Unicode signs displayed as _u25cf_ etc

[Josef Oswald]

Looking for some gnus code I cam across this site

http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~heimdall/gnus.html

;; Wenn Emacs/Gnus unter X11 läuft, dann die Thread-Pfeile mit
;; Unicode-Zeichen darstellen.
;(show  Thread-arrows in Unicode signs)

(if window-system
    (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "\u25cf "
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\u25ef "
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent "  "
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "\u25ce "
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "\u251c\u2500\u25ba "
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "\u2502"
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\u2570\u2500\u25ba ")
    (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root ">>"
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent " >"
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "+-> "
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent " "
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "|"
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "`-> "
          gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "~>"))

the problem is that here in my gnus this does not work correctly as
each lines starts with _u25ce_  or _u25cf_ and not with the desired
sign. 

This happens bot with XEmacs as well as emacs and Gnus (unstable) also
with Gnus 5.10.6

Any pointers are deeply appreciated :-) 
 
Josef Oswald also -> gnus@chello.at  :-) 
-- 
Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for
shooting yourself in the foot. 
--from the INFO --