jn —— i Benorraic; atc Bellefonte, Pa., February 7, 1919. am The Enemy Within; er, Rounding Up Spies en the Western Front Sergeant hate Guy Empey Author of “Over the Top,” “First Call,” Etc. o-0-0 Mr. Empey’s Experi- ences During HisSeven- teen Months in theFirst Line Trenches of the British Army in France (Copyright, 1917, by The McClure Newspaper yndicate) We were in rest billets in the little French village of S——, about ten kilos from the front-line trench. Nume ber Two's gun crew were sitting on the ground in a circle around their mae chine gun, while a sergeant, newly, returned from a special course in mae chine gunnery at St. Omer, was ex- pounding the theory of scientific ma- chine gunnery. He himself had never actually been under fire with a ma- chine gun, but from the theoretical point he sure could throw out the book stuff. I must confess that his flow of eloquence passed over my head like a Zeppelin, and I noticed an uneasy squirming among the rest of our crew. Happy Houghton, who was sitting next to me, leaned over, and with his eye on the sergeant, whispered in my. ear: “Blime me, Yank, isn’t it arful the way he chucks his weight about?” I agreed with Happy. Across from me sat Ikey Honney, with our mascot, Jim, in his lap. Every now and then Jim would take his hind leg and furiously scratch at a spot behind his ear. Honney, no- ticing this action, would reach under his armpit and also scratch. Sailor Bill was intently watching Jim and Honney; he, too, started scratching. In a minute or so Hungry Foxcroft started on a cootie hunt; and I had an irresistible desire to lean back against the barrel casing of the gun and also scratch. It is one of the chief indoor sports on the western front, especially dur- ing a monotonous lecture by some offi- cer or noncom, for one of the fed-up listeners to start scratching himself. This generally causes the whole gang to do the same, the instructor includ- ed. It is just like a minister in the midst of a very dry sermon suddenly stopping, stretching himself, and yawn- ing, this action causing the rest of the congregation to do likewise. As the whole circle scratched, our sergeant instructor commenced to shift his weight from one foot to the other in an uneasy manner. We all gazed at him intently and each began to scratch furiously. Sure enough, the sergeant gave in and started un- buttoning the front of his tunic to get at some real or imaginary cootie. A nudge went the rounds of the circle. We had accomplished our purpose. The sergeant’s mind took an awful drop from the science of machine gun- nery to that of catching that particu- lar cootie. We constantly glanced at our wrist watches, Fifteen minutes more and the lesson would be over. The ser- geant was becoming confused, and was trying to flounder through the rest of his talk. We had no mercy on him, but kept up the scratching. At last, in desperation, the sergeant said: “You men have actually been under fire with machine guns several times. Can’t one of you relate some incident of how, through some ruse, you put it over on the Boches?” Ikey Honney, grasping this golden opportunity to break up the lecture,’ ant slyly winking at us, started in and told how a certain gun’s crew lo-. cated and put out of action a German ' machine gunner by playing a tune on their gun. which the German tried to: imitatc, reby indicating tc “em hy sound xact location o (Jor man gun cvhich was later action by concentrated machine-gun fire freon their section. Of course we all listened very in- tently, but it was an old story to us, because we were the gun’s crew which had accomplished the feat that Hon- ney was describing; but anything was better than listening to that sing-song froning of book knowledge which the sergeant had been pumping into us for the last hour and a half. The sergeant glanced at his watch and dismissed us. We dismounted our gun, put it in its box and stored it away in our billet; then we reassem- bled under an apple tree in the or- chard, and, while the rest of us in- dulged in a shirt hunt, Hungry went after our ration of tea. Hungry was sure On the job when it came to eat- ing. Pretty soon he returned with a dixie one-fourth full of tea, two tins of jam, a loaf of bread, a large piece of cheese, and a tin of apricots which he had bought at a nearby French es- tarhinet. He dished out our rations, not forgetting a generous share for himself. After we had finished, out ;ame the inevitable fags, a few puffs from each man, and the ball of con- versation started rolling. -— we i Curly Wallace cleared his throat and | started in with: | “Remember that village we passed i through on our march up the line about two weeks ago; you know, the one where that big church with all the shell holes in it was right on the cor- ner where we turned to the left to take the road at St. A——7” quiring glances in Curly’s direction. “Well, this