BELGIANS GAVE
LIVES TO SAVE
MEN HIGHER UP
BRUSSELS, Feb. 24 (by Associated
Press).—Stories of heroism, patriot
ism and devotion of Belgians during
the German occupation are constantly
coming to the surface of the miasmal
pool of intrigue, treachery and sel
fishness which the Germans left be
hind in Belgium.
How two men gave up their lives
and two went to prison for a period
which would have lasted twenty years
had the Germans been victorious, that
the man “higher up” might live and
continue managing the underground
organization which was sending valu
able information out of the occupied
country has now been related to the
Associated Press correspondent by
the man whose life was saved by
their sacrifice.
Adolphfe Buyl, liberal member of
the Belgian parliament, Alderman of
the Commune of Ielies in the city of
Brussels, is the man for whom two
men died and who for four years
conducted the organization and lived
continually in the fear of execution
by Germans.
Late in 1914 the Germans had not
organized on the Dutch frontier with
that murderous efficiency which sent
to their graves many young Bel
gians attempting to cross into Hol
land. Buyl had access to the seals
of the municipality and every even
ing in various out of the way cafes,
twenty, thirty, sometimes as many as
fifty young men would assemble,
reaching the place singly and by
devious ways. The seal of the muni
cipality was there in the hand of a
different man every night. Passports
and identification blanks were there,
and the young men would emerge
from the cafes supplied with proper,
<?r rather improper identifications and
make their way into Holland and
thence join the Belgian army battling
on the Yser. More than one thou
sand men were sent out between Oc
tober, 1914, and February, 1915.
Then the Germans became aware
of the leak and the frontier was her
metically, electrically sealed and the
work became more dangerous and
difficult. Glides had to be provided—
generally smugglers of gasoline and
other commodities across the Dutch
border—who for a consideration aver
aging fifty francs for each man,' would
pilot them across the frontier. Rub
ber gloves and wire-cutters were
necessary tools of their trade and
many a German sentry was found by
his relief with a knife deeply sunk In
his throat lying alongside « break in
the wire fence.
At no time were there less than
100 men engaged in tie work. They
included railroad station masters,
crossing tenders, mall carriers, cafe
keepers and many others in humble
walks of life, all volunteers desirous
of serving their country even at the
risk of being stood against the wall
and shot, and as a matter of fact,
many of them were. But at no time
did more than two or three men en
gaged in the work know that Buyl was
the “man higher up.”
The first member of the organiza
tion to be taken by the Germans was
Phillipe Baucq, whose arrest was
simultaneous with that of Edith Ca
vell, the English nurse whose execu
tion by Germans sent a thrill of hor
ror throughout the world. Baucq was
shot on October 12, 1915, .with the
brave English nurse. Miss Cavell,
however, was never charged by the
Germans with espionage, but with
aiding Belgians and others to escape
from Belgium.
Baucq was succeeded a^ Buyl’s
right-hand man by another man
named Dubois. On June 1, 1916, Du
bois, with sixty others, was arrested
and imprisoned at Hasselt. The Ger
mans boasted that they had smashed
the Belgian organization which had
evaded them for two years. Dubois
and three others were shot on Sep
tember 25, 1916, and sentences aggre
gating 220 years were imposed upon
others accused of acting with them.
Both Baucq and Dubois knew that
Alderman Buyl was head of the or
ganization and both took their orders
from him. For days before the execu
tion the Germans endeavored by of
fering to spare their lives to induce
them to denounce thir leader, but they
refused and were shot. Nevertheless
the work went on.
In 1917, Buyl’s secretary was arrest
ed and Buyl went into hiding.
“For nights I could not sleep,” Buy]
told the Associated Press. “The slight
est noise would make me start, I
could not eat and there were moments
of depression when I would gladly
have faced a machine gun at the edge
of a little wood to escape the mental
torture of those long, endless days
and interminable nights.” His sec
retary escaped with a short sentence.
Buyl emerged from his hiding place
and went on about his work.
“Two days before the armistice, I
sent out a courier to Holland,” he
said with a tinge of pride.
“Heroism is the work of an instant
but what I have gone through during
those last four years is not heroism,
It is hell,” said Buyl. Before the war
he was a florid, happy, jovial man,
but he is now emaciated and haggard,
but a shadow of his former self.
As we fell to talking of Dubois
and Baucq and tears welled up into
his eyes as he said: “Greater love
hath no man than he who gives up his
life for a fellow man.”
