Evening star., 1922-02-24
HANGED BY NECK,
STILL HE IS ALIVE
Terrible Experience of Young
Hungarian Officer When
Rope Breaks.
BY GEORGE WITTE.
Especial Correspondence of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.)

Especial Correspondence of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.)
BERLIN, Germany, February 10
| have before me the story OF
young Hungarian officer who was
mistaken by the Rumanians for one
or Bella kun's men, was condemned
to be hanged. was hanged and lived
to tell about 1t.
III Vienna cafe an Austrian
journalist met this man who died"
and was struck by his sad, deeply
lined, yellowish face. which contrast
ea SO strangely with the gay music
ana laughter of the cafe. His curi-
osity aroused. he approached the
man, invited him to have a drink, and
dreW from him his story.
~ was the day of the occupation
OF budapest by the Rumanian crown
bella Kun and his red army had fled
from the capital. The broad high
way from Budapest to GoedoelIoe,
fy nome town, was packed with
Hs. Hiugltlses. All my friends had left
ioedoelloe, after having vainly tried
10 pursuade me to leave, too But |
was stubborn and remained Having
nothlng else to do, l strolled along
Ihe road to Budapest. Suddenly two
humanlan horsemen came dashing
me and took me to what used to be
the royal palace. A court-martial was
| IN session there.
mad not quite recovered from the
Snoch OF my sudden arrest, when 1
was dragged before the court and
| informed that ! was charged with
belng bolshevist agent. They gave
| me no chance to defend myself. Two
minutes later i had been condemned
to death. l showed them pauers nroy-
| ing that / had in
Sarlan army as a lieutenant, but they
claimed they had positive proof that
mad fought with the bolshevists
AGAINST the RumanianS. I was to be
| Ranged at once.
Hard Walk to Gallows,
| 10 British soldiers in France the
| way to Tipperary may have seemed
very long. To me the way to the GAL
| lows. although it was scarcely 100
yards, as l found out later, was still
longer. While walking there in the
! t,iiust st OF a squad of Rumanian sol
| dlers did more thinking and re-
| nempered more than / usually did in
year. My whole life passed before
! my eyes and little incidents that had
| NOT remembered since l was a child
| came back TO me vividly, as if / were
| sun running around in knickerbock-
erS.
| Ihe fumanians We're none too gem
! re ana they certainly didn't think my
! ne WIS "oith wasting lot Of time
on The gallows had been erected in
| the yard of the royal stables. l was
| showed and pulled until | was stand
| ing on little platform directly under
| the moose of rope. In another minute
| The moose was fastened around my
neck. The noncommissioned officer in
charge of the execution squad rough
~ asked me to say my last prayers.
Then he shouted something in Ru-
| manian and two soldiers pulled the
platform from under my feet.
For a minute everything was dark
before my eyes. Or it may have been
only half a second. But suddenly my
brain became alive, more alive than
| it ever had been before. From the
time 1 was condemned to death until
away it had never occurred to me that
there was a possibility of escaping.
had been too dazed to think. Now
all of a sudden 1 felt quite sure that
looked down upon the men who had
everything would end well. I was not
afraid of death. 1 opened my eyes and
been sent out to kill me. They no
longer took any interest in me. The
last one just shouldering his rifle
and then all of them marched away.
Only l. dangling from the gallows, re-
manned in the wide courtyard.
Then suddenly l no longer. thought
I was going to be saved. l became
Indifferent There was life in my
could think no longer; had no
desires left; my will power was gone;
in short, l had given up hope and
everything became dark.
But the Rope Broke.
Il awoke at night. A young
woman was leaning over me. weep
ing bitterly.
"'He must have been very young
the woman cried, and then real
ICED that I was not dead I was
afraid, though, that If my execu-
TONERS heard about 1t. they might
try to make a better job Of it the
second time. But finally I opened my
mouth, and the woman almost tainted
when I feebly asked for help. An
hour later they had taken me home
and put me to bed. The rope with
which they had hanged me had been
old and moldy. and had parted after
the soldiers had gone. But my face.
according to the people who found
| me. had looked SO CHASTITY that every
body thought I was dead. Strangely
1 could not get over feeling of re-
gret that I had been saved. And I
noticed at once that 1 had undergone