The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1918-01-10
SURE GERMANY IS Winning
O3aIned Officers and seamen Of Ger
nan Merchant Ships Often Hava
Nest Twice q Day-No Alien Has te
Worj< Unless He Pleases, and Their
Ns 70 paid-Find Variety Of Ways Of
eAtertainlna Themselves.

- tOpmOSt strand or formidable
berbed wire fences throw their fun.
aUs of light inside the barrlcade, the
gtard being stationed In darkened,
high perched sentry boxes. Lights sim,
nsrly spring up in the rooms of the
1enr-story hotel, where the captains,
ates and engineers Of the big liners
1re quartered. No sound comes from
1Aese TeutOnic cantonments-they give
% more sign of life than Belgian vii.
lages left In the wake Of German
6emies.
On the tracks barely outside the bar.
sleade trains begin to pass with silence.
ahattering roars, great trains of 60 and
20 cars drawn by giant moguls with
1aming furnace doors-the aristocrats
0( freights for whom all signal lights
dh0w clear as they speed eastward to
the Chesapeake ports with cargoss OF
grain, horses, lumber and machinery.
3a0se within the wire know what that
rushing eastward portends.
Sure Germany 10 Winning.
But no other message do they be.
n6ve, or, II they do, they conceal belief.
4hey read American newspapers, but
tel the guards Germany is winning the
war and that it will be over in fouI
months. They say the Americans have
never repaired the ship engines thell
now interned crews disabled because II
cannot be done in this country. Off.
GERS of the great ship Vaterland say
she has never left Hoboken docks.
Differences between officers and men
have sprung up and fears of forcible
encounters made it necessary to estab'
ush separate camps. The men when
they realized that they were freed
from enforced obedience to their Off,
cers began to show increasing evidence
Of resentment for past strict disci.
pllne. The officers were enraged at
this incubation with American ideas
Illness for the Americans!
But talk does not lessen the vigi-
lance Of the ffty-two American guards
working In three shifts. "They are
Germans" said hatchet-faced guard
with his hand on his holster. He look
ed up ut the nearby forested cliffs
where the French Broad river energies
with crashing waters into the broad
ened camp valley. "And some day
the casualty lists will show of the boys
from this state killed in France. And
then"
coneeaIments on Those Cliffs.
"Then what?' he was asked. "Yes,"
said he, "What7" and looked again at
the concealments of the cliffs overlook.
ing the camp.
The officers have the advantage Of
the men in the matter of quarters
though the food Is practically the
same. The four-story hotel was leased
By the government with its equipment
of private baths, steam heat and fine
furniture and surroundings Of tennis
courts, croquet grounds and big pool
Of naturally hot water. The men are
housed In eight one-story wooden bar.
racks built for their use, each barrack
20 by 1853 feet in size, with double.
decked hunks, heated by stoves and
served by q detached shower bath
house IA by 80 feet, in the rear Of each
barrack.
German artisans did all the work of
construction, being paid by the United
States at the rate Of $40 month. No
allen there has to work unless he wish.
es, and If he does he is paid. One day
Ill Of them quit work because they
resented the publication in a local
newspaper that they were slow work.
ers and had to be told how to do ev-
erything.
The Germans find variety Of ways
Of entertaining themselves. Some play
tennis, others croquet, some bowl, some
20 through a semimilitary drill, and
each camp has its team for playing
what the guards call football. The
ball is like football, but it Is not
kicked. It is batted with the hand.
For the men, the International Y. NJ.
O. A. has established clubhouse
eQuipped with tables, reading matter,
games and moving picture outfit. An
American secretary is in charge.
Work for Idle Hands.
The officers have nearly completed
q miniature German village by the riv.
erside. The houses are tiny affairs
scarcely large enough to let coaple
Of their burly builders squeeze in, and
much ingenuity and artistic design is
shown in their rustic fashioning. Tree
limbs, broken brick, stones, old carpet,
dattened tin cans, all picked up in the
hotel grounds, are the material used.
The United States furnished nothing,
Commodore Ruser, chief of the Water.
land. built one Of these tiny houses and
is very proud Of the little brick stove
which heats it. When working on
their houses the officers seem to have
shed their Officialdom and appear as
kindly, simple men. The common sea
zen are building similar village.