
up the whole darn party and it was
so carefully planned. We did not
march in 10 minutes, though, be-
cause there was too much to do.
The Boche commander even held
things up for awhile, SO that he
could distribute a store house full of
ncedful things to the prisoners. This
was an eye-opener to me, as judging
from the looks of the captives they
had been given nothing whatever.
And to think that all that stuff had
lain there while prisoners suffered
and died. There were stockings,
shirts, towels, handkerchiefs, basins,
spoons, blankets and even shoes, not
Ioo4har of ooTrsa b11f shoes naVor-