morning, when I went sergeant), to draw coal, I met a fellow at division headquarters who told me a mighty interesting story of how he and another fellow rounded up a cou- ple of spies. “This bloke, through modesty, and to cover up his own good work, tried to make me believe that it was only through a lucky chance that he stum- bled over the clue which lead to the | spies’ arrest, but I'm a-thinkin’, and I know you'll all agree with me, that it was not so much luck as it was clever thinking. I'm not much at telling a story, but I'm going to try and give it, as far as I can remember, just the way he handed it to me. “It seems that this fellow, who told me the story, and another chap, had around division headquarters waiting for something to happen. “Now, here's the story as he reeled it off to me: “¢About three kilos behind division headquarters was the old French vil- lage of B——. One of our important roads ran through it. This road was greatly used by our troops for bringing up supplies and ammunition for the front line. It was also used by large numbers of troops when relieving bat- talions in the fire sector. “¢0f course, on account of this road being in range of the German guns, it could only be used at night; other- wise the enemy airmen and observa- tion balloons would get wise and it would only be a short time before the road would be shelled, thus causing many casualties. “ ‘For the last ten days reports had been received at division headquarters that every time troops passed a cer- tain point on this road, marked by an old church, they were sure to click heavy shell fire from the Boches. On nights when no troops passed through there would be very little shelling, if pny, but if a battalion or brigade hap- pened to come this way they suffered from heavy shell fire. “ ‘Upon receipt of the first two or three of these reports we put it down as a strange coincidence, but when the fifth report of this nature reached us it was evident to us that a spy was at work, and that in some mysterious way the information of the movements of our troops were communicated by him to the enemy. - “ ‘Myself and another bloke, who had been working with me for the last two weeks, were assigned to the task of discovering and apprehending this spy. To us it seem~d an impossible job, as there were no clues to work upon. As is usual, our general, “Old Pepper,” called us in, and said: 颓There is a spy working in the village of B——; go get him.” ¢ ‘Foolishly, I butted in and asked for further information. I got it, all right. With a lowering look which made me tremble, he roared: “¢4Go and dig up your own clues. What are you with the intelligence de- partment for? Intelligence department! It ought to be called the ‘brainless de- partment’ if you two are a sample of the rest.” “ ‘Somehow or other we didn't stop to argue with “Old Pepper.”’” At this point Sailor Bill butted in: “Blime me, he’s just like an admiral we had in our navy, this ‘Old Pepper.’ ” A chorus of, “Oh, shut up, you're in the army now,” cut off Bill’s story. We knew Sailor Bill. If he ever got start- ed talking navy, nothing short of a gas attack could stop him. Sailor Bill, with an indignant glance around the circle, relapsed into silence. Curly Wallace exclaimed : “To ‘ell with your admiral; do you want to hear this story? If you do, shut up and let me tell it.” “Go on, Curly, never mind; he’s harmless,” ejaculated Happy Hough- ton. Curly carried on, with: “Getting our packs and drawing three days’ rations, we started hiking it for the village of B——. We arrived there about four in the afternoon, and after prtting our packs and rotions in an ola .,.. n which we inter J use as om .et during our sta » vile lage, wr: left on @ general tour of in- spection. “ ‘There were about three hundred civilians in the place, who preferred to brave the dangers of shell fire, as there was a rich harvest to be reaped from the sale of farm produce, beer and wines to the troops billeted all around. Two estaminets (French saloons) were still open and did a thriving busi- ness. “ ‘Occasionally a shell would burst in the village, but the civilians did not seem to mind it; just carried on with their farming and business as usual. “‘We decided to make a thorough search of all houses, bares and build- ings for concealed wires, and did so, but with barren results. Nothing sus- picious was found. This search wast- ed five days, and we were in despera- tion. Watch and question as we would, not a single clue came to light. “ ‘During this time two large bodies of troops had passed through and each time they were heavily shelled, with dire results. “‘On the sixth night of our assign- ment, utterly disgusted, I, being in charge, had decided to chuck up the whole business and report back to been detailed to the divisional intelli- ! gence department, and were hanging | {ed to stick it out for six months, if