The Alaska daily empire., 1916-05-09
FRENCH SOLDIER;
 GERMAN PRISONER,
 pETAILs TIE LIFE


 Narrowing details of life in o Ger. man prison hospital are given by Charles Honnebois, in a volume en- titled "ln the Hands of Germany the Diary of @ Wounded Prisoner" A few extracts culled from lt show what the majority of the wounded Frenchmen have to endure when they fan Into the hands of their oppo- nents, who seem to have no concep. ton of the rights of a prisoner nor commiseration for the wounded The happenings of two days tell tho whole tale 1t is as follows.
 March 31.-New restrictions on our right to wriie we can now only write one letter at Q time The food was bad but a healthy man could digest 1t. Now 1t is cut down sud denly. The bread is worm eaten. We are no longer allowed to purchase in the town Surveillance severe, gloomy, suspicious. Searches in our possessions every day. We are for bidden to receive packages from the French districts We try to let our friends know. but our letters are for warded SO tardily that many are still on the way. Wnl we get the packag es now bound to us? We are soon put at rest on the matter Those for whom parcels arrive are handed the wrappers and have to pay tax Of eighty pfennigs a kilogramme for preserves and chocolate. And then the contents are seized.
 Everything goes into strange hands and-'it is gracious gift that the French wounded make to their Ger man friends, the Boche captain tells us.
 Now the Gazette de Lorraine. special edition, printed in horrible French. is interdicted to us. It is not much of Q loss. What villainies the sheet contalnedl What insults to good Frenchmen. An insert in a big German daily, 1t was the receptacle for all the absurd rumors that Ger man minds could think of
 But this interdiction carries with 1t a grave deprivation. No more French books, fiction, or otherwise; no more German dictionaries, nor even the old illustrated papers that are prisoners, and prison means si- are prisoners. and phison means sl- lence. solitude. To read would be to think To read of France-and evil-would be to exalt in us lat ent tenderness, to blow to life the blackened embers of enthusiasm. The Shadows of Germany have become between us and our beloved authors. had the Demon de Midi, of Bourget, 80 interesting It was seized at once And ] have had to conceal my notes in my bed.
 White paper in Q drawer attract ed attention. The Prussian soldier who found 1t was exasperated.
 Whats the paper for? Where did 1t come fromg
 "'To study German My response hao Nclg lullu. tlt olVmtu NAo udtttN.
 You will have time to do that when 1t is spoken in your pig of countryV
 Never ] exclaim. He raises his fist over my bed; then he laughs brutally, insultingly. He left but I was crying with rage, white as a sheet in my weakened condition
 "Oh. how terrible 1t Is to be only m invalid, in this bed of pain. on stained sheets, unable to smash that barbarian in the eye; to thrust his insults down his throat
 March 24-After the interdiction, confiscation By order. this morn ing, the searching has begun now. We had postal cards. for which We paid dearly when we bought them. They are seized from our hands The brutal order came suddenly without warning And with them went our tobacco supply.
 "Adieu. the cigarettes. No more pipes."