My Escape from Donington Hall by Pluschow Gunther

Author:Pluschow, Gunther
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027090; HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781473855328
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Caught!

San Francisco! Oh, huge, marvellous city!What I enjoyed most was my freedom from arrest. Officialdom did not take the slightest notice of my presence, and I remained there for several days, in spite of the frantic anxiety of the German Consulate, which expected me to be led into captivity at any moment. I have rarely in my life enjoyed a madder, more delirious New Year’s Eve than in San Francisco! Nothing that I had heard about it approached reality. It was a pleasure to look at the people – thoroughbred, every one of them. The men tall and strong, the women captivatingly beautiful in their blonde fairness. My friends invited me to one of their biggest and most beautiful night clubs. Exorbitant prices and the smartest society of San Francisco. During that night everything seemed permissible.

The music and the dancing carried one away with their beauty and wildness. It was the night of San Francisco.

On the 2nd of January 1915 I took my departure, and by chance I met in the same railway carriage one of my comrades, and also several Germans with whom I had previously travelled by boat. We had a most enjoyable journey, the more so as the papers brought good news from Germany. As several of the elderly ladies and gentlemen were bound for home, we two officers also firmly believed that we were not far from attaining our object.

We stopped at the Great Canyon of Arizona to admire the mighty wonders of Nature, which enfolded themselves in their glorious beauty. On the following days our train sped through the prairie, recalling to our minds boyish recollections of Fenimore Cooper and the Mohicans. At Chicago we separated, and I travelled thence to Virginia on a visit to dear friends of mine, and in the hope of finding out how I best could reach Europe.

After two or three days I sped to New York to try my luck there.

I had to hang about in New York for fully three weeks, and during these I had many opportunities of studying its people and their customs. Three weeks, in which time after time I nearly burst with fury. It was the climax of all I had endured until then. Hardly a picture, hardly a newspaper, hardly an advertisement that did not incite hatred against Germany, that did not pour abuse on the brave German soldiers. “Tipperary” seemed to have become the National Anthem of New York.

Was there no one who could open the eyes of these people? Did they really not wish to see and hear the truth? But the majority knew Germany only from hearsay – they hardly even knew where Germany was; and in spite of this they were ready with their judgment. Here one could gauge the monstrous power of the lying English Press, and the crass stupidity with which the Americans swallowed the bait. I did what I could. I talked, and explained, and tried to convince, but met everywhere the same answer: “Of

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