The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-12-22

effective way Of extracting informa-
ton is to talk with them In groups.
A man examined aside Is cautious
and keeps his head. A group Is vol
uble and excited, and each man in it
is eager to set the other right. "Then
it happened so and so" suggests the
officer who is chatting with a group
of prisoners. eyes, it happened that
way" one Of the men responds. "No,
no." another interjects, "it was this
way" and he gives different ac-
count of the matter. "Well, was at
such and such a place." third in
sists, "and what saw was this and
that" Every man is anxious to shine,
and every man wants to seem i'm
portant by contributing fact that
he thinks important. And so, from
the various and varying narrative
something coherent and valuable can
often be deduced.
French officers talk very little
when they are taken prisoner. The
men are different, willing to talk,
and capable of talking we'll. Some
Of these latter said: that this would
be the last great attempt to break
through, and they were disheartened. i.
Belgian prisoners were especially
forlorn, and especially frank. They
expressed only the wish to have the
war over and the hopelessness Of con-
tinued effort on their part. END il" }"
they said, "and let US get home" "
Their losses in prisoners and killed
had been out Of all.proportion to the
number fighting. The little group
which I encountered had originally
been a scouting party Of forty-seVen'
Twenty had fallen near Dixmude.
The rest were prisoners. They were
wearing new uniforms, made, they
said, from American cloth.
At the Invitation Of the officers
conscientiously smelled the frag-
ments of the gas bomb that had ex-
ploded three days before, with the
result that I have no desire to smell
one that is any fresher. Manifestly
you may break, you may shatter the
gas bomb If you will, but the scent OF
what it once held will cling to 1t still
It Is not that the odor was so much
nauseating as oyerpowering. In 9th.
er words, it was not so much foul
smell as an effective smell. It sent a
shudder of weakness over the whole
body and that sensation was accom-.
panied by intense pricklng. A sore
feeling remained In the nose and
throat for an hour, and a kind OF
subconsciousness of the odor lasted
much longer than that.
Basing their Judgment on survey
Of several hundred English prisoners
some German officers told me that
the new English levies did not seem
to them comparable to the first, and
several Of the English lads volunteer
ed the statement that their officers
were brave, but inexperienced, and
so got them into tight places.
To me the English troops seemed
weedy and juvenile. The incessant
use Of the word "Sir" by those with
whom I talked indicated that they
came from the humber class. Al
first I tried to meet them with g
handshake and some words Of com.
radeship in their own language, but
the effort only embarrassed them
though I am sure that my attempt tc
be a good fellow with them was
neither pompous nor patronizing.
One English prisoner Of more thar
the average intelligence told US thai
in front Of some of the English posi-
tons the dead had been lying un'
buried since May.
"Good heavens" said a German Of
fcer, "that kind Of thing has the
worst influence on the morale ot
troops" Turning to the group ot
prisoners for whom the Intelligent
man had been principal spokesman
ne added: "Why was it allowed?"
The English wearily shrugged
their shoulders and answered: Cant
say, SIR"