New Britain herald., 1918-09-27

on, who were unused to physical labor
of this sort, the tasks were particularly
OnerouS. Furthermore the guards were
instructed to keep nagging at the pris-
oners constantly, to make them work
faster.
The manner of these guards is quite
indescribable. They received from the
Colonel himself orders of the most
outra geous sort To speed the work
of the prisoners, they were told to
strike them with their fists and with
clubs. At the most trivial offense they
were instructed to shoot. If a guard
was so rash as to be friendly with one
of the captives, he was severely pun
ished. To make the guards more zeal
Gus in their work, Colonel Gallus i'm
formed them that all OF the civilians
incarcerated at Holzminden were. pi-
rates and criminals, deserving of the
most violent treatment. The result is
inevitable. There were almost daily
gases Of physical mistreatment while
J was at Holzminden. Some Of the
poor fellows were so badly handled
that they had to be taken to the hos
pital.
n Drc;.ry Day.
The days program YVES a drcary
one. At 4;30 we were awakened; that
is, at 4:30 by German summer time,
which is in reality at $50. At We
went to work. Often we could not
return to the barracks at noon be-
cause we were working in u place
several kilom from the camp and
We were obliged to remain out Of
doors in the wet and the rain until
1880 in the evening. At 9 p. M, whom
it was still light, we were locked up
in the barracks. We had not sufficient
cient time for sleep, rest or even for
meals.
In spite of the constant activity de
manded of the prisoners, the food was
poor and contained little nourishmelt.
We did have q sort of cOmmissary
committee composed of three .pris-
oners But if it for a single tirAo
ventured to complain of the soup as
unsatisfactory, the most disagree
able things always happened Mail
was frequently held up, by way of re-
taliation for alleged misdeeds. Mail
was not allowed to be kept beyond
eight days and if a postcard older
than that was found upon the person
Of prisoner he was always rigorous
ly punished. There was not enough
clothing to make one comfortable. AS
we had to work out of doors regardless
of weather or season, our clothing was
often wet through, and the next morn
ing we had to put it on while it was
still damp. Colds were naturally un-
avoidable. The medical attention Civ
en- US was absurd. The crazy colonel
himself made a point OF being pres
ent at almost all medical examinations
and completely dominated the physi-
clans, who cringed before him. He
was fond of saying that only the
lazy ones pretended to be Ill, that the
camp itself was the best sanitorium,
and hard work the best cure-all.
The Colonel Was Sentimental.
In spite of his brutality, the colonel
had his sentimental streaks. The fol-
lowing anecdote is illustrative.
Freuchman, 20 years of age, was oc-
cupied in paving the street of the
camp. The colonel passed by and, as
the old fellow did not seem to him to
be working diligently enough, he
stepped up and gave him a tremen-
dous box on the ear. The poor old man
said nothing, but took out of his poe
ket a little certificate, from which it
that he was i'll and only
capable of a small amount of work
The colonel was much moved, almost
to the point of tears. He gave the old