The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-13

zone man charged with n theft OF
something like $4,000 francs. about
$4,000. escaped from the prison. The
first night of the day of his capture he
was beaten unconscious and then re-
vived with cold water and beaten again.
This treatment was kept UP for three
DAYS. The man went about the Bastile
with his face all bandaged up and
looked like IA human wreck.
"Men were ordinarily kept here only
enc day. However, on one occasion five
or six men taken in the prison In
detachment OF prisoners were held
there sixteen days because their papers
had been lost by the military police.
During the entire sixteen days in the
prison these men tried every way they
could to have an interview with an
officer but were refused. At last In a
general check up of the number OF
prisoners IL was found there were five
or six more than were accounted for
There were about n thousand soldiers In
the place. 1t was thus that these men
were discovered and sent out to farm
No. ..
Farm No 2 was then run by Com,
pany X, 15Sth Infantry of the Fortieth
Division. Lieut. Smith was the officer
in charge. This lieutenant was known
ns hard boiled Smith Farm No. was
a French farm outside OF Paris used by
the American Army as prison camp
There were many stables three-quarters
of which We're used by men of Company
X, which numbered about $50 men. The
other quarter OF the stables was used
for the prisoners, who sometimes num-
bered 1900 men. These men were quar-
tered in something like ten stalls, each
about the size OF a two horse STALL and a
loft Just above these stalls. The over
flow was put in pup tents in small
yard. About sixteen men slept in a sin
gle stall. The unSanitary conditions
were frightful
MANY OF tine men had been in the
lines where they had fought the Hun
TO defeat and death. They had acquired
many souvenirs from Germans killed in
battle or taken prisoners. These souYe-
Mrs were grabbed by the sergeants and
Officers with great exultation. The out
fit running farm No. during the period
described had been in France only since
the latter part OF July or early August,
1918, and none of the men ever saw
any actual fighting. These officers and
sergeants were only too glad to rob the
men who fought for them of their hard.
earned trophies. II was a common thing
TO see a sergeant knock a man down or
beat him up on the slightest provocation.
One morning as the men fell In FOR
breakfast one man was slightly out or
line. n sergeant WcHl Wy W ohN
punched him In the face six times.
"a most horrible incident was the case
of a soldier who could not speak Eng
lish very WELL much less understand It
thoroughly. lie was struck and beaten
for not swapping to a minor command.
He cried, this Is terrible
I'VE will show you how terrible 1t Is"
replied those who we're beating him, and
he was taken before the personnel off,
Ger and two sergeants. Lieutenant
beat him again and put him In cell on
bread and water. Evidently they con-
sldered this too good for him. 30 he was
placed in a pup tent for solitary con-
fnement
During the afternoon his quietness
was noticed and when they went over
and tore his tent down he was lying
on his back with his throat cut II was
about an hour before the ambulance ar
rived and the silent form horne on to
the hospital. And thousands OF miles
across the sea and land perhaps there
waited a gray haired mother with a