The train started, and I arrived safely home. After the first hours
of meeting all at home again had passed I found myself provided with
faultless underwear and had taken the urgently needed bath. Once more I
could put on the civilian dress I had missed for so long a time. All of
it appeared strange to me. I began to think. Under no conditions was I
going to return to the front. But I did not know how I should succeed
in getting across the frontier. I could choose between two countries
only--Switzerland and Holland. It was no use going to Switzerland, for
that country was surrounded by belligerent states, and it needed only
a little spark to bring Switzerland into the war, and then there would
be no loophole for me. There was only the nearest country left for me
to choose--Holland. But how was I to get there? There was the rub. I
concocted a thousand plans and discarded them again. Nobody, not even
my relatives, must know about it.
(How this German soldier fled from the war and escaped to America is
told in his book: "A German Deserter's War Experiences;"--Copyright,
1917, B. W. Huebsch.)