Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, July 21, 1918, SOCIETY SECTION, Image 27

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    "4-:-
OMAHa SUM DAY B&bl: JULY 21. 1U1.
11 D
MARINE CAUGHT
BY HUNS IS BACK
AFTER8 DAYS
Nodding Guard and Pick Han
dle Give Donahue a Chance
to Escape From
Captives.
This Is the story of Private Dona
hue. It is the story of a young ma
rine who. in the midst of a confused
and savage midnight skirmish on the
edge of a ravine up Torcy way. north
west of Chateau Thierry, vanished
from the ranks of his company and
was not seen again until eight days
later, when, hungry, dirty, ired, sore
and happy, he crawled into the Amer
ican lines at dawn.
How he got into "Germany," he is
not sure. He remembers a rush of
troops in the dark and a blow over
the head. The next thing he remem
bers he was lying on the ground out
side a candle-lit tent.
There was a nightmare scuffle and
bustle going on around him. It waa
etill dark. His rifle was ro:. Hi9
clothes had been ripped open and his
pockets emptied. As he found out
later, they had taken everything. "ii,
dog tag, his note book full of l is
thoughts on war, his money, his let
ters and clippings and snapshots from
tome.
He Got His Information.
Some one was standing over him,
Bpeaking to him in passable English.
It was a German officer a lieutenant,
he thought He scrambled to his
feet. The lieutenant eyed him sternly.
"How many Americans are over
there?"
The young marine, as though he
had been rehearsed in the part for
weeks, looked his captor square in
the eye and answered:
"Thirty-two American divisions and
40 French.
The next moment he lay sprawling
in the dirt, and from that posture
into which the lieutenant had kicked
him he was rewarded by the music
of that worthy relapsing into angry
German:
"Schweiner Amerikaner, schweiner
Amerikanerl"
The refrain was caught up by the
underlings, who hustled him away. Of
all the jabber that reached his ears
during the next few days, that was
what he heard oftenest. It was Ml
he understood. It was the favorite
form of address used by the wearv
succession of guards put over him.
1 As he was the only prisoner in
sight the only American save tor
five or six wounded Yanks he once
saw carried past him on stretchers
he was not made one of a party of
prisoners to be shipped directly to
the rear, but rather was he handed
back from group to group and made
to work his way.
From sun-up to sun-down he
worked with the camouflage men.
masking batteries, cutting branches,
and piling bough on bough of leafy
green to screen the roadside heaps f
ammunition boxes.
Shared Captor's Mess.
He had no blankets to roll in at
night, but his captors shared thejr
mess with him, pouring out each time
an unsavory soup or gruel, and toss
ing him chunks of coarse bread to
sop it up with.
Each day a different soldier took
him in tow. Each day the shifting
sound of the artillery told him he was
gravitating slowly toward the rear.
Each night an armed guard watched
over him.
Then one night the seventh the
guard, who sat huddled with his back
resting against a tree, dropped off to
sleep. Dark was just settling over the
patch of woods on the edge of which
they had turned in. By the moonlight
that filtered through down the
branches he could see the guard's
head nodding, nodding. He itched to
get his hands on the rifle, but the
guard was holding it upright between
his knees as a sort of prop. Donahue
was afraid even to try to disengage it.
He groped about for a weapon. His
hand landed on the short, light end of
a broken pick-handle. It wouldn't do.
He looked for the other piece, found
it, hefted it. It would do. With that
piece of wood he took one vicious
swing at the head of the guard, saw
that nodding head stop nodding and
slump forward. Then Donahue went
away from there.
Woods Thick With Them.
All around him Germans were
sleeping audibly. The woods were full
of them. He had heard the unintel
ligible, gradually subsiding hubbub of
their talk as they settled down for
the night. He bumped into more than
one of them, but they only grunted
and swore while he held his breath
and, after a time, crept on. After a
journey that seemed to last hours and
must have lasted at least ten minutes,
he reached the edge of the woods and
crawled under a bush to think.
Very close to him the German ar
tillery was making an occasional
crashing reply to the allied shells
which whirred nasally overhead in an
unending chorus. Gunfire is as good
as a compass. It was easy enough to
take his bearings, and, though he
could not guess how far he had moved
in the days of his captivity, he thought
"America" could not be more than
eight kilometers away, perhaps not
that far if the bunch had advanced
any in the interval.
He knew his only chance was to
crawl there by night and lie low by
day. He started out.