i eral rounds of drinks. We all remembered it and turned in- | low had never, during my acquaint- | ance with him, offered to spend a ha* down with the quarter (quartermaster i Old Pepper that we had made a mess out of the investigation. My partner pleaded with me to stick it out a cou- ple of days more, and after he gave me a vivid description of what Old Pepper would hand out to us I decid- 3 i necessary. To celebrate this decision my side-kicker offered to blow to sev- Now, this fel- penny, so I quickly accepted his offer and we went to the nearest estaminet. “Sitting around a long table, drink- ing French beer and smoking cigar- ettes, was a crowd of soldiers, laugh- ing, joking, arguing and telling stories. “‘We sat down at the end of the | table, and in a low tone tried to work impossible theories as to how the spy, if there was one—by this time we were doubtful—could get the informa- tion back to the German batteries. ‘“ ‘Right across from us were two soldiers arguing about farming. Sud- denly my side-kicker pinched me on the knee and whispered : “¢“Listen to what those two fellows across the table from us are saying. It sounds good.” “I listened for about a minute and then paid no further attention. At that time farming in no way interested me. I wanted to catch that spy, and started devising impossible theories as to the ways and means of doing so. At last I gave up in disgust. My part- ner was still attentively listening to the two across the table from us. An- other poke in the knee from my part- ner and I was all attention. One of the fellows across the way was talking: “¢ “Well, I don’t see why this French blighter should change horses in his plow every afternoon. I've watched him for several days. Now, in the morning he uses two grays, and then about two in the afternoon he either hooks up two blacks or a gray and a black. French ways may be different, but this frog-eater is very partial to the colors of his team. He works the grays all morning and then changes them in the afternoon. Now, figure it out for yourself. He starts work with the two grays about six o'clock in the morning; works the two beggars up till noon. That’s six hours straight. Then he sticks them in the stable, lays off for two hours, and in the afternoon about two o'clock the new relay of animals comes on and works up till four. Now, anybody with any brains in their nappers knows that is no way to keep horses in condition, working one team over six hours and the other team only two hours. I know, because we have been farmers in our family back in Blighty for generations.” “7 was all excitement, and a great hope surged through me that at last we had fallen on the clue that we were looking for. Restraining my eager- ness as much as possible I addressed the fellow who had just spoken: “¢ “Well, mate, I don’t like to intrude into your conversation, but I've also been a farmer all my life and I don’t see anything queer in the actions of this French farmer.” “‘He answered: “Well, blime me, there might be a reason for this blighter doing this, but I can’t figure it out at all. If you can explain it, go ahead.” “¢‘] answered: “Well, perhaps if you can give a little more details about it, it would be easy enough to explain. Who is the farmer, and where is his farm located?” “‘He swallowed the bait, all right, and informed me that the farmer was plowing a field on a hill about five hundred yards west of the church at a roint where our troops were being shelled. “Buying a round of drinks, I nudged my partner and he came in on the conversation. The two of us, by adroit questioning, got the exact loca- tion of the field and a description of the farmer. “‘I pretended to be sleepy, and, yawning, got up from the table, say- ing that I was going to turn in, and left. My partner soon followed me. Upon reaching our billet, we outlined our plan. We decided that next morn- ing we would get up at daybreak and scout around the field to see if there was a hiding place. “ ‘Sure enough, along one edge of the field ran a thick hedge. We secreted ourselves in this and waited for de- velopments. “‘At about six in the morning, the farmer appeared, driving two grays, which he hooked to the plow, and car- ried on his work. To us thcre ap- peared nothing suspicious ’n nis ac- tions. We watched him all mocning. At noon he unhooked the horses and went home. We remained in hiding, afraid to leave, because we wanted to take no chances of being seen by the farmer. We had forgotten to bring rations with us, so it was a miserable walt until two o'clock, at which time the farmer reappeared, driving two blacks, which he hitched to the plow, and carried on: until four o'clock, and then knocked off for the day. That night troops came through and, as usu- al, were shelled. 