New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-08-23
CHAPTER V.-Continued.

One man-and | think he was tn
smallest eater in the caInp-won it ol
three successive days, but 1t was wei
for him that his luck deserted him OF
the fourth day, for he probably wOul'
have beer handled rather roughly b!
the rest of the crowd, who were grow
Ing suspicious. But we handled thu
drawing ourselves and knew there wa!
nothing crooked about il, so he WA:
spared.
We were allowed to buy pears, an'
being small and very hard, they were
used as the stakes in many Il game
But the interest in these little gamcs
was as keen as If the stakes had beer
piles of money instead of two or tire,
half-starved pears. No man was eve
SO reckless, however. in all the betting
as to was," his OWL %rntions.
by the mos, scheining and %sncrific-
ing | ever did in my life | managed to
hoard two pieces of bread (%grudgingly
spared ut the time from my daily r;t-
tlons), but vas preparing for the day
Win sIlotlu tStHpe-l1 | ever SIlDllu.
1t was not Il sacrifice easily made
either, but instead of eating bread |
ate pears until | finally got one piece
of bread ahead and when | could
force myself to stick to the pear diet
again, | saved the other piece from
that days allowance, and in days to
cOInc | had cause to credit myself fully
for the foresight.
whenever Il new prisoner came in
II his German hosts had satisfied
themselves rs to his life history and
taken down all the details-tllat is all
he would give lhem-he was immedi-
ately surrounded by his fellow prison.
ers. who We're eager for any bit of
news or information he could possibly
give them, and as Il rule he was glad
to tell us, because, If he had been in
the hands of the Huns for any length
of lime. he had seen very few English
Off GERS.
The conditions "f his prison were
bad enough when IL man was in nor
Mally good health nut it was barhar-
Gus to subject Il sounded soldier to
The hardships ant. hiscomfOrts of the
place. However, Ibis was the fate of
& poor private w discovered there one
day in terrific pain, suffering from
shrapncl in his stcInach and back. All
Of us officers asked 10 have him Sent
10 IL hospital, but the doctors curtly
refused, saying it was against orders.
80 the Ic9r creature w,Gt on suffering
from da3 to day and was still there
when I left-nnother victim of Ger
man <vuelty.
Az one time in this prison camp there
were II French marine, II French flying
officer. two Belgian soldiers, and of the
United Kingdom one from Canada, two
from England. three from Ireland, a
couple from Scotland, one from Wales,
q man from South Africa, one from
Algeria. and II New Z~enlander, the
inter being from my own squadron, a
rlnn whom | thought had been killed,
and he was equally surprised when
brought into the prison to find me
there, In addition there were Il Chi
naman and myself from the L. S. A.
1t was quite Il cosmopolitan group,
and as one typical Irishman said,
"Sure, and we have every nation that's
worth mentioning. including the darn
Germail> with us whites" OF curse
This was not translated to the Ger
mans, nor was it even spoken in their
hearing. or we probably would not
ave had quite 50 cosmopolitan Il bunch.
Each man in the prison was ready to
uphold his native country in any argu-
and it goes without saying that | never
took Il back seat in amy of them with
my praise for America. with the Cana
dian and thimaman Ginning in on my
side. But they We're friendly argu-
mcntS; we were all in the same boat
and that was no place for quarreling.
Every other morning, the weather
allowing. We We're taken To a large
pool and were allowed to
IL bath. There were two pools,
for the German officers and m
the men. Although We were off
'ers, we had 10 use the pool occupied
~ the men. While we were in swim
ming Il German guard with a rifle
lcroSs his knees sat at each corner of
he pool and watched us closely as
ye dressed and undresSed. English
interpreters accompanied us IN all of
hese trips, so at no time could we
ak without their knowing what was
,Oing on.
Whenever we were taken out of tho
'risOn for any purpose they always
us through the most crowded
treets-eyidently to give the popu-
ace an idea that they were getting F..
OTIS of prisoners. The German sol
Tiers VT passed on these occasions {
made no effort to hide their smiles
sneers. {
The Belgian people were apparent
= very curious to see us. and they '
,sed to turn out in large numbers
whenever the word was passed that [
We were out. At times the German 5
yards would strike the I'M and /;
hildren who crowded too close TO us. {
)ne day l smiled and spoke to a I
,retty girl, and when she replied, a {
made q run for hss. Luckily G
he stepped into the house before he
T..