The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-26

MauthauSen. Austria, sept. I6.- From a picturesque though little known village on the upper Danube, Mauthausen. has become the "clear- ing house" in Austria for Italian pris- 2 oners of war.
 . Its peace-time population of few hundred persons has grown to that of small city, and each month there pass through it. With three %' weeks stop for quarantine purposes. /several thousand Italian soldiers and several hundred Italian officers
 The town consists of a group of 1ss picturesque houses, church or! two ,. and an ancient palace that clings to < sthe edge of the Danube. What may .r be called the new city consists of acres upon acres of white-washed barracks holding fin all when full 42,00O sol- X. diers.
 Only some eight or ten thousand soldiers were interned in the "city' { when The Associated Press yeorres-' 70 pondent arrived to pay the camp a visit. Two days earlier there had >of been 25.00o, but the greater part of them had been, sent out along their way-to permanent camps in eastern o- Austria and Hdngahy.I
 's Daily there arrive at Mauthausen .I T gifts'' from relatives and friends in VI Italy. The banking and bookkeeping -1department of the camp has to main .fbtain a ledger with something over tsff41, 900 running bank accounts, the to- bsfHA of which far exceeds a million xfnQyowns. Each prisoner, wherever Nafe may be-, is permitted to possess ten crowns a week for capteen spend ing money. All that he receives odffon home over that goes into his ac- count The actual handling of cash Sx devolves upon Austrian officers; the bookkeeping is done by Italian pris- oners of war, who are thus in a posi- ton to know that the funds of their compatriots are honestly and accu- rately administered.
 So long as he stays in Mauthausen,, which may be for a year if his con- duct is good, the Italian soldier is of fered the privileges of a school in which illiterates are taught to read and write and in which the better ed- ucated may take courses in German, in English and in other useful sub jects. If so inclined he may take N up painting and wood carving and sculpture. He will be furnished the materials. his product will be sold at q price not under a minimum set by himself and he will He given the bal ance between sales price and cost of materials. Or he. can enter either the stringed orchestra. or the brass band. Af ~ The correspondent saw an exhibi- ton of one of the half dozen fire com panies, composed wholly of Italians, who guarded the camp from pos Neible connagration. and who as mat tsr of fact have kept the fire loss, de- spite the wooden construction, down E. to two barracks and no loss of life. Fire prevention Is further aided by high fra tower in the center of the camp, on which two men constantly stand guard. with a horn to warn of blaze and 2 flag to indicate its di- rection.
 The colonel of the camp led the 4 correspondent through the wash rooms --huke barracks fitted with showers and heated in winter time, -er equip i ped with rows of faucets for washing hands and faces-and through the living Barracks The latter are large and roomy-and very clean-far bet ttr than any the correspondent had Seen in the course of visits to camps z in other countries.
 The hospital section of the camp is one of the best in Austria, in cleanli-
 
 neFs boast that there never has been |. m epidemic of any character, that on- . ly such diseases as were brought by the \men have ever been encountered, as in any large community, but now s the cause is chiefly tuberculosis of an- cient standing among the prisoners.
 Since the wounded as well as the well often come to Mauthausen the camp h4s met the need for artificial limbs by creating little factory for manufacturing these grim implements and UT, to date has turned out about 150 and trained the war victims to use them
 The Young Mems Christian Asso- ciat1on amusement hall with its tiny stage has been equipped with seen cry made by the prisoners and with ssf drop curtain showing the Bay of Ma pies. Here too are the educational classes, conducted by the intelligent and gifted Italians.
 The English classes are conducted by Tony Tenore, who told the cor respondent that brother in New York Crank Tenore of 300 Bridge Street, Brooklyn), believed him to be dead because he had had no oppor- tunity to communicate-with him. The .k Italian, who said he had lived two
 
 ,membered to the brother.
 One of the chief aims of the author tties is to give the men as much op- portunity to work as possible, and on, the whole find them tractable and willing If the men do nothing they receive 6ocents day if privates, 12 cents if corpora1s or, sergeants, and IS cents if higher non-commissioned of ficers. If they go out to work on farms or in Qnarries or roads they get settled sum in addition.
 Self-government, insofar as it is possible, has been introduced, and s Nthe common soldiers are commanded by their own non-coms and merely su- pervised by Austrian troops. Accord ing to the number in camp they live { 150 to 25O in the big. airy, lighted barracks, with their own superiors told off to keep them in order.
 Their food, so far as the correspon- dent could judge from an examination <. of a weeks bill of fare, appears to be ample though somewhat monotonous. Whey have two meatless days a week, as all the rest of Austria does, fat 1eas day and the other restrictions. nd Ina tn