The Raymer enterprise., 1918-08-08
CHAPTER V-Continued.

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One man-and think he was the
smallest eater In the camp-won II on
three successive days. but 1t was well
for him that his luck deserted him on
the fourth day. for he probably would
have been handled rather roughly by
the rest Of the crowd, who were grow
Ing suspicious. But we handled the
drawing ourselves and knew there was
nothing crooked about II. so he was
spared.
We were allowed to buy pears. and
being small and very hard, they were
used as the stakes In many game.
But the interest In these little games
was as keen as II the stakes had been
piles Of money instead Of two or three
half-starved pears. No man was ever
80 reckless. however. In all the betting
as to wager his own rntions.
BY the most scheming and sacriiic-
ing l ever did In my life managed to
hoard two pieces of bread (grudgingly
spared at the time from my daily ra-
tlons). but was preparing for the day
when should eseape-if ever should.
II was not sacrifice easily made
either. but instead Of eating bread !
ate pears until ! finally got one piece
of bread ahead; md when l could
force myself to stick to the pear diet
again. saved the other piece from
that doy's allowance. and In days to
come Ind cause to credit myself fully
for the foresight
Whenever new prisoner came In
and his German hosts had satisfied
themselves as to his life history and
taken down all the detalls-that Is all
he would give them-he was immedl.
ately surrounded by his fellow prison
ers, who were eager for any bit OF
news or Information he could possibly
give them. and as rule he was glad
to tell US. because. II he had been In
the hands Of the Huns for any length
OF time. he had seen very few English
officers.
The conditions OF this prison were
bad enough when man was In nor
mally good health. but 1t was barbar.
Gus to subject wounded soldier to
the hardshlps and dlscomforts of the
place. However. this was the fate OF
poor private we discovered there one
day In terrific pain. suffering from
shrapnel In his stomach and back. All
of US officers asked to have him sent
to hospital, but the doctors curtly
refused saying II was against orders.
So the poor creature went on suffering
from day TO day and was still there
when | left-another victim OF Ger.
man cruelty.
At one time In this prison camp there
were French marine. French flying
officer. two Belgian soldiers. and of the
United Kingdom one from Canada. two
from England, three from Ireland. a
couple from Scotland, one from Wales,
man from South Africa. one from
Algeria, and a New Zealander, the
latter being from my own squadron, n
man whom | thought had been killed,
and he was equally surprised when
brought into the prison to find me
there. In addition there were Chi
naman and myself from the U. s. A.
II was quite cosmopolitan group
and as one typical Irlshman said,
"Snre. and we have every nation that's
worth mentioning, including the darn
Germans with us whites" OF course
this was not translated to the Ger.
mans. nor was 1t even spoken in their
hearing, or we probably would not
iave had quite so cosmopolitan bunch
Each man In the prison was ready to
uphold his native country in any argu'
ment that could possibly be started
and II goes without saying that never
took back seat In any Of them with
my praise for America, with the Cana.
dlap and Chinaman Ginning In on my
side. But they were friendly nrgu'
nients; we were all in the same boat
and that was no place for quarrellng
Every other morning the weather
allowing, we were taken to large
swimming pool and were allowed to
have bath. There were two pools
one for the German officers and one
for the men. Although we were Off
GERS. we had to use the pool occupied
by the men. While we were In swim
ming q German guard with rife
across his knees sat at each corner Of
the pool and watched US closely as
we dressed and undressed. English
interpreters accompanied US on all Of
these trips. so at no time could w
talk without their knowing what wal
going on.
Whenever we were taken out of thu
prison for any purpose they always
paraded us through the most crowded
streets-evidently to give the popu
lace an idea that they wers getting