Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-09-16
AMER|CANCAPT|VE
BRUTALLY BEATEN
Private Soldier Tells Of His
Experience and Awaits
Chance for Revenge.
BRIEF TIME IN HUN HANDS
BY HERBERT COREY.

WITH THE AMERICANS. August rs.
There is an official heading at the
top of the paper on which James A.
Donahues statement is written 1t
runs like this:
Taken prisoner in the Bots de Bel
1eau date unknown. on his second
night in the front line. Returned in
the night of June 1S, 1915"
Donahue had to explain himself, you
see. The intelligence department and
the captain Of his company and the
major of his battalion and every one
else who came in contact with Dona-
hue wanted to know how a man could
disappear in the night of a fight and
come wandering back some nights
later, dirty and half-starved and sore
all the way through at them Dutch
men,"
THE next time" is Donahue,s Off
cial statement, that I get chance
at one OF them Dutchmen I'll rough
house him. Get me?'
No changes whatever have been
made by me in Donahue's statement
as taken down by the stenographer. 1t
Is too comprehensive and direct to be
reader is directed, however, to three
features:
The first is the brutality the Ger
mans manifested toward a helpless
prisoner. 1t was the sort Of contempt
ible. mean. petty brutality that leads
some men to kick children.
The second is the renewed evidence
Of the utter contempt the German has
for any agreement to which he is a
party, in that prisoners are worked
near the front lines, contrary to con-
vention. This national habit of prom
ise-breaking should be borne in mind
when the German begins to ask for
peace terms.
The third is the fact that the Ger
mans are far from the starvation
point.
How a Prisoner Was Treated.
Let US take up the statement Of
James A. Donahue, private In the
9th Company of a certain battalion
Of a certain famous, but for the pres
emit anonymous. organization. as
taken verbatim by the official ste
nographer.
'I went down in the woods and
Joined my command-what there was
left of it. They were all split up and
mixed up. I heard whistle blow
and went forward Every time that a
flare would go up would drop down
like we do in open formation. until
the flare would go out. There was a
lot Of rife firing. Just ahead Of me
I saw four or five men, and thought
they were our fellows. I ran right
into them, and when I got there one
of them hit me on the head. ] don't
know what with, but I had knob
on my head about the size Of an ap-
pie. When come to. they took me
before an officer. He said:
How many Americans are there
over there?' said:
Thirty-two divisions Of Ameri-
cans and forty divisions of French
He said .Ach, schwein, schwein.' Then
they booted me and turned me
around and showed me away. Going
out got couple more kicks. They
took me down the road q piece. De-
me the once over and say: 'Ach.
American. Schwein. schwein.' They
took me back and would not let me
sleep at all that night. I don't know
how long I did walk, but 1t was a
long time.
The next morning I got an ak
about the size Of this helmet handed
me. and without anything to eat they
put me to cutting brush with them.
The latter part Of the night I was
right close to their guns. Every time
they fired could see the flash. They
were right in front of me all the
time. They had machine guns all
through the woods I went into in
the morning. They would dig an en-
it and try it, turning it all around,
and then move 1t to another place
and try 1t. Then they would cut more
brush and cam oufage the holes.