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

effective way Of extracting fnforma-
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: mo,
no." another interjects, sit was this
way" and he gives a different &C
count of the matter. "Weu, was at
such and such a place. third in.
sists, land what saw was this and
that" Every man is anxious to shine,
and every man wants to seem i'm
portant by contributing a 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.
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 it, "
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 7 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 it still
It Is not that the odor was so much
nauseating as overpowering. In 9th,
er words, it wasinot so much fou.
smell as an effective smell. It sent
shudder of weakness over the whole
body and that sensation was accom-.
panied by intense prickling. A sore
feeling remained In the nose and
throat for an hour, and a kind ot
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 officer:
were brave, but inexperienced, ane
so got them into tight places.
To me the English troops seemed
weedy and juvenile. The incessan'
use of the word "Sir" by those witt
whom I talked indicated that the!
came from the humber class. A
first I tried to meet them with
handshake and some words Of com
| radeship in their own language, bu
the effort only embarrassed them
though I am sure that my attempt tt
be a good fellow with them wa
neither pompous nor patronizing.
One English prisoner Of more thar
the average intelligence told US, tina
in front Of some Of the English posi-
tions the dead had been lying un
buried since May. ...-
"Good heavens" said German Of
fcer, t'that kind of thing has tn
worst influence on the morale o
troops" Turning to the group o
prisoners for whom the intelligen
man had been principal spokesman
he added: "Why was 1t allowed?"
The English wearily shrugged
their shoulders and answered: Cam
say. sir"