The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1918-10-11
HUNS MICK PRISONERS


CaptOFs Took Delight ln CrueAty-
He kills Sentry And Escapes.
by Herbert Corey
with Tine Americans. There is an
ofFiriaI heading at TIM tDp Df the pa-
per on which James A Donahle Nh
statement II written AZ runs Ike
this:
Taken prisoner in the Bots de Bel
leau, date unknown, on IT, second
night AKA Tho front line. Returned in
tfe might 0f June 18, 1913
Donahue had to explain himself,
you zee. The Intelligence Depart
ment and the captain Of his company
and the major Of his battalion and
everyone else who came in contact
With Donahue wanted to know how VA
man could disappear in the night of
w fiPht and come wandering back
some nights later, dirty and half
starved and sore all the way through
at them Dutchmen.'
AThe next time is Donahue's off,
cial statement, that ct VA chance
at one Of them Dutchmen I'll rough
househim. Get me?''
No changes whatever have been
made by me in Donahue's statement
as taken down by the stenographer
It III too comprehensive and direct tO
be dnterfered with The attention of
the reader is directed, however, to
three features
The first Is the brutality the Ger
mans manifested toward a helpless
prisoner. 1t was the sort Of con-
temptible, mean petty brutality that
leads some men to kick children
the second II the renewed evidence
OF the utter contempt the German has
for any agreement to which he Is a
party, in that prisoners are worked
near the front lines, contrary to con-
ventiOn- This national habit 81
promise breaking should ~ borne in
mind when the Germans begin tO ak
for peace terms.
The third is the fact that the Ger
mans are far from the starvation
point
Let III take up the statement Of
James A DOnahue, private in the
Sixty-seventh Company Of certain
battalion Oh certain famous, but for
the present anonymous organization,
as taken verbatim by the official stem
ogTapher.
HI went down in the woods and
joined nay command, what there was
left or III They we're all split up and
mixed EUp. II i heard whistle blow
and went forward Every time that
a flare would go up would drop
down like we do i'm open formation.
until the flare would 10 out There
was los of rifle firing Just ahead
0f nae I saw four or five men, and
thought they were our fellows. I ran
right into them, and when got there
one of them hit me on the head 7
don't know What with but T had a
knob or ny head about the size of an
apple. When Ar come to, they took me
before an officer. He said:
How many Americans are there
over tl1ere?' said !:
Thirty-two divisions of Ameri-
cans and 40 divisions OF French. HE
said. tAch, schwein, schwefn. Then
they booted me and turned me around
and showed me away Going out, I
got couple more kicks. They took
me down the road apiece. Detach-
ments coming along would give me
the once over and say, Ach Ameri-
cam. Schwein, schwein.' They took
me back and would not let me sleep
at AT that night don't know how,
long did walk, but it was long
time
The next morning got an axe
about the size Of this helmet handed
nle, and without anything to eat they
put me To cutting brush with them.
The latter part Of the night I was
right close to their guns. Every
time they fired. / could see the fash
They were right in front of me all the
time They had machine guns all
through the woods went into in the
morning. They would dig an en-
placement and set a machine gun iii
1t and try it, turning it all around and
then move to another and try it.
Then they would cut more brush and
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