The Jasper news., 1918-12-05
CHAPTER XIII.
pespalr--and Freedom.

|
| pital conditions ut my old barracks
had been getting worse and worse.
| Very few of the men were absolutely
right in the head. I guess, and almost
all had given up hope of ever getting
out alive. Though they put up a good
front to the Huns, they really did not
care great deal what happened to
| them. The only thing to think about
was the minute they were living In.
The day l came back two English
men, who had suddenly gone mad.
commenced to fight each other. II was
the most terrible fight l have ever
seen. 1t was some time before the
rest of us could make them quit, be-
cause at first we did not know they
were crazy. When we had them down,
however, they were scratched and bit
ten and pounded from head to foot.
Both of them bled from the nose all
that night, and toward morning one
of them became sane for few min
| utes and then died The other was
taken away by the Germans, still
crazy.
Another time an Australian came
into our barracks and very seriously
told us that he had q drag with the
German officers and that he had been
to dinner with them, and had had tur-
key, potatoes. coffee, butter, eggs,
sugar in his coffee, and all the luxuries
you could think Of We just sat and
stared at him. 1t seemed impossible
that any Of our own men would have
| tIn IN thot nd
we could not possibly believe that 1t
had really happened. Finally, one
fellow could not stand 1t any longer.
He was nothing but skin and bones,
but he grabbed dividing board and
there were just two wallops: the
board hit the Australians head and
the head hit the floor. Then half a
dozen more pounced onto him and
gave him a real licking. When he
came to he had forgotten all about
the wonderful dinner he did not have.
Not long after this the Russian doc
tors proved to the Germans that there
was no black typhus in our barracks
and we were allowed the freedom Of
the camp except that we could not
visit the Russian barracks. That was
no hardship to me nor to the rest Of
us, except one chap from the Cambrian
Range, who had a special pal among
the Russians that he wanted to see.
And, of course, when 1t WIS verboten.
he wanted to see him all the more.
A day or two after the order I was
standing outside the barracks door
when saw this fellow come out with
dividing board in his hand. thought
he was going to smash somebody with
1t, so stood by. But he stopped over
!, and jammed one end of the board
| against the threshold of the door,
/ scratched the ground with the farther
{ end of the board and measured again
He kept this up, length by length, in
; the direction of the Russian barracks
The sentry In the yard stopped and
stared at him, but the fellow kept
/ right on, paying no attention to any
/ body. Pretty soon he was right by the
sentry's feet and thought any minute
, the sentry would give him the butt
[ but he just stared while and let hin
= pass. That lad measured the whole
, distance to the Russian barracks, went
, inside, stayed a while and calmly
strolled back with the board under his
> arm. When he reached our barracks
1 again he told US he had found a vino
mine. What he had found was some
e thing not so unusual-a boneheadet
t German.
4 There was LOT of bamboo near thu
I Russian barracks and the Russiani
made baskets out of 1t and turned
. them In to the Germans. For this the,
. got all the good jobs in the kltcher
:. and had fine chance to get more tt
/ eat. But they were treated like dogs
t that is, all except the few Cossackl
that were In the bunch. The Hum
q knew that Cossack never forgets ant
d will get revenge for the slightest mis-
y treatment, even If 1t means his death
q / have seen sentries turn aside from
= the beat they were walking and get on
8 of the way when they saw Cossacl
/ coming. There were very few Coss
n acks there, however, do not thinl
l they let themselves get captured yer.
often.
t We had roll call every morning. q
d course, and were always mustered Il
front Of our barracks, the middle o
q the line being right at the barrack
door. Sometimes when the cold go
p too much for them, the men neares
:, the door would duck into the bar