Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-08-23

born in Jersey City, N. j., and had
spent all his life in America until
the beginning of 1914 Then he moved
with his folks to Germany, and when
he became Of military age the Huns
forced him into the army. l think if |
the truth were known he would much
rather have been fighting for America
than against her.
L found that most of the prisoners |
remained at Courtrai only two or |
three days. From there they were in
variably taken to prisons in the inte
riOr of Germany.
Whether it was because 1 was an |
American or because 1 was flyer, |
don't know, but this rule was not fol- |
lowed in my case. 1 remained there |
two weeks.
During this period Courtrai was con- |
stantly bombed by our airmen. Not a
single day or night passed without one
or more air raids. In the two weeks |
I was there counted 81 of them. The
town suffered great deal of damage. |
Evidently our people were aware that
the Germans had lot of troops con-
centrated in this town and besides the
headquarters staff was stationed there.
The kaiser himself visited Courtrai
while was in the prison, was told by
one of the interpreters, but he didn't
call on me, and for obvious reasons
couldn't call on him.
The courtyard was not a very popu-
lar place during air raids. Several
times when our airmen raided that
section in the day time I went out and
watched the machines and the shrap-
mel bursting all around; but the Ger
mans did not crowd out there, for their
own antiaircraft guns were hammer
ing away to keep our planes as high
in the sky as possible, and shells were
likely to fall in the prison yard any
moment. OF course / watched these
battles at my own risk. Many nights
from my prison window 1 watched
with peculiar interest the air raids
carried on, and it was a wonderful
sight with the German searchlights
playing on the sky, the flaming on
ions" fired high and the burst of the
antiaircraft guns, but rather an un-
comfortable sensation when l realized
that perhaps the very next minute
bomb might be dropped on the building
in which 1 was a prisoner. But per-
haps all of this was better than no
excitement at all, for prison life soon
became very monotonous.
| One of the hardest things had to
endure throughout the two weeks l
! spent there was the sight of the Hun
machines flying over Courtrai, know
ing that perhaps I never would have
another chance to fly, and I used to sit
| by the hour watching the German ma
chimes, maneuvering over the prison,
as they had an airdrome not far away
and every afternoon the students-or
1 took them for students because their
flying was very poor-appeared over
the town. One certain Hun seemed to
find particular satisfaction in flying
right down over the prison nightly, for
my special discomfort and benefit, it
seemed, as if he knew an airman i'm
prisoned there was vainly longing to
try his wings again over their lines.
But I used to console myself by say
ing: "Never mind, old boy, there was
never a bird whose wings could not
be clipped if they get him just right,
and your turn will come some day."
One night there was an exception
ally heavy air raid going on. A num-
Der of German officers came into nv
room, and they all seemed very much
frightened. 1 jokingly remarked that
it would be fine if our airmen hit the
old prison-the percentage would be
very satisfactory-one English officer
and about ten German ones. They
didn't seem to appreciate the Joke
however, and, indeed, they were ap-
parently too much alarmed at what
was going on overhead to laugh even
at their own jokes. Although these
night raids seem to take all the starch
out of the Germans while they are
going on, the officers were usually as
brave as lions the next day and spoke
contemptpously of the raid of the
night before.
saw thousands of soldiers in Cour
trai, and although they did not i'm
press me as having very good or abun
dant food, they were fairly well
clothed. l do not mean to imply thai
conditions pointed to an early end oil
, the war. On the contrary, from what
l was able to observe on that point
unless the Huns have an absolute cror
failure they can, in my opinion, go or
for years The idea of our being able
, to win the war by starving them ou
strikes me as ridiculous. This is 6
war that must be won by fighting, anC
the sooner we realize that fact ths
sooner it will be over.
Rising hour in the prison was sever
o'clock. Breakfast came at eight Tbi,
consisted of cup of coffee and moth
ing else. If the prisoner had the fore
sight to save some bread from the pre-
vlous day, he had bread for breakfas
also, but that never happened in m.
case. Sometimes we had two cups O
coffee, that is. near-coffee.
For lunch they gave US boiled suga
beets or some other vegetable, ant
once in while some kind of picklet
meat, but that happened very seldom
We also received a third of loaf O
bread-war bread. This war brea,
was as heavy as a brick, black an,
sour. 1t was supposed to last us fron
noon one day to noon the next. Ex
cept for some soup, this was the Who'll
lunch menu.
Dinner came at 5 80 p. M, when W
sometimes had a little jam made ou
Of sugar beets. and a preparatio
called tea, which you had to shake viz
orously or it settled in the bottom G
the cup, and then about all you ha
was hot water. This ''tea" was a sa
blow to the Englishmen. If it hadn
been called tea they wouldn't have fe
so badly about it, perhaps. but it wa
adding insult to injury to call the
stuff "tea," which with them is almos
a national institution.