The National tribune., 1910-07-14

and didn't see his wagon. Some of the
hungry boys, always on the lookout for
the meal wagon, asked him where his
wagon was. He said: Laws masa,
hit rained all last night and de tugs
got wet and jes' stretched and stretched.
Jes' as soon as de sun comes out and
dries the tugs the wagon will come UP
all right"
Yankee Ingenuity.
We got all the horns and hoofs from
the butchers, and with what Yankee in
genuity we had we made these into va
rious articles, such as toothpicks, fine
combs and coarse combs, cones, pipe
stems, etc. These we traded to the
rebels for long-green tobacco, which
we suffered as much for as any other
one thing Often / have seen a poor
boy walk all day long hunting for
| chew of tobacco, and II he was lucky
he would chew it, ana then lay 1t up,
| dry it and then smoke it.
For pastime the boys organized a
| baseball game. Every morning there
| was one team on the ground playing
| ball When they got tired another
! would take the ground from morn till
night. This amused the rebel guards
very much: they would stand and watch
us for hours at time. Others played
chess Or checkers or some other game
to kill time. As for cards, never saw
| but one odd dirty deck in camp, and
| that was so dirty you couldn't tell the
| jack of clubs from the queen of hearts.
| Some that got into camp with little
money would start a chuck-a-luck bank
or little sutler stand. with few twists
of tobacco and a few sweet potato pies
and biscuits that they could trade for
| from the rebels that would come into
camp. The tobacco and biscuits and
pies would sell for s1.25 apiece, green
| back. There was a while there that if
! ill I'LL,
you could get 10 for it in greenbacks;
but they were like angels visits, few
and far between. During the Winter
Of "a and '65 brass buttons was legal
tender. Those lucky enough to have
any buttons could get their own price
for them. The rebels took fancy to
them for some cause, and bought or
was no trouble to get them to take
greenbacks for their stuff they had to
sell; the trouble with us was to get the
greenbacks. There were some commits
lsioned officers that got into camp with
some money: they could buy anything
to eat and live very well. 1t was re-
ported that there was one Paymaster
that was captured at Galveston Bay.
He belonged to the gunboatsmen squad
that got into camp with good wad of
money. / don't know the truth of this
statement, but do know that the gun
boat squad always lived well while in
Camp Ford, and it took money, and lots
of it, to get the grub.
Some very knowing people have said
to me: why didn't you try to get out
Of there?" In the first place, IL we got
out IL was 300 miles to our lines, across
rivers, bayous and swamps and always
in the enemy's own country all the way,
! with no money, no clothes. no grub to
start with. 1t didn't look very sensible
, TO start such trip. When you saw a
man you didn't know whether he was
! a friend or foe unless he was colored
! when you knew you could trust him
} But with all these disadvantages hardly
a day or night passed that some of the
! prisoners did not try to escape. There
were all kinds of means carried into
effect to escape, but with a strong guard
all around the camp and big drove OF
bloodhounds always on tap it was only
, one chance in thousand that they got
: 10 miles away.
\ Clever Scheme.
l One clever scheme worked fol
D awhile, but it was soon discovered and
= stopped. A young, sickly-looking boy
: prisoner got the privilege to drive al
= old mule and cart into camp to hau
out the rubbish. When the boy drove
in he would get away down near the
t middle of the camp out of sight of tho
e guards; two men would lie down IL
the bottom of the cart, and other
s lwould throw few leaves or straw ovel
D them and then fill up the cart with
e rubbish. The boy would drive out the
I gate, whistling or singing, and tn,
r guards didn't get onto it for some time
s He would dump his load outside, ant
: the boys would lie there hid until dark
5 and then strike out for freedom. IL
this way the boy took out over 10t
prisoners before he was discovered, bu
shat poor boy paid the penalty. for We
! acver saw or heard of him again. A
Q arSe number got out by tunneling.
o In the Winter of GAGS we started
r tuaQeI in the quarters ] STAYED in. Ir