Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1919-01-09
CHAPTER xlx-continued.

-17-
I noticed that all the time he was
writing the wcrd and giving us the
stationery, the sentry was laughing
and having great time with his own
little self, but figured he was just
acting German, and that nothing was
important about it.
We were all ticlllcd to death to get
a chance to let our people know where
we were, and each man thought q
long time about what he would say,
md who he would write to, before he
ever started to write. Each man want
ed to say all he could in the small
space he had. and we wanted to let
our friends know how badly they were
treating us without saying 1t in so
many words, because we knew the
Huns world censor the letters, and 1t
would e" hard With anyone who COM
plaineT much. So most Of the men
said they were having great time
and were treated very well, and spread
1t on so thick that their friends would
figure they were lying because they
had to.
One fellow hsl an idea that was
better than that, though. He had been
In Jail in Portsmouth, England, for
three months, for beating up con-
stable. and he Ind had pretty rough
time. So he wrote pal of his that
he had been captured by the Ger
mans. but that everything was going
along pretty well. In fact, he said,
the only other trip he had ever been
on. where he had better time, was
the three months vacation he had
spent in Portsmouth two years before,
which he thought the friend would re-
member. lie said that trip was bet.
ter than this one, so the friend could
figure out for himself how pleasant
this one was. Everybody thought this
was a great idea, but unfortunately
not all of us had been in Jail, SO we
could not all use 1t. Which was just
us well, we thought, because the Ger.
mans would be suspicious If all of us
compared this vacation with Others.
A few of the men did not have any
body they could write to, and some did
not know their friends addresses, so
they would write letters to friends Of
the other men, and sign it with the
friends nickname.
AS soon US a man had finished his
letter, he had to go out to the center
of the camp, where they had built a
raised platform. There the sentries
took the letters, and the men formed
around the square. There were Off
GERS on the platform reading the let
tiers. We thought they read them
there in the open, before us. so that
we would know they were not tamper-
ing with the letters, and we thought
the heaven would fall If they were
getting SO unkultured as that.
Finally, all the men had finished
their letters and turned them over to
the officers, who read them. And then
we saw why the sentry laughed.
The officers tore up every one of the
letters. They were anxious that we
would see them do it, so none Of us
would have any hope that our friends
would get word.
But we said to ourselves that, If it
was information they wanted, they had
rs much as was good for them, which
was none ut all, because I do not think
one letter in the bunch had single
word of truth in it. But we were all
very angry and pretty low after that,
because it showed the Huns still had
plenty of kultur left, after all, and we
knew there was rough shedding ahead
of us. Also, some Of the men were
sore because they had wasted their
time thinking up different ways of tip
ping their friends off to the real state
"f affairs, and all for nothing. Why
they should worry about time, could
not see. Time was the only thing we
had plenty of, and I for one, thought
we were going to have still more of it.
Going back to the barracks we tried
to sing 'Pack Up Your Troubles" but
there was not much pep in 1t. We
were not downhearted, though; at
least, we said we were not.