The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1918-08-15
CHAPTER V.-Continued.

ooo mainland | think he was the
.mollest eater In the camp-won 1t on
+ ,h,oe successive days, but 1t was well
q, him that his luck deserted him on
,be fourth day, for he probably would
have been handled rather roughly by
,he rest of the crowd, who were grow
NJ suspicious. But we handled the
drawing ourselves and knew there was
nothing crooked about 1t, so he was
spared. ,
We were allowed to buy pears, and |
hoInr small and very hard, they were
used rs the stakes In many a game.
Put the interest in these little games
ros rs keen as II the stakes had been
niles of money instead Of two or three
bolf.staryed pears. No man was ever
50 reckless, however, in all the betting
as to wager his own rations.
By the most schemlng and sacrific-
Ing ever did In my life managed to
hoard two pieces of bread (grudgingly
spared at the time from my daily ra-
tOns), but was preparing for the day
when should escape-lf ever should.
II was not sacrifice easily made
either, but instead of eating bread
ate pears until | finally got one piece
Of bread ahead; and when l could
force myself to stick to the pear diet
again, saved the other piece from
that days allowance, and In days to
come had cause to credit myself fully
for the foresight.
Whenever new prisoner came In
and his German hosts had satisfied
themselves as to his life history and
taken down all the details-that Is all
he would give them-he was immedl-
aely surrounded by his fellow prison
ers, who were eager for any bit of
news or information he could possibly
give them, and as n rule he was glad
to tell us, because, If he had been In
the hands of the Huns for any length
+ Of time, he had seen very few English
r officers.
The conditions of this prison were
bad enough when man was In nor
mally good health, but 1t was barbar-
Gus to subject a wounded soldier to
the hardShips and discomforts of the
place. However, this was the fate OF
poor private we discovered there one
day in terrific pain, suffering from
Shr0pnel In his stomach and back. All
Of Us officers asked to have him sent
to hospital, but the doctors curtly
refused, saying 1t was against orders.
40 the poor creature went on suffering
from day to day and was still there
when | eft-another victim of Ger
man cruelty.
At one time in this prison camp there
were French marine. French flying
officer two Belgian soldiers, and of the
II United Kingdom Cne from Canada, two
from England, three from Ireland, a
couple from Scotland, one from Wales,
man from South Africa, one from
Algeria, and New Zealander, the
latter being from my own squadron, a
man whom ! thought had been killed,
ana he was equally surprised when
brought into the prison to find me
there In addition there were Chi
haman and myself from the U. s. A.
n 1t was quite a cosmopolitan group
and as one typical lrishman said
q sure, and we have every nation that's
worth mentioning, including the darn
Germans with us whites" OF course
THIS was not translated to the Ger
mans, nor was it even spoken in thell
hearlhg, or we probably would moi
iuVe mad quite so cosmopolitan n bunch
hocH man in the prison was ready tt
uphold his native country in any argu
Heht that could possibly be started
ahu II goes without saying that | never
TOOK u back seat in any of them witt
my praise for America, with the Cana
u'Nh and Chlnaman Ginning in on IN!
sue But they were friendly Qrgu
meutS; we were all in the same boa
"lu that was no place for quarreling
Every other morning the weathe
allowing, we were taken to larg,
Nllllhlhg pool and were allowed Il
""'e Il bath, There were two pools
vAe Tor the German officers and on'
'of The men. Although we were oili
'e's, We had TO use the pool occupied
| 'he meh. While we were in swim
c'hs German guard with riff
across his knees sat at each corner o
"e pool and watched us closely n
wy dressed and undressed. Englisl
interpreters accompanied us on all o
u'ese trips, so Il. no time could W
",h without their knowing what wa
going on.
whenever we were taken out of tn
wlSol' Tor any purpose they alway
W'oaed us through the most crowde
,'';'''s-evidently to give the popr
"oe nm idea that they were gettln
%'s @ OF prisoners The German so
"'o's , we passed on these occasion
uue o"a no effort to hide their smile
Ane Belgian people were apparent
us ,ery curious to see us, and the
wn' 10 tarh out in large number
w. uNef ef the word was passed tina
gno.s mere out At times the Germa
chill us would strike the women an
ono ~ VINO crowded too close to u
nro,..' wy ! smiled and spoke to
Gsrn s GIRL and when she replied,
sha an nan mnde run for her. Luckil
Guy stepped into the ho,sa hosora h