Crept All Night.
All that night he crept along hug
ging the hedgerows and the shadows,
stopping to listen, lying still as death
when soldiers were tramping by,
crawling on again, dropping flat,
crawling on. All the next day he
lay, hungry and thirsty, in a friendly
oat field, with the grain standing
straight around him so that no one
would notice him from the field's
edge.
Several times some soldiers made
short-cuts across and passed so close
he could hear them talking. Once an
artilleryman, riding a horse and lead
ing another, trotted so near that they
all but tramped him underfoot.
But the only ones who found him
were the dogs, and they did not tell.
Twice a shaggy Red Cross dog, with
its first aid pack and food strapped
to its back, proudly tracked the wor
ried Donahue to his hiding place,
flourished enthusiastically around him
and threatened to bring him succor
willy-nilly. He longed to rifle their
packs and eat again, but each time ne
only lay quiet and prayed for the
amiable dog to be off.
It was toward the end of the second
night that the young marine, creeping
up the side of a ravine, was stopped
in his tracks by the voice of a sentry.
"Haiti"
It was the word he had been sick
with fear he should hear during two
interminable nights, but when he
finally hearJ it the voice was an
American voice.
On His Feet Once More.
"I'm an American," he answered,
and investigated to see what it felt
like to stand up once more.
"Halt!"
"Oh, hell!" said Private Donahue:
"where's brigade headquarters?"
A little later, after a stolen nap un
der cover of two discarded potato
sacks and a sunrise breakfast at the
field kitchen of another regiment, he
was telling brigade headquarters all
about it.
After that he told his story to
everyone, from the credulous cook
and the skeptical top to some impos
ing beings who questioned him at
French headquarters before his bat
talion went back into the line. lie
had kept his eyes open, and he had
information to give that can hardly
be set forth here.
His audiences were not without
their dojbters, but these had not
much to sa when the report came
back from the French that Private
Donahue's account of his eight days'
AWOL was packed with detail that
could not possibly have been fur
nished except by one who had actu
ally journeyed some miles into "Ger
many." FromStarsand Stripes.
To Set Magneto.
To set a high tension magneto, the
proper cylinder should be brought to
firing positon; both valves closed and
the piston at the top of its stroke.
This may be ascertained by running a
stout wire through a spark plug or
petcock opening or by looking at the
valves and tappets. When the piston
is in this position, the motor must be
backed one-eighth of a stroke, at
which postion the spark should oc
cur when the lever is fully advanced.
The magneto interrupter should be
just about to open and the distribut
er arm on the segment corresponding
to the cylinder, whose valves are both
closed.
1 iV m4VKrl
By
If
tfAPHS
S.P.L&.Die
Nut Retainer.
The simplest method of insuring
that a nut shall not be loosened on
its bolt by vibration or other accident,
is to take a punch and distort the
thread just above the nut, after the
latter has been fully run on. It is
only necessary to distort the thread
a little and when the nut is run off
with a wrench, it will restore the
thread to its original shape.
Compression Loss.
It sometimes happens that an en
gine which runs all right when it is
comparatively cold, shows a decided
loss of compression after it has be
come heated. This is probably due to
the fact that the valve stems expand
with the heat and do not permit the
valves to seat properly, hence the loss
of compression.
Too Much Gas
In case the motor fails to start after
a generous amount of fuel has been
supplied to it, the case may be one of
too much gas and the remedy is to
open the petcocks anr" turn over the
engine briskly with the compression
cocks open. This allows the engine to
draw in enough air to form an ex
plosive mixture.
Loose Bearing Bolts.
If a clicking or tapping sound is
heard coming from the crankcase in
terior it ought to be investigated at
once. Open the crankcase and exam
ine all bearings and bearing cap bolts.
Should a broken bolt be found, all in
that bearing should be renewed as the
others are probably bent.
Transmission Lining.
In fitting a new transmission lining
in the Ford, the new lining should be
left loose enough to permit the pedal
to be thrust well forward and the en
gine to be turned over by hand with
out difficulty. After the car has been
operated for a few days so that the
lining has become set, it rnay be tight
ened up by a single turn of the ad
justing nuts. If the bands are put on
too tight at first, there is constant
friction with the drum, making it
hard to turn over the engine by hand
and in addition burning the surface
of the lining.
To Test Mixture.
Car owners, particularly new ones,
are often puzzled to know whether
the mixture they are using is correct.