ANGERED GERMANS
BY CALLING THEM HUNS
LONDON, Feb. 25.—Because he
referred to the Germans a3 “Huns”
Sergeant E. A. Boyd, a British air
man who was captured, was sent
enced by them to a year’s imprison
ment. He has now returned to Eng
land.
With a lieutenant, Boyd was patrol
ling off the Belgian coast in a sea
plane. They were shot down by enemy
destroyers and while Boyd was' in the
water he wrote this message: “Shot
down at 6:42 p. m. Being picked up
I by Huns.” The pigeon to which he
entrusted the message was unable to
fly and fell into the hands of the Ger
mans. The two airmen were taken
to Bruges, where they were sent for
by Admiral von Schroeder.
“He was frightfully angry over the
message,” Boyd relates, “and began
to swear in broken English. The
only thing we understood clearly was
that on the following day one of us
was to be shot. I had told him that I
had written the message.
“Later I was courtmartialed and
the court- held that by calling the
German ‘Huns’ I had insulted the of
ficers and men of the German de
stroyers, and I was sentenced to
twelve month’s imprisonment.
“For the first six months I was ab
solutely starved. I gave away my
watch for a slice of bread.”
SLEEP WITH THEIR GUNS
TO PREVENT FREEZING
WITH AMERICAN FORCES IN
NORTHERN RUSSIA, Jan. 10, via
London, Jan. 20 (Correspondence of
the Associated Press).—One night
spent in field headquarters of the Am
erican command holding the Emtsa
river front near Kadish (since aban
doned) Illustrated the difficulties
which the troops faced in this deso
late region in an Arctic winter.
Field headquarters were in a tiny
rough hewn log cabin, thatched with
a roof of spruce boughs and heated by
a home-made stove. OutBlde, in the
forest, the troops, sheltered only by
lean-to’s of boughs, shivered around
camp fires in the snow. Inside the
hut were a few cots, a rough table and
a field telephone.
The cold wind whistled through the
chinks In the logs, and came up
through cracks in the floor. The of
ficers “turned in” early, wrapped in
all the blankets and overcoats they
could get.
Down along the banks of the ice
filled Emtsa river, a hundred yards
from the Bolshevist lines, American
outpost patrols stamped their boots
on the frozen swamp ground in the
brush unable to build fires for fear of
snipers.
“Bzz-bzz-bzz,” went the field tele
phone in headquarters hut.
I The orderly called the machine gun
officer. Prom the conversation, it ap
peared that the water in the cooling
chambers of the ‘‘Emma-gees'’ (the _
soldier’s pet name for machine guns)
In the front line had frozen and that
the recoil would not work. Because
there was no alcohol or glycerine
handy, rum had been mixed as an
anti-freezing fluid, with the water in
the cooling chambers. The officer
said he would send down some new
guns. He went out to find that every
gun in the place was in the same flx.
A long row of them was brought In
side the hut and stacked near the
stove to thaw out.
“Hereafter,” ordered the machine L
gun officer, “sleep with the guns. “
Wrap them up in the same blankets
with yourselves.”
Meanwhile someone filled up the
stove to hasten the thawing out pro
cess of the guns nearby. The hut got
so hot that an officer turned and
tossed nervously in his sleep. Then a
soldier rushed in to shout that the
hut had been set on fire from the over
heated chimney.
All turned out in the snow to empty
canteens—the only unfrozen water at
hand—on the roof to extinguish the
fire.
Then the officers went back into the I
hut to shiver, for in saving the hut .
the fire in the stove had been ex- =
tinguished.
BRITISH MERCHANT SHIPS
DESTROYED DURING WAR
LONDON, Feb. 25.—There were 20,
000 British merchant vessels, aggre
gating 21,000,000,000 tons, afloat when
war began, according to the annual
report of the mercantile marine serv
ice association. Of #the3e 9,000,000
have been sunk, and after allowing
for replacements, there is a deficit of
3,500,000 tons.
In all 2,475 merchant ships were
sunk under their crews by enemy
action, and an additional 570 fishing
vessels, making a total of 3,045 crews
cast adrift.
Merchant seamen serving aboard
British vessels who have lost their
lives in action with the enemy total
14,700.
-4
Steve Oros has purchased John Ol
son’s shoe repairing outfit and Is now
ready for business at Tom Hubbert's
tailor shop. 18-6t (
-4
Advertise In **>e Daily Times.
