Practical Joke Raises Scare in Village Paris, Apr. 9.
A private soldier belonging to the 20th regiment of dragoons and said to have been drunk, arrived by motor car yesterday afternoon in the village of Ribieres near Limoges, states the Paris "Petit Parisien." He told several peasants that war had broken out several hours earlier and that as Hitler was marching on Paris it wa: necessary to make preparations at once. For that reason he had arrived in the village to supervise the mobilization.
The news of the outbreak of war spread through the whole region.like wildfire, throwing the inhabitants into greatest consternation. Women and children ran to and fro in the streets, crying bitterly and refusing to be pacified by the competent authorities and gendarmes.
Finally, the "Petit Parisien" report continues, the soldier was taken into custody and admitted that he had invented the whole story as a practical joke. But the population was so excited that they refused to believe the assurances of the gendarmes that war had not broken out and even became hostile to the authorities, demánding the release of the soldier.
To calm the crowd, the gendarmes hurried the arrested soldier away to his barracks without further delay.—Trans-Ocean.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.