Arizona republican., 1917-09-12
XXXIX
Life and Adaptabilities of the Prison
 Camps

In Ruhleben the educated prisoners volunteered to teach the ignorant: two hundred and ninety seven different educational courses were offered 10 those who desired to improve thelr minds. A splendid orchestra was or ganized, a dramatic society which gave plays in French and one which gave plays in English and another one which gave operas. On New Years day. 1916, I attended at Ruhleben a really wonderful performance of the pantomine of Cinderella" and in Jan uary. 1917, a performance of "The Mikado" in a theater under one Of the grand stands In these productions, or course, the female parts were taken by young men and the scenery, costumes and accessories were all made by the prisoners.
 There was a camp library of more than five thousand volumes sent over by the British government and read
 ing and meeting hall erected by the American Young Mems Christian as- sociation. There was even system of postal service, with special stamps, so that a prisoner in one barracks could write friend in another and have a letter delivered by the camp postal authorities The German au thorities had not hired the entire race track frcm the Race Track associa- ton, so that I made a special contract with the race track owners and hired from them the infield and other DOT tions not taken over by German au- thorities. Here the prisoners had ten his courts and played hockey. football and cricket and held athletic games. Expert dentists in the camp took care of the poorer prisoners. as did an ocu1ist hired by me with British funds, and glasses from the same funds were given the poorer prisoners.
 Special Accommodation in Camps
 The prisoners who needed a little better nourshment than that afforded by the camp diet and their parcels from England could obtain cards giv- ing them the right to eat in the casino or camp official restaurant, where they were allowed certain indicated amount of wine or beer with their meals; finally arrangements were ar rived at by which the German guards left the camp, simply guarding the camp from the outside, and the po- licing of the camp was taken over by the camp police department under the charge of the prison camp commander and committee. The worst features. of course were food and the housing. Human nature seems always to be the same. Establishment of clubs seems inherent to the Anglo Saxon nature. Ten or more persons would combine together and erect a sort of wooden shed against the brick walls of a bar rack, hire some poorer person to put on a white jacket and De addressed as steward" put in the shade a few deck chairs and a table ana ensoy the sen nf In thereby given.
 Owing to the failure of Germany and England to come to an agreement for long time as to the release of cap tured crews of ships, there were in Ruhleben men as old as seventy five years and boys as young as fifteen. There were in all between fifty and sixty of these ships boys. They lived in barrack by themselves. and under the supervision of a ships officer who volunteered to look after them as a sort of monitor They were taught navigation by older prisoners, and, imagine. were rather benefited by their stay in camp. I finally made arrange ments by which these boys were re- leased from England and Germany. With the exception of the officers
 and crews of the ships, prisoners were iiol iAttIHcu WHO were over lilty -llNe The British government was gener- ous in the allowance of money for Ruhleben prisoners
 Skimping the Prisoners Rations The amount allowed by the German government to the camp commanders for feeding the prisoners was extreme
 ly small only sixty pfennings a day At first many of the camp command
 CTS made contracts with caterers fol
 the feeding of the prisoners, and, as | the caterers profit had to come out ot | this very small sum, the amuont ol l food which the remainder purchased | Tor the prisoners was small, indeed
 As the war went on the prisoners de- partment of the war office tried to in
 duce the camp commanders to aban
 don the contractor system and pur.
 chase supplies themselves. A sort O | convention of camp commanders wa:
 held in Berlin, which I attended. Lee lures were there given on food and it! purchase and methods of disinfectins
 prisoners, on providing against typhu
 and on housing and other subjects
 A dally lunch was served, supposed t
 De composed of the exact rations givei
 at the prison camps.
 The schedules of food, etc, made ou
 by the camp commanders and fur
 nished to foreign correspondents wer,
 often not allowed in practice. I know
 on one occasion when I was at thu
 camp in Doeberitz, the camp com
 mandery gave me his schedule of foot
 for the week. This provided that soul l with pieces of meat was to be givel