The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-04-19

The German is never happy except
when he is miserable or making
somebody else miserable. He is
born bully, and excells in the art of
devising ways of making other peo-
pies lives unbearable. We found
that out before we hal long in the
hands of the Huns.
Most of us were in a bad way. We
had been badly wounded and were not
fit to travel. Apart from that our
nervous state was such that it was
cruelty to tell US anything calculated
to depress. That did not stop the Ger
man officers coming round every
morning and reading to us long ac-
counts of the disasters that were al
legged to have overtaken our troops.
They went far out of their way to
study the regiments to which partlcu-
lar men belonged, and so far as pos
sible men of one regiment were kept
together in the same ward. At first
we put this down to kindness, but
later we discovered that it was only
part of the German system of cruelty.
When the officer with the usual bull
letin entered the hospital in the morn
ing he supplemented his general story
of German success by particulars of
the way in which a certain regiment
had been cut up, and it was some
thing more than a coincidence that
the regiment cut up was invariably
the one to which the men in the ward
belonged.
At first we were terribly depressed
by this bad news, but when the regi-
ment had ben wiped out daily for
three weeks we came to the conclusion
that the bulletin was faxed, for not
even the Kings Own could have stood
this sort of thing daily for three
weeks.
One day I happened to be in the
ward of the Yorkshire Light Infantry
men when the officer arrived, and
when he detailed the story of how a
battalion of the K. o. Y. L. 1. had
been captured that week after losing
nine out of every ten men, I won
dered what had happened ito the
Kings Own that they had not been
able to parade on that particular day
for the usual wipe out by the German
winners of wireless victories. I had
no right to be there, and so lodged
back to my own ward in time for roll
cali, which always preceded the visit
of the bulletin officer. He finished
the usual record Of German victories
and then paused before taking up the
story of the particular casualties. I
watched the faces of my comrades,
wondering what they would say when
they learned that the old regiment
had been at last wiped out and in con.
IaI oh
to find other units to slaughter. Judge
of my surprise when 1 found that
there was no mention of the York
shire Light Infantry, and that the
ROYAL Lancasters were still doing
duty as the victims of German lust
for slaughter Then 1 tumbled tc
what hapened& and we had a great
laugh over the whole business wher
the German officer went his way tt
the Liverpool regiment to tell then
of what had happened to their com
rades.
A Warming And Its Sequel
The enemy got it into their head
while we were staying at Mannheim
that some of the British subject
might try to communicate with us
and they had posted sentries all rount
the place. No one was allowed to b
seen near the hospital after sunse
and the sentries had instructions 70
some time to fire on anybody see
about the camp.
One day there was a row about a
English girl who had been seen talk
ing to one of our chaps during tn
day, and there was a special visi
from the inspecting officer, who rea
us long lecture, and said that nc
only would the girl suffer by bein
informed as soon as she was discovere
but any person seen approaching tt
camp would be fired on without bein
asked for an explanation. Then
asked us to give away the name {
the girl. saying she would only b