The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-08-14
SINGS TO FELLOW
WAR PRISONERS

oOL<1 800
= A Paris opera tenor, clad in
wooden shoes, dirty and mud
streaked trousers and a thread-bare
brown sweater vest, singing arias
from La Tosca, Mignon and the Bar
Der of Seville on a rude wooden
stage whose scenery consisted of n
rudely painted drop and a few strips
of colored paper, to an audience OF
soc rench and Belgian soldiers, all
of them as dirty as he, was one OF
the entertaining incidents which the
Press correspondent encountered or
mis- visit to the great wal prisoners
camp ut Goc.tingen.
Jean Many, until last August ten
or of the Opera de la Gate LyrlQue
in Paris, was the singer. 1t Is
doubtful il in his best role he ever
sang better than he is singing now
seven or more times a week, nat
prison life may be more enduraDle
for the thousands of his fellow pris-
oners.
The opera at Goettingen has It's
own orchestra, which consists OF a
pianist on the stage in his shirt
sleeves, and down among the audi
ence English soldiers in khaki as
violinists and cornetists, Belgians as
futists, Frenchmen as celloists ana
Evonob 1oWuor 90 loader.
1t is noteworthy hat the Russians,
who are present in the camp in large
numbers, neither are represented
among the musicians nor attend the
concerts to any extent. AS in every
other camp, they prove to be willing,
automatic, husky workers who lave
little interest in anything, u all
eating all they can get when they
come back to camp at night, and in
loafing in dull satisfaction after
ward.
Prof. DR.. Karl Strange OF the
University of Gettingen, the friend or
every soldier informed regardless OF
nationality, is the "~instigatOr" OF
the concerts; he is president OF the
tiny university at the camp and in
structor of most of the classes; he
is supervisor of the fOur-language
library; he is editor in chief of the
French newspaper and will hold the
same position on the English jour-
nal that is contemplated; and above
all he is the confidant of Russians,
D-.-ah Doln;onc EnO1icb ond Cana
dams.
! Goettingen camp lies high up on
J the hillside above the charming uni
versity town which many Americans
know so we'll. The camps "a wood
en- barracks, its four huge kitchens,
four c~anteens, store rooms and hos
pital buildings are laid out symmet-
rically, with a broad, paved street in
the iddle, off of which narrower
thoroughfares lead. The hillside
location has facilitated the work of
making and keeping the kamp sani-
tary. The soil is a hard clay, and
deep drains from top to bottom have
been built in the earth. They lead
to the outskirts of the camp and
there connect with the sewerage sys-
TEN of the town of Goettingen
proper.
From the start the greatest care
has beer paid to hospital arrange
ments. Earlier in the war when a
big batch of Russians was brought
in cholera was discovered. One of
the prisoners was dead when the
train arrived and 3S died later. That
was the beginning of an isolation
camp that has been extended until
today there are rooms for typhoid,
tuberculosis, scarlet and other COM
municable diseases.
Goettingen has the same tremen-
dous influx of letters and packages
that other camps have. The staff OF
censors read $4,000 outgoing letters
and cards, $4,000 incoming messag-
es every month. The packages that
have to be inspected range in num-
bers from 10000 to $4,000 a month.
Prof. Strange expressed a few OF
the ideas by which he has been guild
ed in his voluntary work at the in
stitutiOn.
Il have made the soldiers feel"
he said, that because they are pris-
oners they are not locked down upon,
that one respects them the more be-
cause they have fought a good fight
for their country, just as our SOL
diers are fighting the good fight for
the Fatherland.
so l tell them, Because of the
fortunes of war, you arc now outside
of it's operation. l, too, because 1
am beyond the military age, am out
side its operation. Why cannot we
work together, to the end that you
may find your Imprisonment a little
more tolerable by working at what
there is to do, by improving your
selves mentally and physically?
9GC--1--Iv~ H. 1850 h4u0 ~ In