Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-04-30

/ InGN me ~ MAJ ho--@os
Once in a while Belgian Ladies' Re-
lief society visited the prison @nd
brought US handkerchiefs, American
soap-which sells at about $3.50 bar
I'm BeIEfum-tooth brushes and other
little articles. all of which were Ameri-
can made, but whether they were sup
plied by the American relief committee
or not 1 don't know. At any rate these
gifts were mighty useful and were very
much appreciated
one day I offered a button OF my uni
form to one of these Belgian ladies as
"a souvenir, but a German guard saw me
Ia nd I was never allowed TO go near the
visitors afterwards
The sanitary conditions in this PRISON
camp were excellent as general propo-
lsition. One night however, 1 discovered
that 4 had been captured by coolies"
This was a novel experience 20 Inc and
Ione that I could have been very willing
tic have missed. because In the dying
corps our aerodromes are a number OF
miles back Of the lines and we have good
|billets and our acquaintance with such
things as coolies" and other unwelceme
visitors is very limited
German Efficiency
4 When / discovered my condition
made a boiler and reused the guard. and
right then got another example Of Ger
man efficiency.
This guard seemed to be even moro
iperturbed about my complaint than
myself evidently fearing that he would
be blamed for my condition.
The commandant was summoned and
Il could see that he was very angry.
Someone undoubtedly got a severe rep.
lrimand for it.
was taken out of my cell by guard
with "a rife and conducted about a quar-
N IN nj
factory building which had been con-
Iverted into an elaborate fumigating
plant There / was given a pickle bath
in some kind of solution and while was
absorbing il my clothes, bedclothes and
whatever else had been in my cell was
being put through another fumtgating
process.
| While was waiting for my things to
ldry-it took perhaps half an hour-l
had a chance to observe about 100 other
victims of "cooties"-German soldiers
who had been infested in the trenches.
/ We were all nude, of course, but ap-
parently IL was not difficult for them to
recognize me as a foreigner, even with
out my uniform on, for none of them
made any attempt to talk to me, al
though they were very busy talking
about me.
/ 1 could not understand what they were
most of their jokes and they made no eff
fort to conceal the fact that I was the
subject of conversation.
When I got back to my cell 1 found
that it had been thoroughly fumigated,
and from that time on l had no further
trouble with coolies" or other visitors
of the same kind.
/ AS we were not allowed to write any
thing but prison cards. writing was out
NJ the and a had ra2n-
ling matter to speak of, reading was nil.
We had nothing to do to pass away the
time, so consequently cards became our
only diversion, for we did, fortunately,
have some of these.
Daily Lottery for Bread
There wasn't very much money. as
| rule, in circulation, and 1 think for once
in my life 1 held most of that, not due
to any particular ability on my part in
the game, but I happened to have Sew
eral hundred francs in my pockets when
| shot down But we held a lottery that
! was watched without quite such intense
| interest as that. The drawing was al
ways held the day before to determine
who was the lucky man. There was as
much speculation as to who would win
| the prize as if IL had been the finest
treasure in the world. The great prize
| was one-third of a loaf of bread.
Through some arrangement, which I
never quite figured out, il happened that
| among the eight or ten officers who
| were there with me, there was always
| One-third of loaf of bread over There
was just one way Of getting that bread,
and that was TO draw lots. Consequently
| that was what started the lottery.
1 believe If a man had ever been in
| clined to cheat he would have been sore
| " tempted in this instance. but the
i game was played absolutely square. and
| If a man had been caught cheating the
| chances are that he would have been
Stunned by the rest of the officers as
long as he was in prison. I was for
| tunate enough TO win The prize twice.
One man-and ! think he was the
smallest eater in camp-won il on three
| successive days. but ii was we'll for him
/ that his luck deserted him on the fourth
/ day, for he probably would have been
handled rather roughly by the rest OF
/ the crowd, who were growing sus-
| piciOus. But we handled the drawing
| ourselves and knew there was nothing
| crooked about II, so he was spared.
We were allowed TO buy pears, and
being small and very hard, they were
| used as the stakes in many a game. But
| the interest in these little games was
| as keen as &c the stakes had been piles
| Of money instead of two or three. half
starved pears. No man was ever so
| EeChleSS. however IN all the betting as
| to wager his own rations.
BY the most scheming and sacrificing
| I ever did in my life I managed to
| hoard two pieces of bread Cgrudgingly
| spared at the time from my daily ra-
| tions), but ] was preparing for the day
| when I should escape-if / ever should
1t was not a sacrifice easily made
4 either, but instead of eating bread 1 ate
| pears until I finally got one piece of
bread ahead; and when I could force
myself to stick to the pear dict again
I saved the other piece from that days
allowance, and in days to come 1 had
cause to credit myself fully for the
| foresight
! Whenever new prisoner came in and
his German hosts had satisfied them
selves as TO his life history and taken
down all the details-that is, all he
would give them-he was Immediately
surrounded by his fellow prisoners, who
were eager for any bit of news or infor-
nation he could possibly give them
and as a rule he was glad to tell US be-
cause Il he had been in the hands of the
Huns for any length of time he had seen
very few English officers.
| The conditions of thisp rison we're
bad enough when a man was in normally
good health, but il was barbarous to
subject a wounded soldier to the hard
ships and discomfoTts Of the place
! However. this was the fate Of a poor