To ascertain the correct proportions
to be used, shut off the fuel at the
tank and open the throttle. If the
mixture that is going to the cylinders
is too rich, the engine speed will in
crease as the level of the gasoline in
the float chamber is lowered, since
the operation weakens the mixture
considerably. If the mixture is
suspected of being too weak, the float
chamber may be flooded while the
engine is running and if the engine
speeds up, it may be accepted as a
sign that the mixture has not been
rich enough.
Cushioning.
In service where medium loads are
carried, demanding more cushioning j
than a solid rubber tire can furnish,
ana yet less speed than pneumatics j
are capable of delivering, "cushion" j
tires are finding a rapidly expanding!
field. In quick delivery and passenger,
bus service they are particularly
adapted, as their riding qualities more
closely approach those of a pneu
matic tire than any other non-pneumatic
tire that has yet appeared.
The Goodyear cushion tire resemblej
a regular solid tire in appearance
but is much more resilient, spreading
out, in service, over a much largei
surface than a solid rubber tire of tht
same size.
That extra room will pay your coal
bill. Rent it through a Bee want Ad,
py iue aaq qSnojij ji juay -iiq
ieo3 inoX Xed nm uiooj ej'ixa jeut '
?3 ffi
Twin Six
Measure the Value In Comfort Miles
nr
HE man who buys a Packard buys much more than a
mere machine. He buys car satisfaction. Twin Six
quality of performance is a known quantity. :::
Judged by the service it renders, we believe the
Packard is the best motor car investment. It looks
right and runs right, year after year. Its initial
cost is distributed over a long period of time.
GEO. F. REIM COMPANY
Harney and 31st Streets
Distributor High Grade Motor Cars
OMAHA, NEBRASKA.
Telephone Harney 10
Help Win the War
Save Gasoline
by Using
' Reserved
rOB 411 TTPSf Of OA.SOLIXI M0T02S
It change the gasoline (a hydro
gen gat) into a neutralized oxygen
gaa in which there can be no carbon.
NO CARBON-MORE POWER
LESS REPAIRS MORE
MILES PER GALLON
For Sale and recommended by the
followinif dealere:
BEMIS PARK GARAGE.
3104 Cuming.
NORTH SIDE GARAGE,
4303 North Twentieth St.
FORT TIRE REPAIRING,
B30I North Twenty-fourth St.
NEBRASKA SERVICE GARAGE.
No. 2. 1102 North Eighteenth.
MEYER HARDWARE CO.,
2913 Leavenworth St
CITY NATIONAL CIGAR CO.,
40S South Sixteenth St.
"If Motor Track
Could Be Built
Better for More
Money' Indiana
. Would BuilA
Them. '
Him Js m i 'saM.tMJ'WX
TiniiTiiiT i
j j r:
WAR-time Is the day of high-speed business. Con
ditions demand dependable and money making
truck service to surmount your hauling problems.
The Indiana Truck offers $150 to $850 more value
than do other trucks. It has 112 reserve strength
built into every part. This makes the Indiana depend
able and reduces maintenance costs. It has a high
powered, heavy-duty motor; oversize, heavy-duty bear
ings; disc-type clutch, a 4-speed transmission, a gasoline
saving carburetor and a magneto of 100 dependability.
Its worm-drive rear axle is tested to 100,000 milesthe
load-carrier of a truck is its rear axle. Investigate the
Indiana's wonderful earning power.
We have the figures that show what It will cost to haul your
load over your road. Write, call or phone for them today,
STANDARD MOTOR CAR CO.
2020-22 Farnam Street
CARL CHANGS TROM, Pre.
Phone Douglae 170S
Omaha. Neb
WORM DRIVE
The Mafnete equipped Eiht
I
Boy the car that will see yon
through. Built by steel masters
who also build, the rolling etock
of the leading railroads of the
world.
This long-lived, 83 -horsepower
car represents travel-comfort that
is never attained in the mere
boulevard car.
You ride without the least sense
of mechanism. No ' labor. No
effort. You feel as if you were
being pushed by a tireless, un
seen hand.
The horsepower of this car la
the greatest per pound of weight
of any car in its class and ne
other car even conies near erual
ing it at less than 13500 In price
Eighty-three horsepower
Open models, $27M
P.O. & Butter. Pa.
Bant by
STANDARD STEEL CAR COMPACT
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Keystone Motors
Corporation,
Distributors
2203 Farnam St.
Omaha, Neb.
- 1 !
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