The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-02-24
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-EvsN
No. Germans Admired Il

There IS certainly more tragedy
than comedy in the cruel disappoint-
ment Of unhappy prisoners thwalteo
il promising and almost successful
effort to escape; nevertheless. the gal
liant Hayety that has marked SO many
of the allied fighting men does not fall
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 a funny side to the affair.
Some of the other prisoners had be-
gun the tunnel and had worked upon
it daily for q month before they let
him into the secret, which finally be-
came known to several hundred OF the
captives. @Iv +--.% .~'.
II 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 1t 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 small stone
block that. you use for paving streets.
We kept the bread buried until night.
Then we piled it up in a 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 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 fxed it all up.:$1Ve stuck pictures
from newspapers on the wall, and we
evin ran i EMire 4own@ from the cook
hoSse wa, Hehtedslt all up With cleo
trlkitj,E We nook some OF the lamps
cha when the guard wanted to know
where they were we said they had got
broken 49, 5ss, 80
"a hundred and twenty yards had
been built out of the hundred and
nifty that the tunnel had to 60 when q
miserable tepehiinan, to curry favor
with Ms, d16f0fs, betrayed the secret
The other, French prisoners concerned
were Wild with rage aud Shame: and
when the whole camp was lined up fol
investigation and punishment the
French non-commisstoned officers
stepped forward and begged "for thu
honor of the French army" to be al
lowed to take not only their own share
Of punishment but that Of all the 9th
ers. 's1~..' ,@
But Of course, says Corporal Baker
the British wouldn't have that, and tn,
Don-eommissioned British officers CAV,
themselves up. 1t was regular bow
ing and scraping. "You-first- my dear
Aiphonse" sort OF proceeding. A few
Of the men were given five months IL
solitary, but most Of them got off pet
~ easy because the German officer
were 50 much amused. They though
they had taken away every conceivable
thing that could be used for tunne
building but they never thought of,th
war bread. German officers ean,e from
miles round to see the tunnel. The!
wouldn't let US destroy 1t but kept
as curiosity. Even the general O
q division near by came In to see II
He said 1t was the finest piece of saI
ping he had ever seen.-Youth's Com
pAnioh. -"~ ~
-,