Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1918-09-25

Once In a while a Belgian Ladies'
Relief society visited the prison and
brought us handkerchiefs, American
soap-which sells at about $1.50 q |
bar In Observation-Disclosures and
other little articles, all of which were
American made, but whether they
were supplied by the American rel
lief committee or not I don't know.
At any rate, these gifts were mighty
| useful and were very much appre-
| ciated.
One day i offered a button off my
uniform to one of these Belgian ladies'
as a souvenir, but German guard
saw me and I was never allowed to
go near the visitors afterwards.
The sanitary conditions in this
prison camp were excellent as a gen.
eral proposition. One night, however,
| I discovered that / had been cap
tured by Coolies"
This was a novel experience to me
and one that would have been very
willing to have missed, because in
the flying corps our airdromes are
number of miles back of the lines and
we have good billets and our acquaint-
ance with such things as "cooties" and
other unwelcome visitors Is very Linn
| tied.
When I discovered my condition, I
made holler and reused the guard.
and right then got another example
of German efficiency.
This guard seemed to be even more
perturbed about my complaint than I
myself, evidently fearing that he would
be blamed for my condition.
The commandant was summoned
! and could see that he was very an-
CRY. Someone undoubtedly got se@
we're reprimand for it.
| was taken out Of my cell by a
guard with a rifle and conducted about
a quarter Of mile from the prison
to an old factory building which had
been converted into an elaborate fumi-
eating plant. There was given a
pickle bath In some kind Of solution,
and while I was absorbing 1t my
clothes, bed clothes and whatever else
had been In my cell was being put
through another fumigating process.
I. While was waiting for my things
to dry-it took perhaps half an hour
had chance to observe about one
hundred other victims OF "cooties''-
German soldiers who had become In
tested in the trenches. We were az
nude, of course, but apparently it WIS
not difficult for them to recognize me
as foreigner even without my uni
form on, for none Of them made any
attempt to talk to me, although they
were very busy talking about me. I
could not understand what they were
saying, but knew was the butt of
most Of their jokes and they made no
effort to conceal the fact that I was
the subject of conversation.
| When got back to my cell found
that it had been thoroughly fumigated,
and from that time on had no further
trouble with "cooties" or other visi-
tors Of the same kind.
As we were not allowed co write
anything but prison cards, writing was
out of the question; and as we had no
reading matter to speak of, reading
|
pass away the time, so consequently
cards became our only diversion, for
we did, fortunately, have some Of
these.
| There wasn't very much money as a
rule in circulation, and think for once
in my life held most Of thai, not due
| to any particular ability on my part
in the game, but I happened to have
several hundred francs in my pockets
when shot down. But we held lot.
terry that was watched without quite
such intense interest as that. The
| drawing was always held the day before
to learn who was the lucky man. There
was as much speculation as to wha
would win the prize as IL 1t had been
| the finest treasure In the world. The
| great prize was one-third Of loaf Of
bread. Through some arrangement
| which I never quite figured out, IL
happened that among the eight or teA
officers who were there with me, there
was always one-third of a loaf OF
| bread over. There was just one way
| of getting that bread, and that was I'd
drew lots. Consequently that was what
started the lottery. I believe If man
had ever been inclined to cheat he
would have been sorely tempted in this
instance, but the game was played abb
solutely square, and If man mad been
caught cheating the chances are thaS
| he would have been Stunned by thu
rest of the officers as long as he was
In prison. was fortunate enough to
| win the prize twice.