Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-17
"OutWiHing the Hum
By Lieutenant Pat O'Brien
Copyright, 1918, by Pat Alva O'Brien.) }

know. At any rate these gifts were
! mighty useful and were very much
appreciated.
one day L offered a button off my
uniform to one of these Belgian
J ladies as u souvenir, but u German
guard saw me ana L was never al
lowed to go near the visitors after
wards.
| The sanitary conditions in this
| prison camp were excellent as gen.
eral proposition. one night, how
| ever, l discovered that l had been
captured by Coolies"
This was a novel experience to
me and one that L would have been
very willing to have missed, because
in the Flying Corps our aerodromes
are number of miles back of the
lines and we have good billets and
| our acquaintance with such things
as "cooties" and other unwelcome
visitors is very limited.
When L discovered my condition
made holler and reused the guard,
and right then L got another example
of German efficiency.
This guard seemed to be even
more perturbed about my complaint
than l myself. evidently fearing that
he would be blamed, for my condi-
ton.
! The commandant was summoned
and l could see that he was very
angry. Someone undoubtedly got d
severe reprimand for it.
L was taken out of my cell by a
guard with a rifle and conducted
about quarter of a mile from the
prison to an old factory building
which had been converted into an
elaborate fumigating plant. There
L was given a pickle bath in some
kind of solution and while l was alb
sorbing it my clothes, bedclothes and
whatever else had been in my cell
was being put through another
fumigating process.
While l was waiting for my things
to dry--it took perhaps half an hour
Il had a chance to observe about
one hundred other victims of COO
ties-German soldiers who had be-
come infested in the trenches. We
were all nude, of course, but appar-
emily 1t was not difficult for them
to recognize me as a foreigner even
without my uniform on, for none OF
them made any attempt to talk to
me, although they were very busy
talking about me.
| could not understand what they
were saying, but L know 1 was the
butt of most of their jokes and they
! made no effort to conceal the fact
that L was the subject of conversa-
ton.
When 1 got back to my cell 1
found that it had been thoroughly
fumigated, and from that time on 1
| had no further trouble with Goo
ties" or other visitors of the same
kind.
AS we were not allowed to write
anything but prison cards writing
was out of the question; and as we
! had no reading matter to speak of,
reading was nil. We had nothing to
do to pass away the time, so conse-
quently cards became our only di-
version, for we did, fortunately,
have some of these.
Daily Lottery For Bread
There wasn't very much money,
as a rule, in circulation, and think
for once in my life l held most of
that, not due to any particular abil-
ity on my part in the game, but l
happened to have several hundred
francs in my pockets when shot
down, But we held a lottery that
was watched without quite such in
tense interest as that The drawing
was always held the day before to
determine who was the lucky man.
| IiClC . Go 90 illueli llOI do "
who would win the prize as if it had
been the finest treasure in the
world. The great prize was one
third of a loaf of bread.
Through some arrangement, which
I never quite figured out, it hap
pened that among the eibht or ten
officers who were there with me,
there was always one-third of loaf
of bread over. There was just one
way of getting that bread, and that
was to draw lots. Consequently that
was what started the lottery.
l believe If man had ever been
inclined to cheat he would have
been sorely tempted in this instance,
but the game was played absolutely
square and If man had been caught
cheating the chances are that he
would have been Stunned by the rest
of the officers as long as he was in
prison. I was fortunate enough to
win the prize twice.
ITO BE Contlnued)