The spectator., 1919-03-04


 kicking bunch of horses they went. as. sisted by Doc Casey. Four of the horses received broken legs. and Pin ero. instead of shooting them, cut their throats with sharp dagger he carried.
 One of the negroes from the lower hold staggered to the upper deck with his face blanched almost white. and his eyes popping out of his head. Be. tween gasps he informed us that whole section Uf stalls, 24 in all, had been carried away between decks, and that the horses were loose. He said three negroes in his gang were caught in this stampede.
 The foreman mustered most of the men. and dividing them into three groups, in charge of himself. the sec ond foreman and Doc Casey, they went below. followed. An awful sight met my eyes.
 The ship was iurching in a horrible manner. All could see was. one minute pile of kicking horses, smashed-up blanks and the three ne- groes piled up in one corner of the compartment. and then, with lurch of the ship they would slide into the other. Nothing could be done by us. It was madness to attempt anything. The three negroes were dead. That night and the following day was perfect hell on the ship for men and horses. The ship rode through the sQuall. md when 1t became calm we all got busy. Out of the 24 horses between decks we had to shoot 17 on account of injuries. Besides the IT had died from broken necks. The remaining horses were still alive but hardly had square foot of hide left. They were pitiful sight.
 The next day the three negroes were buried at sea without word of prayer.
 I was heartily sick and disgusted with the rect of the trip, because the stench was awful. there being about twelve dead horses that We could not get out.
 IuSt outSi0N VI NhC pI tAV river leading to Bordeaux. small, rakish boat. flying the tri-color of France, came alongside. We hove to and up the gangplank came three French officers. They were closeted with the captain of the ship and our foreman. and after about twenty min utes. left and we continued on our course.
 Going up the river in some places the banks were only about twenty feet away. We could see the French women tilling their fields. ~As We went by these workers stopped and waved their hands in the air to us, md we waved back. It was my first sight of France. and I was not in any way disappointed. It lived up to my expec- tations.
 A little farther up the river we came to large dock where ships were load ing and unloading cargoes and thrill passed through me as I saw my first batch of German prisoners at work. These were immense fellows nearly every one being six feet or over. They were guarded by little French soldiers averaging about five feet five inches, with a long rifle. bayonet fixed. This rifle, in comparison with the French man. looked Ike telegraph pole. The soldiers had on the old blue overcoats, the tails buttoned back, pattern of 1871.
 As we passed the German prisoners they scowled at us, and we, feeling quite safe on the deck. yelled back in. suits at them. One big Irishman. | right near me, took great glee in jump. ing up and down on the hatchway and running his finger across his throat. This seemed to enrage the prisoners and they yelled something in German.