The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1918-11-29


kicking bunch of horses they went, as
sisted by Doc Casey. Four of the
horses received broken legs, and Pin
ero, instead of shooting them, cut
their threats with a sharp dagger he
carried.
One of the negroes from the lower
hold staggered to the upper deck with
his face blanched almost white, and
his eyes popping out of his head. Be
tween gasps he informed us that
whole section of stalls, "a in all, had
been carried away between decks, and
that the horses were loose. He said
three negroes in his gang were caught
in this stampede.
The foreman mustered most of the
men, and dividing them into three
groups, in charge of himself, the sec
ond foreman and Doc Casey, they went
below. / followed. An awful sight met
my eyes.
The ship was lurching in horrible
manner. All could see was, one
minute a pile of kicking horses,
smashed-up planks and the three ne
groes piled up in one corner of the
compartment, and then. with lurch
of the ship, they would slide into the
other. Nothing could be done by us.
1t was madness to attempt anything
The three negroes were dead.
That night and the following day
was a perfect hell on the ship for men
and horses. The ship rode through
the sduall, and when it became calm
we all got busy. Out of the "a horses
between decks we had to shoot IL on
account of injuries. Besides the IL
had died from broken necks. The
remaining horses were still alive
but hardly had square foot of hide
left. They were pitiful sight.
The next day the three negroes
were buried at sea without word of
prayer.
was heartily sick and disguised
with the rest of the trip, because the
stencil was awful, there being about
twelve dead horses that we could not
get out.
Just outside of the entrance of the
river leading to Bordeaux, a small,
rakish boat, flying the tri-color of
France. came alongside. We hove to
and up the gangplank came three
French officers. They were closeted
with the captain of the ship and our
foreman, and after about twenty min
utes. left and we continued on our
course.
Going up the river In some places
the banks were only about twenty
feet away. We could see the French
women filling their. fields. AS we
went by these workers stopped and
waved their hands in the air to us. and
we waved back. IL was my first sight
of France, and was not in any way
disappointed. 1t lived up to my expec-
tations.
A little farther up the river we came
70 a large dock where ships were load
ing and unloading cargoes, and a thrill
passed through me as / saw my first
batch of German prisoners at work.
These We're immense fellows, nearly
every one being six feet or over. They
We're guarded by little French soldiers,
averaging about five feet five inches
with long rifle, bayonet fixed This
rifle, in comparison with the French
man, looked like telegraph pole. The
soldiers had on the old blue overcoats,
the tails buttoned back, pattern of
1871.
AS we passed the German prisoners
they scowied at us, and we. feeling
quite safe on the deck. yelled back in
suits at them. One big Irishman,
right near me. took great glee in jump
ing up and down on the hatchway and
running his finger across his throat.
This seemed to eRrage the prisoners
and they yelled something in German.