" SEDITION" IN ALSACE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 30 January 1914, Page 3

" SEDITION" IN ALSACE.

GROTESQUE INCIDENT

This story (says the Paris correspondent; oi the Daily Telegraph) comes from i>etwiller, a village not far from Zabern, where all the incidents that have been in danger of upsetting .the German Empire have been taking place of late. A peasant possessed a magnificent white cock with a noble crimson crest. To carry out a colour scheme fancied by the owner, he dyed its tail a beautiful blue. The presence of this tri-oolour cock in the village soon came to the knowledge of the authorities, who ordered the peasant to kill the pride oi his barnyard within 24 hours. The peasant replied that if his cock chose to dabble its tail in blue paint, it was not his fault, and refused to, carry out the death sentence. Accordingly, a detachment of soldiers, fully armed, was sent with orders to capture and slay the seditious bird. After a long and arduous chase around the barnyard the cock was arrested and decapitated. As the soldiers withdrew the peasant, brandishing the victim, whose life blood stained his blue-and-white plumage, cried: "Mort pour la patrie!"—he died for his country.