Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1917-12-26
Connecticut Man Arrives Home
After Escape Into Sweden
on Fertilizer Boat.
WAS HELD m THREE PRISONS
Lost % Pounds In Seven Months De.
fore Aid came-ouards Worse on
Than Prisoners and Glad to Get
Scraps from Food the
Y. n. c. A. Sent


forts III any) do the men receive VIII,
are captured BY the Germansf
How do the captives stand German
prison conditionsf
Americans are more than ever VI
tally interested in these questions
since some Of General Pershing's sol
diers were made prisoners a few day
ago In trench raid in France.
Through the narrative Of ans Amer
lean adventurer who less than {
month ago escaped from q German
prison and who had had experience
with two other confinement campo
the New York World Is able to give
answers to the questions.
Captured BY Moews.
The narrator Is Willet G. Smith OF
South Norwalk. Conn. who reached
this country on November 9 from Swe-
den, to which land he escaped from
Lubbock, Germany, BY concealing him.
self In the hold Of a vessel and ex-
listing six days without food or wa
ter.
Smith had been prisoner, arst
aboard the German raider Moewe. then
In camp at Duelmen. then at Branden-
burg and finally at Lubbock. for seven
months and one day. He fed ON Octo-
Der IL.
Summed up, his Testimony Ia this !:
There II no particular brutality. no
clubbing with guns or stabbing with
bayonets as long as prisoners remain
orderly. But the food Is insufiicient-
he fell away from 30 to 100 pounds
and long continued subsistence upon
German prison fare alone has most
grievous effects upon the health.
Only the Red Cross and Y. NJ. G. A.
supplies are keeping the prisoners
alive at some confinement places.
Brandenburg. where about 10000
prisoners Of allied nations were kept.
was the worst camp Smith encounter
ed. This is in Prussia, not far from
Berlin. Duelmen. in Westphalia, was
bad enough, although the treatment
was better. At Lubbock. which IL not
camp but port where prisoners
are worked on the waterfront, condi-
duu5 were not DHu ut dii-
Guards Worse on.
The German soldiers guarding the
prisoners were far worse of there than
the captives, Smith declares. Re
lief organizations keep the prisoners
supplied with enough food and clothes
to get along with, and the middle-aged
guards. half starving and In patches.
beg supplies from their captive enc
mics.
They're sick and disguised with
the war, these fellows at Lubbock"
Smith says. "They would often say
Look at US. without enough to eat
or wear! The kaiser's no earthly
good! He's crazy. Germany's starv-
ing and licked and yet he keeps on
fighting!
Smith, a railroad brakeman by
trade and a boomer" by inclination.
sailed from Newport News on January
% for Liverpool as foreman Of 81
American horse-wranglers. When his
ship, the British-owned steamer Es-
meralda, was on her return voyage In
March she was captured. robbed and
sunk by the raider Moewe, and her
crew added to the prisoners of that adj
venturous craft, who numbered at the
end Of the Moewe's raiding voyage
above 600.
How the prisoners were shut be
| low, with no chance for their lives,
whenever the Noewe sighted another
| vessel, has been told by others, and
| Smiths narrative Of that need not be
| repeated. He arrived with the resi-
at Kiel, Germany. on March n. and
next day, with all the Moewe's prfs
\ oners, was sent to Duelmen. Westpha
liza. a town about ten miles from tn
Holland border.
captors ~on Leave
sWe were sent down there In thift
class cara" Smith said. with on
guard to each ten men. The guard
were all middle-aged Germans VIII
had been at the front and who wer
home on furlough- They complains
bitterly because when they got leav
Il wasn't really leave ut all The
lad to do guard duty or work In
factory or On . farm. This trip las'
"a ali night, but We didn't get = scra
Of food TIL We had breakfast 1t Due
men in the morning.
N The camp cousisted Of lot a los
wooden. unpalntsd shaekA with p,ai
lboard hooru. Around the walls -
Ibunks, one above another. Each bun
lhad bar Of straw for . mattress, N
1 - 1879 k4snRnka 01snr