2 “Next morning, at daybreak, we again took our stations in the hedge, this time bringing rations with wus. The farmer used the same grays in the morning, but in the afternoon he appeared with a black and a gray, and again knocked off around four o'clock. No troops came through that night, snd there was no shelling. “Next day the farmer repeated the previous day's actions—two grays in the morning and a black and a gray in the afternoon. No troops, no shell- ing. “We were pretty sure that we had him, but this arresting a spy on slim evidence is a ticklish matter. We didn't want to make a mess of the af- A i fair, or perhaps send an innocent man gt — Pury | Cincinnati. ! to Indianapolis to see his boy, his only | son who had been away from home for . four years. ! and was being transferred. ¥ | be in Indianapolis ; wired his father to meet him. | how. father and son missed connection i in the -arion station. | appeal to the women of the Red Cross | canteen booth. i “He hasn't shown up. | tion of son. | BROUGHT BOY TO HIS DAD i Red Cross Workers Set Out to Find the Yong Sco!dier and of Course They Succeeded. Dad was from some little town near He had come all the way The boy was in the army He was to on Sunday and Some- Dad decided to “I was to meet him here,” dad said. I know he’s in {ndianapolis somewhere.” The canteeners got busy. Dad and | nis boy had to be brought together. i First the canteeners summoned the military police. They got a descrip- The M. P.'s started out | to find him. The canteeners also start- Hooked to the Plow, and Carried on | His Work. tc his death, so the following day we again took up our stations. Sure | enough, it was two grays in the morn- | ing, but in the afternoon he used two | blacks. That night troops came | through and were shelled. We had | solved the problem. Two grays in the | morning mean nothing. The actual | signal to the enemy was the change | of horses in the afternoon; two blacks meaning “troops coming through to- | night, shell the road;” a gray and a | black, “No troops expected, do not | shell.” i “When it got dark and it was safe | to leave the hedge, we immediately re- | perted the whole affair to the town | major (an English officer detailed in ' charge of a French village or town occupied by English troops) who, ac- | companied by us and a detail of six men with fixed bayonets, went to the farmer’s house that night and arrest- ed him. He protested his innocence, ! but we took him to military police | headquarters where, after a grueling | questioning, he at last confessed. “It was a mystery to us how this farmer knew that troops were com- | ing through, because he never made | a mistake in his schedule. After fur- | ther questioning he explained to us | that if we searched in his cellar and | raised up an old flagstone with a | ring in it, we would find a telephone set. The other end of this set was established in an estaminet in a little French village eleven kilos distant. His confederate was so situated on the road that troops coming into the | village had to pass the door. As | troops march only at night while in | the fire sector, his confederate could safely figure out that the passing troops would be quartered in his vil- lage until the next night, when, under cover of darkness, they would start for the next village, and would have | to pass the point in the road by the ! old church. He would immediately | telephone this information to the farmer, who would change his horses accordingly. The hill on which he did his plowing could be easily ob- served from an observation balloon in the German lines, and thus the sig- nal was given to the German artillery. “We still carried on with our third Cegree, and got further valuable infor- mation from him. “‘f, in the plowing, two gray horses were used on two consecutive “] Have a Good Mind to Send You Back to Your Units.” afternoons, it meant that the use of the road had been indefinitely discon- tinued for troops and supplies. “Under a strong guard, which cons cealed itself in the hedge, the farm- er was made to use two grays for two afternoons. The scheme worked. For weeks afterward that road was only occasionally shelled, and our troops and supply trains used it at will. The spy at the other end was rounded up and both were taken to the base and shot. #“‘We reported back to Old Pepper, expecting to be highly commended for our work, and we were—I don't think, All the blooming blighter said was: “euWell, you certainly took long enough to do it. I have a damn good mind to send you back to your units for incompetency and inefficiency.” . “We saluted and left. “‘You see, we didn’t deserve any great credit, because it was only through a lucky chance that we stum- bled over the clue, so I guess “Old Pepper” was right after all.’” After finishing his story, turned to us and asked: “Don’t you think it was pretty nifty work?” We agreed that it was. After a few minutes more the party broke up and turned in. Curly ——Subsecribe for the “Watchman.” | up toward the station door. i dad and his boy—arm in arm. ed scouts. They visited every down- town corner and haunt of the soldiers. An hour later the canteeners looked In cane “I did just as you told me,” the fa- ther said. “You told me to go uptown and stand on that corner. You said he’d pass there, and pretty soon he did. The military police kept coming by to ask if I had a trail of nim. And then he came. My, but he was glad to see me!” Of course he was glad to see him. The boy’s smile told how glad he was to see his dad.