Auntie Keating’s
Wee
Shop”
has outgrown its original
location, and has removed
into the
WILLIAMS BUILDING
First 8treet
with a complete line of
Men’s, Women’s and Chil
dren's Goods. >
Come In and look my
stock over.
sHSfiW !
TOKENS OF RESPECT
A well conducted funeral la a
token of respect to the decessed.
Our methods of conducting a
funeral have given us an oppor
tunity to serve you In a manner
that will command respect. We
are equipped to serve you sat
isfactorily.
K. E. HOLDEN PARLOR
Second Street, between
A and B Ave.
, -
Windsor Hotel
L. Wain, Prop.
Where Yon Get
Comfort and Service
And the Rates Are Right.
Cordova Alaska
■
MEET ME AT
THE
‘HORSESHOE’
POPULAR RECREA
TION PLACE
Where we can always find »ur
friends
Finest Billiard and Pool Ta
bles In Alaska
BE8T GRADES OF STAND
ARD BRAND8 OF CIGARS
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ii , „ . , 111 ill III
' • a
lrm, nuiviL Kjr wkju clw i nLj ♦ i
Since war is over, merchandise began to drop, and we decided to do the same. Here is your chance to buy the highest 1
grade of Clothing obtainable at a reduction of 25 to 35 per cent. It includes everything in the house except contract I
goods, such as Arrow collars, U. S. and Hippress paks. |
HERE ARE A FEW OF OUR ALLURING PRICES: 1
MEN’S SUITS
$25.00 Suits now.$15.00
35.00 Suits now. 26.73
40.00 Suits now. 30.00
50.00 Suits now. 37.50
~T~ MACKINAWS
$1 3.50 and $12.00 Coats now.$ 8.50
16.00 Coats now.:. 12.00
LOGGER SHIRTS
$10.00 Shirts now. .—.$7.50
8.00 Shirts now .. £*29
1 1.00 Leather Vests now. 8.75
$6.00 Men’s Moccasins now.$4.00
~ WOOL BLANKETS ~
$15.00 Blankets now ..^Ji*££
20.00 Blankets now ...-. 15.00
9.00 Blankets now ...r -. 6.75
Twenty per cent off on all Suit Cases and Bags
sox
Over 5,000 pairs Woollen
Socks at followinig prices:
75c Sox now.$ .50
$1.00 Sox now.75
1.25 Sox now.90
1.50 Sox now. 1.15
BATTERIES
2- cell Batteries now .. 20c
3- cell Batteries now .. 30c
$2.00 and $1.75 Flash
lights, with batter
ies .$1.25
All Batteries New
50c Bee, Bicycle, Free
Lance Cards, 35c, or
three for.$1.00
75c Ties now.50c«
20 Per Cent Off on All
Down Quilts
$4.00 Medlicott & Stan
field’s Shirts and
Drawers now ... .$3.00
MITTS
$2.00 Horsehide Mitts,
now.$1.50
75c Wool Mitss now. .55c
$3.00 Best Bib Overalls
now.$2.50
12-oz. Canvas Gloves,
per pair .20c
50c Leather - faced
Gloves, per pair-40c
25 Per Cent Off on all
Felt Shoes
Men’s Rubbers now $1.25
Ladies’ Rubbers now 90c
$4.50 and $5.00 Men’s
Four-buckle Arctics
now..$3.65
$6.00 Parkas now . .$4.00
25 Per Cent Off on all Fur
and Cloth Caps
All Rhairi Clothing
, Reduced
All Union Suits Reduced,
including Silk jmd Wool
MEN’S SHIRTS
$3.00 Wool Shirts now.$2.25
5.00 Wool Shirts now ..*. 3.75
6.00 Wool Shirts now. 4.50
5.00 and $6.00 Silk Shirts now. 3.75
HATS
$3.50 Hats now...$2.50
5.00 Hats now. 4.00
6.0 and $7.00 Hats now. 5.00
SWEATERS
$4.00 Sweaters now .$3.00
6.50 Sweaters now. 4.75
8.00 Sweaters now. 6.00
PANTS
$ 3.00 Pants now.$2.25
5.00 Pants now.. 3.75
6.00 Pants now. 4.50
10.00 Wool Riding Pants now............ 7.50
I NOTICE.—No charges will be made for longer than thirty days. All or ders by mail tilled promptly. I