A Modern Munchausen

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 November 1915, Page 3

A Modern Munchausen

£ i .iiiiii L/.J' » U. Lu.ni.loii, lid. J no iiiu.iL wondeii'ul exploits oi !'io uar June ijL'cii uluiuicU Henri ingcii, a big JJelgian a!, Lincolnshire iang with iiits exploits, ami at opahling. where uc wa;> the guosfc ol ±«'a Ljier Xyok, ho wad cilia taiucu at a pu ijii(j dinner, as thv hero of live baululivltiis. liow he contrived to hoax the good people oi JLiucoihsnire is a Mystery. Ijiu Kegels' claim to have received the Victoria UrabU should have boon enough to arouse Llie suspicion oi I'V. titer lyck, who introduced Segeis to the Fen town oi' M. \V. ,S. J Joyce, tiie iiiture Conservative candidate of { Spalding, and the Her K i'. Gondii, the vicar, who sat at his riftiit at the dinner. .. | Spalding, like many oilier dixtrieU, has had many JJoigiuni ivliigee.s siller the war began; and two months ago a JJchjan girl tliere received a letter from a eontrere 01 Sogers saying thai h; had won the "highest military liouonr it was the in power oi England France and Belgium to bestow." S • ivhv'ii iSegor.-: came on leave to Spa! i . ing, wliere he was best man at Mi-., i girl's wedding, a great reception awaited 'him Tiie big diniiiiig-rooni at tlij White Mart Hotel, the principal hn'.el at iSpa'oiiig, con id- hardly hold rdl wim came to do the Belgian hero h:noin . at half a dollar a head. Encouraged by the eulogistic speech- ■- of the chairman and the vicar, and ■warmed by some generous old red wne Sogers was induced, to talk. He held the company spellbound. He told how. within an hour of being giv-: charge of an armoured .automobile, he shot down a German airman, and how. with a machine gun, he shot to pieces two (rains of thirty coaches each, .dl filled with German 'soldiers. Another day he blew up a bridge covered wrh Germans: with a party 0t.240 cycli-d.-:• I h-.< attacked a large force of barricad- , I Germans near Dixmude, and when t 1 ■ ' Germans charged killed tHem a l .. Cheered on hy the applause lu> would have made TCaroti Munchausen turn pale, when he narrated how one niglu from ton o'clock till three next -fnoiv.itig. with a machine gun, he hold a ) hridgo near Dixmude, and shot dowii I German forces who attempted to cross. He .fired off 22.800 cartridges, and the hridgo became so blocked with dead bodies that the Germans who had con trived to cross over not get back, ano he took eighty-two prisoners and captured four machine" guns. It was while with the British near Ypres that he captured an eleven-inch gun, thus gaining .the Victoria Cross. In conclusion he claimed to have been commanded for sixty-six great feats, eight with the British, sixteen with the French, "and forty-two with the Be!giana.

Then ho left Spalding for London whore, ho said, lie avjis to receive tin Victoria Cross from the King. T< ! London his fame preceded lrlrn, for h( was seized by some Belgian friends 01 arrival. Over pewter ol English ak Sogers narrated a new incident, thai of running along tlie banks of the Ysei on his armoured motor and firing 28,600 bullets, thus killing 1200 Germans.