Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-12-10

! l never saw a yellower bunch of
people in my life. / do not mean peo-
pie. / wish / could publish what /
really mean.
We had stoves in the barracks, but
no coal or wood to burn. There were
many boxes piled up there, but they
belonged to the Germans We would
have burned them if we could. but
the Germans made US carry them
across the road. They weighed about
80 pounds apiece, and we were so
weak that it was all two men could DO
to bulge them. And we had to carry
them; they would not let us roll them.
We were so cold and hungry that even
that exercise did not warm us.
About 2:30 the whistle blew again,
| and the Huns picked out a few men
and took them down the road. We
could not figure out why, but they
came back about three O'Clock, all of
them with bread in their arms. They
were chewing away on it when they
had chance. Whenever the sentries
were not looking they would bite at 1t
like fish going after a worm. Each
man carried five loaves.
When they got in the barracks the
sentries made them put the bread
down on the floor. and then, with
their bayonets, the sentries cut each
loaf once down the center lengthwise
and four times across, which meant
ten men to loaf about the size OF an
ordinary ten-cent loaf in this country
now. They gave each of us piece
little larger than safety-match
box.
The bread was hard and dark, and
really think they made it from trees.
1t had just exactly the same smell
! that the dirt around trees has.
We filed past the sentries single file
| to get our ration of this mud, and
there was no chance of getting in line
| twice, for we had to keep on filing
| until we were out in the road, and
| stand there in the snow to eat it. We
could not go back in the barracks IN
! til every man had been served.
Our meals were like this: can of
| barley coffee in the morning; cabbage
| soup, so called. at noon; a tenth of
loaf of bread at p. m. That was
| our menu day in and day out, the
kaiser's birthday, Lincolns, May day,
! or any other time.
This cabbage soup was great idea.
We called it shadow soup, because the
| boys claimed they made it by hanging
| N hho Of tnr nd
| letting the shadow fall on the water
We pretended, too, that if you found
| any cabbage in it, you could take your
dish back for a second helping. But
1 never saw anybody get more than
one dlshful. All it was, was just
spoiled water.
! We tried to go to sleep that night.
| but there were SO many sentries
around us-and those of US who were
not sick were wOunded-that / do not
think a man of us really slept. After
| while l asked a sentry if l could go
| outside for a minute, but for some rea-
son he would not let me. l had diff
ferent ideas about it, so l stood
around near the door, and when he
turned his back out went and around
| the corner of the barracks
But one of the sentries there saw
me and blew his whistle, and a guard
| of eight came up from somewhere and
| grabbed me. | tried to explain, but it
was no use, because every time said
a word it meant another swat over
the ear, so finally l gave it up.
Then they drilled me across the
road to the officers quarters. There
were three officers there, and each of
them asked me questions about all
! kinds of things, but never once men
toned my running out of the bar
racks. Then they gave the sentries
some commands. and four of the SEN
tries took me out and over to the
barbed wire fence. There they tied
me, face to the fence, arms over my
head, and hands and feet dashed to
the wire, and with a rope around my
waist, too. | thought, then, that my
bunch had come true, and that l
would be Crucitied, like Murray and
Brown.
They posted a sentry there in addi-
ton to the regular guards, and every
time he walked past me he would kick
me or spit on me, or do both.
One time he kicked me so hard
that a prong of the barbed wire
| gaShed me over the left eye--the only