The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1918-11-22
PAGE THREE

| 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 a 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 Il Injuries
you could think of. We jutt sat and
stirred at him. It seemed impossible |
| that any of our own men would have
the gall to torture us like that, and yet
we could not possibly believe that ii
had really happened. Finally, one
fellow could not stand it 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 bounced 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 Csmbrtan
Range, who had a special pal among
the Russians that he wanted to see.
And, Of course, when 1t was verboten,
he wanted TO see him all the MOTE.
A day or two after the order was
standing outside the barracks door
when saw this fellow come out with
q dividing board in his hand. thought
he was going to smash somebody with
It, 80 I stood by. hut 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 him
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
again he told us he had found vino
mine. What he had found was some
thing not so unusual-a boneheadedI
German.
There was lot Of bamboo near the
Russian barracks and the Russians
made baskets out of 1t and turned
them in to the Germans. For this they
got all the good jobs in the kitchen
and had fine chance to get more tol
eat. But they were treated like dogs
| that is, all except the few CossacksI
that were in the bunch. The Huns
knew that Cossack never forgets and
will get revenge for the slightest mis-
treatment, even if 1t means his death.
! have seen sentries turn aside from
! the beat they were walking and get out
Of the way when they saw a Cossack
coming. There were very few Coss-
acks there. however do not think
they let themselves get captured very
| often.
We had roll call every morning, of
course, and were always mustered in|
front of our barracks, the middle Of
the line being right at the barracks
door. Sometimes when the cold got
| too much for them, the men nearest
the door would duck into the bar
racks. As they left the ranks the
other men would close up and this
Kept the line even, with the center stil
opposite the barracks door, Finally
almost all of the men would be in the
barracks and by the time the roll was
/ over not one remained outside. This
seemed to peeve the German officers
| great deal, but they did not punish
us for 1t until we had been doing 1t
for some time.
For several days had noticed that
someone else answered for two men
who had Disappeared at least had
not seen them for some time. / did
not think much about it, or ask any
| questions and did not hear anyone
else talk about it, but was pretty
sure the two men, b Russian and a
Britisher, had escaped. But they were
marked present at roll call and all
accounted for. Everything went along
very well until one day. when the name
'Fontaine" got by without being an
swered Fontatne was a French fire.
man from the Cambrian Range and
that was the first time he had net been
present. We saw what was comias
and we began to get pretty sore at
Fontaine for not telling rs. so we could
answer for him and keep the escape
covered.
The minute they found our count
one short they blew the whistles and
squad Of sentries came up as an
extra guard. They counted Us again,
but BY eneakins back Of the line and
closing up again we made the count
all right except for one man--FOn.