The Carlisle independent., 1918-12-19
CHAPTER XXI.

CHAPTER XXI.
 .fAe Hen Hole of Germany
 0u arriving at BraBdenbuTg we were marched the three or four miles nortn- vest to the camp. While we were be- hy nhrcbed through the streets a woman walled alongside of us for auSte q way, talking to the boys in B1gt1ah and asking them about the war She said she did not believe auythiu9 the German papers printed. 0he- sa6 she was an Engfishwomsn from Liverpool and that at the out sreasc ot the war not being able to xet out of Germany, she and her eh,l- &ren had been put iA prison and that every day fer ever a week they had put h~ through the third degree; that Yer ctdhren had been separated from her aad that she did rot know where 1hey were
 She valked along with os for several blocks untn sentry heard her say something not very complimentary to the 0ermans and chased her away. When we arrived at the camp we were put into the receiving barracks and Kept there sf1 days. The condition of thesa barraeks was Tot such that you could describe 1t. The floors were ae- tuaiir nothing but filth. Very few of the bQuks remained; the rest had been teru dD~n-Sof fuel, I suppose.
 The day we were transferred to the regular prison barracks four hundred Russians and Belgians were buried. Most of them had died from cholera, typhoid and fDoculations. We beard frsu the prisoners there before us that a,e Ge1mens had come through the anpS with word that there was an epidemic of black typhus and cholera sad that the only thing for the men to xe was eD take the serum treatment to evotd catching these diseases. Most of tiae four hundred men had died from lhs fnocu4attcns They had taken the aermHnS word, had been inocuiated and Bad died within nine hours. Which sfoWH how foolish 1t Is to believe a German None of us had any doubt but what the serum was poisonous.
 The second day that we were in the regriag camp the Germans strung barbe6 wire all around our barracks. Ihez told us we had case of black eypisls 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 eur barracks door and not having any, thing particularly important to do, I packed a nice hard snowball and land ed 1t neatly behind the ear of little gentry not far away. When he looked around he did not blow his whistle but began hunting for the thrower. This was strange In a German sentry and 1 thought he must be pretty good stuff. When he looked around. however, all he saw was 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 sf 1t. for surely no man would stay cut in the open and invite accidents like that. But still. who had done 1t?
 So l just kept staggering around, and the sentry came up to me and looked me over pretty hard. Then 1 thought for the first time that things might go hard on me, but I figured that if quit the play acting 1t would to the sentry and looked at him drunk enly. expecting every moment to get ene from the bayonet.
 But he was so surprised that all he could do was stare. So stared back. pretending that I saw two of him, and otherwise acting foolish. Then l guess he realized for the first time that the chances of anybody being drunk in that camp were smail-at least for the ]risoners. He was rubbing his ear aii the time, but finally the thought seeped through the ivory and he began to laugh I laughed, too, and the first thing you know he had me doing 1t asRin-that Is, the imitation. One nowball was enough, figured.
 used to talk to him quite often after that We had no particular hOFS AOA Co>h otbNAs bot hC WaS k11uCk than the other sentnes, and he did not csdl me sehweinhund every time he saw me, so we got on very we'll together. Ills name must have been Schwartz, I guess, but 1t sounded like "Swatts'' to me. SO Swatts he was, and I was sChink" to him. as everybody else called me that.
 One day he aAked me if could speak French, and said yes. Italian; yes Russian; yes No matter what language he might have mentioned I would have said yes, because I could smell something In the wind, and I was curious. Then he told me that if went to the hospital and worked there, might get better meals and would not have to go so far for them, and that my knowing all the languages said l did would help me a great