—Indianapolis News. BACK TO HIS OLD FREEDOM Stormy Petrel, After Brief Stay With Tame Birds, Returns to His Accustomed Place. “The stormy petrel has left us,” said Sergeant McGee of the park police. “He appeared to be getting along with the mudhens like a house on fire, but on Monday or Tuesday last he just i; faded away, and now he is back on his ocean wave or wherever else petrels go when they get tired of the compan; of mudhens. “But a successor has come from the briny deep to keep up the tradi- tions of the blue-water birds on Stow lake. He is only a seagull, and a seagull is not such a rara avis on terra as our lost friend, the stormy petrel. Nevertheless he is the first wild one of his kind that has ever tarried with us for two weeks, and seemed to keep comfortable. “He has no use for either the ducks or the mudhens. That is to say, he does not mix with them. But he has struck up a friendship with Anthony and Cleopatra, the two pelicans of the Nile, and there is no driving him away from them. Maybe he thinks they will protect him from the mud- hens, maybe it is a case of ‘the de- sire of the moth for the star,” and he is in love with one of them. If so, it is only a matter of time when one or the other of them will get jealous and gobble him up in one gulp.”—San Francisco Bulletin. Chip of the Old Block. It is curious Low episodes of the Boer war are recalled by the world conflict, says a writer in the Yorkshire Post. In our issue for May 16, 1900, for instance, we published an account of the bravery in the field of Private © EF. Wischusen, who threw a live shell over a cliff during an engagement, Now his son, Private Eric Wis chusen, duke of Cambridge’s Middle- sex regiment, has proved himself to be no less brave. As a parchment certificate from his commanding offi- ! cer shows, in a raid near Voormezeele. on June 19-20, he was “conspicuous for his determination and bravery.” De- spite a heavy artillery and machine- gun barrage, he reached the enemy trenches, cleared them, and finally cov- cred the raiders’ withdrawal, “show- ing complete disregard to his own safety.” Private Wischusen, who is only twenty, is now in hospital at Lowes- toft with a shot wound in his leg. His home is in Hornsey. Oii Near Old indian Cemeteries. Geologists are unable to explain the fact, proven in Osage county, that oil wells drilled adjacent to Indian ceme- teries are good producers. Many such burial sites have been invaded by drillers and in more instances than one riches in crude oil have spouted forth. The largest producer in the vi- cinity of Pawhuska was drilled beside an Indian graveyard. It is on the summit of a high, rocky hill that over- looks the town.—From the Oklahoman. Records Seeds’ Value. In a patented seed tester of A. F. Esslinger, a Michigan inventor, a strip of cloth or other material is folded over a pad and then stitched across and lengthwise so as to form little square sections. The seeds to be tested are placed In these squares. The pad retains moisture for a consid- erable time, long enough to produce germination of the good seeds, and numbers on the squares give a means of record and identification. More Uses for Electricity. As might be expected, the use of wire resistances in fabrics to give elec- tric heating has suggested a great va- riety of applications. Besides the electric pad as a substitute for the hot water bottle these devices include electrically heated bath robes, sweat- ing robes, heating bags, rugs, foot warmers, ear warmers, motciman’s gloves and even an electric blanket for the old and rheumatic horse. Elec- tric current may be taken from light- ing circuits or special batteries. n — . ——— FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN. DAILY THOUGHT. Hail to thy returning festival, Old Bish op Valentine! Great is thy name in the rubric, thous venerable arch flamen of Hy- men. Like unto thee, assuredly, there is no other mitred father in the calendar.