The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-04-28
HOW SOLDIERS FARE
IN PRISON CAMPS
HOW THE PRISONERS FARE.
The Russians Are Industrious, the
English Lazy, and the French
Make Good Cooks.

LrleS Will WulCil HeiMdAy 10 oe WoA
in the huge prison camp at Doeber-
itz, about so miles from Berlin.
Fresh-faced, English sailor boys
still in their teens, bearded Scotch
Highlanders, peasants from the
south of France, and Mopjiks from
Russia, suddenly have been plunged
togeEher-each with his customs and
habits, likes and dislikes. Pretty
nearly every one is face to face with
his ally for the first time in his life.
How to control the throng of pris-
oners so that discipline may be tenn
pered with justice is problem
which the Germans have been study
ing with thoroughness. A group of
newspaper men from neutral coun-
tries, who visited Doeberitz recently,
found the camp we'll organized, ac-
tive, and intensely interesting, and
it's inhabitants as contented as could
be expected under the circumstances.
In dealing with camp problems the
authorities have reached certain
broad conclusions summed up as fol-
lows by a reserve officer stationed at
the prison camp:
"The Russians are the most indus
trious; the English are by far the
LATEST and hardest to handle; the
last to make trouble of any kind"
Doeberitz is huge collection of
long wooden shacks, built by the
prisoners. The camp is enclosed by
a barbed wire fence ten or a dozen
feet high which, contrary to report,
is not charged with electricity to
prevent escape. Only four men,
Russians, have tried to get away
thus far, and they came back.
At night time and in leisure hours
the men are divided according to ma
tionality, and, so far as possible in
racial subdivisions. In the work
shops, however, English and Rus
slams are put together. The En-
glish objected to this arrangement
at first. Men of both races are prov
ing adept at shoemaking, but the
seem to have little skill
at it and are more available in the
cook houses.
Prisoners artistically inclined and
in poor physical condition have a
house in which they paint and make
crayon drawings and Photographic
enlargements. Visitors to the camp
not infrequently purchase the out
put, the money finding it's way to
the canteen for food and tobacco.
At meal time French, Belgians,
English and Russians gather togeth-
er and pass through the cook houses.
Each house is equipped with huge
boilers containing hundreds of
quarts of the stew, soup or goulash,
that forms the chief item on the bill
of fare. That this food is nourish-
ing and appetizing has been attested
by scores Of visitors to Doeberitz,
who invariably are invited to sample
it. The prisoners say the same,
but they complain that the fare is
The means of relieving this mono
tony lies in the canteen, and that is
available only for the men who re-
ceive money from home. Every eff
fort is made by the German authori-
ties to facilitate this, and gradually
a miniature banking system, with
hundreds of accounts, has been
evolved.
There is also a postofice, which
handles between $4,000 and 10000
letters month. The prisoners are
permitted to write, on an average
two letters a week. The Russian
mail presents the greatest difficulties
for the censors. The men write In
a. variety of ways-Russian in Ger
man script, German in Russian script
Polish in several scripts, Hebrew
and any number of dialects.
In the package division of th'
post office thousands of sacks of pre-
sents have to be examined and dis