The Carlisle independent., 1918-12-12
Memory
 

camps the men had somehow got infor- nation about Mir. Gerard's efforts to improve the terrible surroundings in which the men lived. Some Of the men at Dulmen had been confined in vari- ous other camps and they told me that when Mr. Gerard visited these camps all that the men did for week or sd l afterward was to talk about his visit and what he had said to them. We knew MT. Gerard had got the Germans to make conditions better in some of the worst hell-holes in Germany and the men were always glad when he came around. They felt they had some thing better to look forward to and some relief from the awful misery.
 MT. Gerard was passing through the French barracks and a man I knew there told him there was an American there. The Germans did not want him to see me, but he put up an argument with the commanding officer and they finally said he could interview me. l never was so glad to see anyone as was to see him. The picture is still with me of him coming in the door. We talked for about an hour and half, I guess, and then he got up to go and he said I would hear from him in about three weeks. Just think what good news that was to me!
 They let me out of the guardhouse and I celebrated by doing all the dam- age to German Sentries that I could do. The men in the camps went wild when they learned that Ambassador Gerard was there, for they said he was the only man in Germany they could tell their troubles to. The reason was that he was strong for the men, no matter what nationality, and put his heart into the work. I am one of those who cannot say enough good things about him. Like many others. if it had not been for Mir Gerard I would be kaput by now
 A few days after this I was slow again as we were marching to the bread house and the guard at the door tripped me. When I fell I hurt my wounds, which made me hot. Now I had decided, on thinking it over, that 1 the best thing to do was to be good, since I was expecting to be released, and I thought it would be tough luck to be killed just before I was to be released. But had been in the Amer ican navy and any garby of the U. s. A. would have done what I did. It must be the training we get, for when dirty trick is pulled off on us we get very nervous around the hands and are not always able to control them.
 So I went for the sentry and wal loped him in the jaw. Then I received his bayonet through the f1eshy part of the forearm. Most bayonet wounds that we got were in the arm. But those arms were in front of our faces at the time. The sentries did not aim for our arms, you can bet on that A wound of the kind 1 got would be noth- ing more than a white streak if prop erly attended to, but I received abso- lutely no attention for it and it was long time in healing. At that, was lucky; another bayonet stroke just grazed my stomach.
 I had been at Dulmen for three weeks when we were transferred to Brandenburg, Havel, which is known as "the hell-hole of Germany" to the prisoners. It certainly is not too strong name for it, either.
 On the way we changed trains at Osnabruck and from the station plat form I saw German soldiers open up with machine guns on the women and children who were rioting for food.