— Charles’ Lamb. St. Valentine was a saint of Church who suffered martyrdom fhe der Emperor Claudius about A. D. 270, and as a diligent ancient writer sagely observed, “We have no occur- rence in his life that could give rise 5 the custom practiced on February If you have decided to give a tea on St. Valentine’s day the tea table must be heart shaped to be appropri- ate to the occasion. A heart-shaped tea table sounds difficult, but in reali- ty it is not at all hard to arrange. Take an ordinary kitchen table and screw to the top a huge heart cut from very thick pasteboard or fashioned from thin boards. Cover this with a white cloth which is decorated with festoons of hearts cut from red card- board and strung on red baby ribbon. The candles and shades also should be red. To each candle shade there should be tied a heart-shaped shield made of red paper carnations, each shield being pierced with an arrow made of silver cardboard. The cen- terpiece should be formed of a flat heart of red carnations. Sandwiches should be cut in heart shapes, ice cream frozen in heart-shaped moulds, and bon-bons should be red and white hearts. VALENTINE GAMES. Get a list of famous lovers. Among these are Romeo and Juliet. Robert Burns and Highland Mary. History and fiction provide many others. Write the names of each on a slip of paper. Pin a name on the back of each player, who must try to guess whom he represents. He may ask questions of other play- ers, who can only reply to his queries by the words “yes” or “no.” After all have guessed their iden- tity, each tries to find his mate, who becomes his partner for refreshments. For the Valentine dance the pro- grams should be as dainty as possi- ble. They may be of water color pa- per and hand painted with Cupids, doves, flowers and hearts. For place cards for a dinner have large double roses of red tissue paper with green foliage. From the center of each should peep a small china doll decked out as Cupid. He should have a necklace of tiny hearts around his neck, and the name should be gilded on an end of white satin ribbon tied around the stem. A fetching ornament for a Valen- tine tea table is a tall red rose sup- ported by two Cupids rampant. This can be used to hold candles or from the heart can stick a narrow ribbon which, drawn, reveals a valentine motto. For a Valentine pie for a children’s party there is a big heart-shaped af- fair, apparently a dish of carnations, real or artificial. Ends of red rib- bons peep out from the flowers which, when pulled, show favors pertaining to the day. Valentines or the valentine post- cards make appropriate place cards or score cards for the bridge party. For favors there are hearts cover- ed with white satin printed with mass- es of blue forgetmenots. These make dainty jewel or trinket boxes when the candy is eaten. How to Announce an Engagement at Such an Affair—A Valentine luncheon or supper is an. appropriate time to announce an engagement, as it can be cleverly managed in keep- ing with the decorations. A novel idea is to have a slender Cupid poised over a plateau of pink carnations arranged in heart shape. Over his shoulder should be slung a quiver of gold paper filled with tiny white envelopes, each decorated with two pink hearts instead of postage stamps. From each of these notes a pink baby ribbon or gilt cord runs to each plate, where it ends in a big question mark made of pink carnations, rest- ing against a wired lattice strung with greens. The meaning of this pretty decoration will arouse much questioning. When the table is cleared for des- sert the guests will be told to care- fully draw the ribbon, when each will receive a note from the quiver con- taining the names of the affianced. Another announcement is to have the ices frozen in the form of two big pink or red hearts placed on a silver platter. Frozen in each is an an- nouncement card wrapped in paraf- fine paper. The guest who finds it in her slice opens and reads it aloud. A novel decorative method is to have at each plate two small cakes in heart shape, one in white, iced in red, with the name of the girl, the other iced in red, with white decorations, and the name of the lover in white. The cakes should be placed side by side on a small tray decorated with silver paint. ; ; J Instead of cakes, plain white satin candy boxes in heart shape may be substituted, the lettering done in rais- ed gold. Set the heart boxes side by side on the doilies of paper lace, with Cupid or other appropriate decora- tions. ; A simpler method will be to send in a tray covered with valentines direct- ed to each guest. These may be bought or original—the latter are more fun if witty verse can be man- aged. Each guest is supposed to read her valentine aloud. One of these mottoes is a rhyme telling of the engagement, and is read by the hostess at her turn. One hostess who will announce the engagement of a girl friend at a luncheon has arranged to have her three-year-old sister, dressed as Cu- pid, appear at dessert carrying a gilded basket of pink roses, one for each guest. Tucked in the heart of each rose are two tiny cards, with the names of the engaged couple, tied to- gether with pink ribbon, through which is thrust a small pierced heart and dart.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers