Cleveland County herald., 1918-11-28
Through Special

and a big one, but at first it was Of no use to us, because the Germans would not give us coal or wood for 1t. But after shivering for a while, we be- gan ripping the boards out of the bar racks, and taking the dividing boards from the benches that we used for beds.
 Later, they gave each of us a mat tress filled with wood shavings. and a blanket that was about as warm as a pane of glass. The mattresses were placed on the ground in the barracks, which were very damp, and after three or four days, the shavings would be- gin to rot and the mattresses to smell. In order to keep warm we slept as close together as we could, which caused our various diseases to spread rapidly.
 When we were receiving our rations, the sentries would offer us an extra ration ie we would take lash from their belts. We were so hungry that many and many a man would go up and take a swat in any part of his body from the heavy leather belts with brass tongue and buckle, just to get little more shadow" soup or barley coffee or mud bread.
 One morning the sentries picked out ten men from our barracks, of which I was one, and drilled us over a field near the kuche. There was a large tank in the field and we had to pump water into it. It was very cold, and we were weak and sick, so we would fall one after another, not caring whether we ever got up or not. Fritz would smash those who fell with his rifle butt. We asked for gloves, be- cause our hands were freezing, but all we got was "Nichts."
 After we had been there for about an hour and half, one of our men became very sick, so that I thought he was going to die, and when he fell over, reported it to sentry. The sentry Gu le over, saw him lying in the snow, yelled, "Schwein, nicht krank!" grabbed him by the shoulder, and pulled him all the way across the field to the office of the camp con- mander. Then he was placed in the guard house, where he remained for two days. The next thing we knew, the Russians had been ordered to make box, and were being marched to the guard house to put him in it and bury him.
 Another thing at Neustreiitz, that was pretty hard to stand, was the pret1 ty habit the Huns had of coming uI, to the barbed wire and teasing us as though we were wild animals in a cage. Sometimes there would fbe crowds of people lined along the Wire throwing things at us, and splitting, and having a great time generally. It was harder than eyer when a family party would arrive. with water and mutter, and Maybe grosvater and grosmutter, and all the little Boche kinder, because. as you probably know, the Germans take food with them whenever they go on a party, no matter what kind, and they would stand there and stare at us like the boobs they were, eating all the time -ahd we so hungry that we could nave eaten ourselves, almost. After they had stared while, they would begin to feel more at home, and then would start the throwing and splitting and the "schweinhund" sangerfest, and they, would have great time general ly. Probably. when they got home, they would strike off medal for themselves in honor of the visit.
 Then, too, there were always Hun soldiers on leave or off duty, who made