Williston graphic., 1919-01-30

Thursday, January 80, 1918.
a great pile of hay. That looked good
to us, and we made rush and dived
into it. But the Hans told 10 to take
the hay and throw it in the middle Of
the road. They had to use force be-
fore we would do it. Finally we gave
in. however, and started to carry 1t
out. Some of the young boys were
crying, and I do not blame them
much.
But one Of the boys tried to hide
some of the hay behind box and was
caught doing 1t, and two sentries
clouted him from one end Of the bar
racks to the other. His nose was
broken and his face mashed to q jelly.
But there was nothing we could do,
so we just wandered up and down the
barracks, about as we did between
decks on the Moewe, trying to keep
warm.
While this marathon was on We
heard a whistle blown very loudly,
and when we looked out we saw q
wagon piled up with old tin cans.
Then we were told to form single file.
walk out to the wagon and each get
can for himself. Each man had to
take the first can he laid his hands
on, and many Of US got rusty ones with
holes in them. So that about half an
hour later. when we received barley
coffee, and all we had to drink 1t from
was the cans, lots of the men had to
drink theirs almost in one gulp or lose
half of it.
The barracks were very dirty and
smelled horribly, and the men were
still not even half clothed. We all
looked filthy and smelled that way.
and where the coal dust had rubbed
off, we were very pale. And all Of US
were starved looking.
About eleven o'clock that morning
the whistle blew again, and we came
out and were given an aluminium
spoon and a dish apiece. Then we
cheered up and saw corned beef and
cabbage for ourselves. An hour later
they drilled US through the snow to
cne kucne. when we got there we
stood in, line until at least half-past
twelve. and then the Germans shout
ed: "Nichts zu essen" But we did
not know what that meant, so we just
hung around there and waited. Then
they started shouting, "Zuruck! Zu-
ruck!" and drove us back to the bar
racks.
Later we heard the words ''nichts
zu essen ~ so often that we thought
probably they meant mo eats" We
had our reasons for thinking so, too.
Those words, and 'zuruck" and
"'raus," were practically all We did
hear, except, of course, various kinds
of schweinhunde. 1. -t
It was awful to see the men when
we got back to the barracks. Some Of
the boys from the George, not much
over twelve years old, were almost
crazy, but even the older men were
crying, many of them. 1t was nothing
but torture all the time. They opened
all the windows and doors In the bar
racks, and then we could not heat the
room with our bodies. When we start
ed to move around, to keep warm. they
fred few shots at US. / do not
know whether they hit anyone or not;
we had got so that We did not pay any
attention to things like that. But it
stopped us, and we had to stand still.
The Huns thought we would take the
rifles from the sentries and use them,
too.
never saw a yellower bunch Of
people in my life. do not mean peo-
pie. l wish I could publish what I
really mean. ...
We had stoves in the barracks. but
no coal or wood to burn. There were
many boxes piled up there, but they
belonged to the Germans. We would
have burned them If we could, but
the. Germans made US carry them
across the road. They weighed about
$50 pounds apiece, and we were so
weak that it was all two men could do
to bulge them. And we had to carry
them; they would not let us roll them.
We were SO cold and hungry that even
that exercise did not warm us.
About 2:3O the whistle blew again,
and the Huns picked out few men
and took them down the road. We
could not figure out why, but they
came back about three O'Clock, all of
them with bread in their arms. They
were chewing away on it when they
had a chance. Whenever the sentries
were not looking they would bite at it
like fish going after worm. Each
man carried five loaves.
When they got in the barracks the
sentries made them put the bread
down on the floor, and then. with
their bayonets, the sentries cut each
loaf once down the center lengthwise
and four times across, which meant
ten men to a loaf about the size Of an
ordinary ten-cent loaf in this country
now. They gave each Of us piece
a little larger than safety-match
box.
Continued next week.