Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-07-19

This guard seemed to be even more
%perturbed about my complaint than I
myself, evidently fearing that he would
be blamed for my condition.
The commandant was summoned
and 1 could see that he was very am
CRY. Someone undoubtedly got a Sc
we're reprimand for it.
l was taken out of my cell by a
guard with a rifle and conducted about
a quarter of a mile from the prison
to an old factory building which had
been converted into an elaborate fumi-
eating plant. There l was given a
pickle bath in some kind of solution,
and while 1 was absorbing it my
clothes, bed clothes and whatever else
had been in my cell was being put
through another f%umigating process.
While 1 was waiting for my things
to dry-it took perhaps half an hour
/ had a chance to observe about one
hundred other victims of "cooties''-
German soldiers who had become in
Tested in the trenches. We we're all
nude. of course but apparently it was
not difficult for them to recognize me
as a foreigner even without my uni
form on, for none of them made any
attempt to talk to me, although they
were very busy talking about me. r
could not understand what they were
saying, but l knew I was the butt of
most of their jokes and they made no
effort to conceal the fact that I was
the subject of conversation.
When l got back to my cell 1 found
that it had been thoroughly f~umigated,
and from that time on 1 had no further
trouble with "cootieS'' or other visi-
tors of the same kind. Il
AS we were not allowed to write
anything but prison cards, writing was
out of the question; and as we had no
reading matter to speak of, reading
was nil. We had nothing to do to
pass away the time, so consequently
cards became our only diversion, for
we did, fortunately, have some OF
these.
There wasn't very much money as a
rule in circulation, and 1 think for once
in my life l held most of that, not due
to any particular ability on my part
III Tic Sdllc. UuL L udppChCu W AdNQ
several hundred francs in my pockets
when shot down. But We held a lot
terry that was watched without quite
such intense interest as that. The
drawing was always held the day before
to learn who was the lucky man. There
was as much speculation as to who
would win the prize as if it had been
Al. G,o,& .o,-,u, g., 40 v-orl1 Tho
great prize was one-third of a loaf OF
bread. Through some arrangement,
which I never quite figured out, it
happened that among the eight or ten
officers who were there with me, there
was always one-third OF a loaf OF
bread over. There was just one way
of getting that bread, and that was to
draw lots. Consequently that was what
started the lottery. 1 believe if a man
had ever been inclined to cheat he
would have been sorely tempted in this
instance, but the game was played alb
solutely square, and if q man had been
caught cheating the chances are that
he would have been summed by the
rest of the officers as long as he was
in prison. I was fortunate enough to
win the prize twice.
One man-and l think he was the
smallest eater in the camp-won it on
three successive days, but it was well
for him that his luck deserted him on
the fourth day, for he probably would
have been handled rather roughly by
the rest of the crowd, who were grow
ing suspicious. But We handled the
drawing ourselves and knew there was
nothing crooked about it, so he was
spared.
We were allowed to buy pears, and
being small and very hard, they were
used as the stakes in many a game.
But the interest in these little games
was as keen as if the stakes had been
piles of money instead of two or three
half-starved pears. No man was ever
Ito Be ConrInued.J