The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1917-12-15

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the farms I managed to get pair Of
wooden shoes to keep my feet off the
ground.
There had been promises of Red
Cross packages and Y. NJ. G. A. boxes
ut Brandenburg, but they hadn't ar
rived when I left.
"At Lubbock everything was much
better. They kept us in big ware
house on the Hamburg-American quay,
and made US load and unload ships.
But here we had steamer hunks to
sleep in and decent blankets, and 1t
was luxury compared to the other
places. We had the same old bum
coffee and turnip soup-but our guards
got the same. Then in the summer we
began to receive some clothing from
the International Y. NJ. G. A. and some
food boxes from the American Red
Cross through Copenhagen.
What Y. M. c. A. Sent.
EVERY week we got box that had
In 1t 30 biscuits, some corned beef,
veal loaf, suet pudding, condensed milk,
one-quarter pound Of tea, slice Of
bacon, a can of fruit, so cigarettes and
some tobacco. That saw us through.
1t was so good we felt sorry for the
poor guards and would give them
scraps. They offered as high as 30
marks for a pound Of tea. And the
bacon they would have given anything
for"
In June, Smith made his first at
tempt at escape. He had been work.
ing in a shipyard distant from Lubbock
and managed to elude his guard ut
nightfall. He struck out overland, but
his prison uniform revealed him and
two days later he was captured md
returned. For the offense Of trying to
escape he was given 10 days In the
"black hole" with only piece of
bread a day to eat. Also big Ger
man guard "t0Ok couple of cracks"
ut his face. sar ss,.E$aa es
"The Spanish ambassador came to
see us Americans on June and prom-
Used to send us books and clothing,
but never saw any Of them. They
did begin to put few potatoes into
the turnip soup, and occasionally they
put about five pounds of meat into the
soup supply for 800 men.
Another Getaway Chance.
"In October I made up my mind to
take another chance on getaway. The
ships we were loading were plying be-
tween Lubbock and Swedish ports, and
I thought might hide on one of these.
They carried mostly salt fertilizer to
Sweden, though sometimes some coal
and coke, and they brought back pig
iron and ore. never saw them bring
in any foodstuffs. Sometimes the Ger
man ships would 60 out carrying
barbed wire and iron rods for the
trenches on the Russian front. They
went to Riga, believe.
"There was one boat, the Undine,
which travelled between Lubbock and
a Swedish port named Norrkoping reg
ularly. / got acquainted with q Swede
on board her, and he told me one 9TH
err fellow had made his getaway 10
Noyrkoping by concealing himself in
the hold.
my. scheme was this: Every MORN
ing the guard would get together an
early working crew Of II men at four
O'Clock. He would take them on board
while 1t was dark, to get the matches
ready for the others. One morning
when wasn't In this squad ! hid my
self in the hallway where. they always
lined up. The guard counted his II,
and then in the darkness Joined
them. AS we climbed aboard the
Undine he didn't know he had ID, in
stead of II. He was boneheaded
German anyhow.
81 hid myself In the fertilizer--a
combination Of salt and sulphur. What
II did to me was plenty. My feet are
still full Of holes and the nails are
of my toes"
For six days then Gan unusually
long Journey Smith remained In the
hold. When the vessel locked at
Norrkopng and the hatch was opened
he dashed down the gangplank to
safety. The Swedish police gave him
water and food; American consulate
attaches clothed him and sent him to
Stockholm and then to Christiania
Norway, and there he boarded the liner
Bergensjord for home.
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