The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-11-22
CHAPTER xxII-continued.

CF1AF E II NNii-SoiithihSd.
d.
The day we were transferred to tn
regular prison barracks four hundred
Russians and Belgians were buried
Most of them had died from cholera
typhoid and NEGOTIATIONS. We heart
from the prisoners there before us tina
the Germans had come through thu
camps with word that there was ar
epidemic of black typhus and cholers
and that the only thing for the men tt
do was to take the serum treatment tt
avoid catching these diseases. Most OF
the four hundred men had died from
the NEGOTIATIONS. They had taken the
Germans word, had been inoculateo
and had died within nine hours. Which
shows how foolish it is to believe q
German. None of us had any doubt
but what the serum was poisonous.
The second day that we were in the
regular camp the Germans strung
barbed wire all around our barracks.
They told us we had a case of black
fyphus among us. This was nothing
more nor less than bluff, for not one
of us had typhus, but they put up the
wire, nevertheless, and we were not
allowed to go out.
One day when I was loafing around
our barracks door and not having any
thing particularly important to do, l
packed a nice hard SNOWFALL and land
ed it neatly behind the ear of a little
sentry not far away. When he looked
around he did not blow his whistle but
began hunting for the thrower. This
was strange in German sentry and
thought he must be pretty good stuff.
When he looked around. however, all
he saw was a man staggering around
as if he were drunk. The man was
the one who had done the throwing, all
right, but the sentry could not be sure
of it, for surely no man would stay
out in the open and invite accidents
like that. But still, who had done 1t?
So 1 just kept staggering around,
and the sentry came up to me and
looked me over pretty hard. Then l
thought for the first time that things
might go hard on me, but figured
that if / quit the play acting it would
be all over. So 1 staggered right up
TO the sentry and looked at him drunk
emily, expecting every moment to get
one from the bayonet.
But he was so surprised that all he
could do was stare. So l stared back,
pretending that / saw two of him, and
otherwise acting foolish. Then / guess
he realized for the first time that the |
chances of anybody being drunk in
that camp were small-at least for the |
prisoners. He was rubbing his ear I
all the time, but finally the thought
seeped through the ivory and he began
TO laugh. | laughed, too, and the first
thing you know he had me doing it
again-that is, the imitation. One
was enough, figured.
used to talk to him quite often
after that We had no particular
love for each other, but he was gamer
than the other sentries, and he did not
all me schweinhund every time he saw
me. so we got on very well together.
His name must have been Schwartz,
guess. but it sounded like "Swatts" to
me, so Syatts he was, and | was
'Chink" to him, as everybody else
called me that.
One day he asked me if I could
peak French, and / said yes. Italian
yes. Russian; yes No matter what
language he might have mentioned /
would have said yes, because l could
smell something in the wind, and l
vas curious. Then he told me that If
went TO the hospital and worked
here, / might get better meals and
would not have to go SO far for them,
md that my knowing all the languages
said I did would help me a great
yays toward getting the job.
Evidently he had been told to get
nan for the place, because he ap-
pointed me to it then and there. He
,ut me to work right away. We went
,yer to one of the barracks, where a
ase of sickness had been reported,
nd found that the invalid was q big {
sarbadoes negro named Jim, fire. |
nan from the Voltaire. At one time {
i'm must have weighed 250 pounds,
ut by this time he was about two Q
ounds lighter than straw hat, but
till black and full of pep. Light as
e was, / was no white hope" and 1t S
vas all could do to carry him to the
ospital. Swatts kept right along be- {
ind me, and every time | would stop '
0 rest, he would poke me with
room-the only broom | saw In Ger f
laugh and point to his ear.
Then thought 1t was a frame-up v