The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-24

trained for Essen-afld the mines. l How greatly my lot was changed at the mines. Before I had been a free workman, now I was a prison CT, and. the men who had previously 1 been only too willing to be my friends would not now recognize me, and were, indeed, forbidden to hold conversation with me.
 My German fellow workers were not, however, naturally amiable, and they seemed to find pleasure in sneer- ing and jeering at my plight, until I was really glad to be put into that part of the mine where the other prisoners worked. These included ci- vilians and soldiers.
 For our sleeping apartments huts had been built at the mouth of the mine. These huts were ipdescribably filthy, as no attempt was made to keep them clean, and we prisoners were kept at work in the pit until we were fit to drop from sheer ex- I Our rations. which were served out to us every night, consisted of a week ly allowance of about two pounds of bread which seemed to be made large ly of sawdust, cattle turnips, or wur- gels (which were in state of fer lmentation) and barley
 Half pound of meat was suppos- ed to be allowed us once a week. put we were indeed fortunate to get it. Whether it was not provided or whether the guards themselves kept 1 it back cannot say
 Men often sickened with the con. stand hard work and bad food, but so long as there was life in them they had to crawl from the huts and 20 down the mine at five o'clock each morning. remaining there until six o'clock in the evening
 l So they worked, and dropped dead at their work. Even in death they I were ill-treated by the guards, their bodies being dragged out of the cham l bers and flung at the foot of the nit shaft almost before the breath had left their bodies. Whether they had decent burial or not I cannot say. We saw no more of them after we left the pit, but the old men who are employed in the pits clearing away at night might be able to make some startling disclosures.
 When employed as a free work man had wrought in shifts either from five until twelve o'clock or from one till eight o'clock and was paid at the rate of ten shi1Hngs per shift NOW, however, as a. prisoner, work ed from five in the morning until six o'clock at night with only half an hours break for my rations. and re- ceiyed a voucher that was sunnosed to be worth. ten shillings,' per week These vouches were, however. worth less. ' - { we hao no conyeniences for bath ing, or washing our clothing, and we were Ill and miserable. The inhu- man German soldiers delighted in our
 misery, and only laughed if wa asl.sd to be allowed to clean ourselves | Deplorable as our state was it was not to be compared with that of the T British soldier prisoners who came to share our work. As nearly as I can remember, it was May. 1916.
 when they came-seventy-f in number. Several of them ware wounded, and all were half-staryad d
 and in rags, while many were hare footed.
 l They had been prisoners for some
 months at Bitsch, they told us. and
 had been subjected to the worst DOS
 sipie treatment. They hoped the
 change to Essen would be for the
 Detter, put unfortunately we could
 hold out no such hope as Essen. in
 our opinion, contained the most in.
 human soldiers to be found anvwbere
 in the Kaiser's realm,
 I One young fellow said he had been
 taken prisoner whilst lying wounded
 in wood. He remembered nothine .
 of his past--not even his name-ex-
 cept his fight with his bare fists : when. the German patrol found hin, In spite of his head wound and loss
 of blood, it took ten Germans to over. power him.
 Naturally this soldier was insnired by disgust at his captors' brutality. As
 he himself remarked-"Even if T had : not cause to hate them before fine , treatment that has been meted out
 to me and my comrades since we
 have been prisoners is almost enough to make an angel hate them.'
 This soldier lost his boots durins the first hour of his imprisonn oanf one of the Germans taking them off
 his feet. Afterwards he hac 10 or barefooted, marching over rougt
 roads through snow and mud. As a
 result his feet when he reached Els.
 sen were swollen to twice their nor. mal size, and were hacked and bleed. ing. Had he been German prison.
 CT in Britain he would have been in
 CoRTEZ C. RO(.Kypf,rT ,,,,,xn.