The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1919-01-09

more painful every minute. so that
found was getting ugly and anxious
for an argument. I knew that If /
stayed this way would probably
never come out alive, for there Is
every chance you could want to pick
a quarrel while you are prisoner
that will mean freedom for you-but !
only the freedom of going west, which
was not anxious to try.
When we got near the west bank,
on the tugs, we could see that we were
up against battle with our arms tied.
Over half the crowd was women and
children, l should say, and the rest
were laborers and old civvies, and re-
serve soldiers, and roughnecks gen.
orally. We could see the spit experts
the spit snipers, deployed to the
front, almost.
AS we went ashore, the lombard
ment began, and we were not only
under fire Of spit. if you could call 1t
that, but also Of rocks and bottles and
sticks and most anything that could
be thrown.
had no shoes, and no clOthing-only
what had once been our underwear.
1t is all right to be Coney Island
snowbird and pose around in your
bathing suit in the drifts, because you
are in good condition, and last but not
least, because you do not have to do
it. Figure out the other side Of 1t
for yourself.
They marched us into a field where
there was nothing much but guns and
ammunition and snow, and set us up
in something like skirmish formation.
We stood there for some time, and
then we saw lot of Huns with the
new long rifles coming toward us,
yelling just as they did in battle, and
we thought sure we were being used
for practice targets. 1t is good
thing they halted and stopped yelling
when they did, or we would have
started for them to fight it out, for
we were not the kind that likes to be
butchered with hands in the air, and
we would have been glad for chance
to get few of them before they got
us. But they did halt, and then sur
rounded us, and drilled US away
through swamps and woods and shall.
low water or slush. The women fol-
! lowed, too, and there were plenty OF
bricks and spit left. Women rs well
!. as men are the same the world over
! they say. I wonder? You can just
, picture the women Of, say, ROckland
Me-, following a crowd Of German
: prisoners that way, can't you? Not
I But of course the women of ROcklant
are pretty crude-nO kultur ut all
and Colt never commissioned Presi
r dent Wilson to take the lid off thu
strafe pot for him.
| They drilled us along the docks, ant
! 1t looked as though the whole German
navy was tied up at Swinemunde
i We saw many Of the ships we hat
] heard about, among them being tn
| famous Vulcan, the mother-ship TO
II submarines. There were many sail
VI ors loafing along the docks, and the,
4 gave the women q hand with thei
u days work. They were no better wit
} brick. but they had more ammunition
when it came to splitting. One of then
tripped young boy by the name 0
Kelly. and rs you would never doub
Kelly picked up rock and crashe
the sailor with it. He was then bay
oneted twice in the left leg. We b
gan singing then, our popular favorit'
'Pack up your troubles" ETC., an
when they heard us, how the swim
stared!
Then they drilled us past the &c
man soldiers quarters. The men wer
at rifle practice, and guess oil OF U
thought how handy We would be o
targets. But when we got near then
they quit practicing and crowde
around us yelling: "'Raus! Zuruck
Finally we got to the top of I'll
. hill, and were halted near the ba
racks while an officer read the ma
tial law of Germany to us. At lea:
'e we thought maybe that was it.
III Finally they let us into the ba
II racks, and the first thing we saw wa
RS a great pile of hay. That looked GOO
le to us, and we made a rush and dive
" into it. But the Huns told us to tai
er the hay and throw 1t in the middle
the road. They had to use force b
lr fore we would do it. Finally we go,
e, in, however, and started to carry
y out. Some Of the young boys we
so crying, and I do not blame the
OF much.
re But one Of the boys tried to hit
ed some Of the hay behind boz and WI
caught doing it, and two sentri
e clouted him from one end OF the ba
racks to the other. Ills nose w
broken and his face mashed to jell
But there was nothing we could q
So we just wandered up and down 4
barracks, about as we did betwe'
he decks on the Moewe, trying to ke
ur warm.
ed While this marathon was on \
mt heard q whistle blown very loud
oh and when we looked out we saw
Of wagon piled up with old tin cal
he Then we were told TO form single fl
a walk out to the wagon and each get
us can for himself. Zach man had
as take the first can te laid his han
on, and many of US got rusty ones vi
ms holes in them. So that about half
ed hour later, Wien we received bari
It coffee, and allsw had to drink 1t fir
he was the cans, lots of the men had
tn drink theirs almost in one gulp or Il
an half Of it.
no The barracks were very dirty q
zen slnelled horribly, and the men W
ms still not even half clothed. We
I looked filthy and smelled that W