The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1918-07-03
SORRY LOT OF
HUN PRISONERS
Harry Evans Tells Of Several Thous-
and German Prisoners Brought
In by British Soldiers.
ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS
Each Prisoner Carried Enough Num-
tions and Provisions to Last Sew
eral Days-Clothes Coarse.
(By Harry G.. Evans.)

/
| (By Harry G. EvanS.)
| SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE June
27-Marched into our camp today sew
eral thousand German prisoners fresh
from the battlefield. brought here by
Tommies. have never seen sorrier
lot of fellows. They were made up OF
all sorts and conditions of men. Many
of them were not more than seventeen
wears old, while others were above
fifty. Evidently the new class called
this spring in Germany has been fused
with the veterans and are not lighting
in units by themselves.
Each prisoner carried sufficient
munitions and provisions to last
several days. When new ground IS
taken there Is great difficulty IN
moving up provisions and munitions.
The captured ground is gridironed
| with trenches, making it impossible
for trucks, automobiles. or railway
trucks, until the ground has been lev
| eled. And the process OF leveling
the ground, or, to use military
phrase, Of "consolidating the new po.
sition.' must be done under shell fire.
So it is necessary. when it is expected
that new positions will be taken and
held, that the soldiers take with them
| ample foodstuffs and munitions.
The boche's clothes were made OF
the coarsest stuff Imaginable, and
practically all of the older mems
uniforms were patched. Nor were
their garbs uniform as to cloth and
style. Evidently Germany is hard up
for material to clothe her soldiers.
| German Not Demonstrative.
It's a difficult thing to read a Ger
man prisoner by his looks. his actions,
or his demeanor. He is about as de-
monstrative as an oyster. l refer
to the large number Of prisoners !
have seen daily for the pasl two or
three months, who were captured IN
the early months of the war. The ex-
preston on their faces spells nothing.
Their eyes are as expressionless as
the eyes of a stone man. They are
sordid, stole, silent
But there was something different
about these fellows lust out. OF the
lhell.fire of battle. They We're unable
Ito conceal their thoughts orithefr feel
ings. Just as plain as though they had
gone into detail by word of mouth. we
understood their detection. their ex-
haustion, their loss of hope. their des-
| pair.
They were nearer dead than any
group of live men l have ever seen.
do not mean physically. Rather they
appeared to be mere shells OF men.
out of which had gone the things we
call life, and hope and spirit and de-
sire, and passion, and emotion.
Their condition was not due to the
| fact that they had become prisoners.
for that is one of the least tragedies
of war. Nor was it due to fear of pun
ishment by their captors. for the Ger
| man is not a coward. A part of the
| boche's creed is that there Is nothing
! in the world worth being afraid OF. he
is not even afraid to rape virgin, or
drop a bomb on a church filled with
women and children. When a people
reach that state of "kultur" where
they are not afraid of sin then indeed
has the kingdom OF hell come to earth.
No, it was neither fear nor exhaustion
it was just that no longer was life
worth while.
How Prisoners SLOUGH.
Ordinarily a soldier who loves his
cause and his country will at least
stand erect; he will hold his head
up in defiance of his captors and the
exultation of the crowds that stare
at him. Not so with these fellows.
They slouched along with their eyes
on the ground, not even keeping step,
their backs bent under their loads
loads apparently heavier than those
that oppressed Sir John Bunyan's Pill
/ grim in his uttermost despair
1t was as if they had reached the
| end. Nearly four years of bloody
warfare-and for what? How much
better would their simple. peasant
lives be yonder in Germany. even if
their master, the kaiser. gained his
end? There would be conquered peO-
pies who must be kept in subsection
and that means more wars. The ulti-
mate aim of their lives must forever
be to keep themselves and their chill
dren in readiness to kill and be killed.
Two hours later we visited them in
camp. They were sitting and lying
about on the ground in sullen silence.
Many of them had not even unstrapped
the packs from their backs. They ig-
nored the guards commands to do the
ordinary work of preparing the camp.
They were on strike, uncOncerned as
to anything that might happen to them.
And wondered if they did not index
the attitude of the whole German pop
ulation at home and the German army
itself! Surely, if these men, but day
out of battle, could be reduced to such
a state of coma, then the whole Ger
man army is not far from the break
ing point!
The sorry plight Of these men has
| but deepened the impression | re-
ceived of Germany and her people
when I visited in that country two
years ago. With the exception of that
portion of the empire which borders
on the Baltic Sea. think of Germany
as shut in. as land of darkness and
selfish sordidness. While her legions
were battling on her frontiers. the
silence of the interior was positively
oppressive.
The strut and swagger Of her war
lords was jim marked contrast to the
sullen ai1tude Of the -combatants.