Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 296, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1915 — Smoke Signals. [ARTICLE]

Smoke Signals.

A French paper gives the story of smoke from a chimney being employed to give information to the enemy. The members of a battalion of French infantry that had moved into a wellcovered country and thought themselves concealed were inundated with, shells The officers were astonished at the accuracy with which these shells were delivered and sought to find who was giving signals to the enemy. In a farmhouse at no great distance from the battalion a German, disguised as a peasant, was found seated before a chimney in which was a great wood fire. The pseudo-peasant was alternately raising and lowering a chimney cover or screen which caused the smoke to come from the chimney in long or short puffs as he desired. While doing this he looked through a window upon the field where the French battalion was performing its evolutions. These signals which had been agreed upon between the spy and the enemy, readily informed the Germans of the movements of the little troop. On discovery of this stratagem the false peasant was arrested and immediately shot