The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1919-01-30
Observation-Disclosures

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rContinued from Last Week)
Then was forced into my wet
clothes and marched back to the bar
racks. This bath and the stroll
through the snow In wet clothes Just
about did for me. Nowadays, when
sit In draft for q second and catch
cold, wonder that am still alive to
catch 1t. Having gone through Dix
nude and the Dardanelles and the
sinking Of the Georgia and four Ger
man prison camps and few other
things-I shall probably trip over a
hole in church carpet and break my
neck. Tint would be my luck.
There were all the diseases you can
think Of in this camp, including black
cholera and typhus and somebody was
always dying. We had to make collins
from any wood we could find. So It
was not long before we were using the
dividing boards from our hunks, pieces
or flooring and, In fact, the walls of
the barracks. The officers were quar-
tered In corrugated iron barracks, so
they had to borrow wood from us for
their collins. We would make the box
and put the body in 1t, give 1t as much
service as we could. In the way of
prayers and hymns, and put 1t away in
hole near the barracks. There was
so much Of it that single death
passed unnoticed.
One morning the German sentries
came to our barracks-they never
came singly-and told us that an off,
Ger was going to review the prisoners
and ordered us to muster up, which we
did. was the last man out Of the bar
racks and on account Of my wounds I
was slower than the rest.
You understand had had no medical
treatment except crepe-paper ban
dages and water; my wounds had been
opened by swimming from the Georgia
TO the Moewe and they had been put
In terrible shape in the coal bunkers.
On account Of the poor food and lack
or treatment they had not even started
to heal. Incidentally. the only cloth
bandages that any Of us had were what
we would tear from our clothes and
have seen men pick up an old dirty
rug that someone else Ind bad around
f's wound for long time md bandage
his own wounds with It
So 1t was all l could do to drag my
self along. The officer noticed that I
was out Of line and Immediately asked
my name and nationality. When he
heard American" he could not say
enough things about us and called me
all the swine names he could think of.
was pretty thin at this time and
getting thinner. SO figured might
Just as well have 1t out before.
starved. Besides. thought. he ought
to know that We are not used to being
bawled out by German swine In this
country.
So told him 80. And said that he
should not bawl Americans out, be-
cause America was neutral. He then
said that as America supplied food and
munitions to the allies she was no bet
ter than the rest.
Then I said: "Do you remember the
Deutschland7 When she entered Bal
timore and New London she got all the
cargo she wanted. didn't she7"
Eyes"
'Well. II you send over your mer-
chant marine they will get the same"
For that answer he gave me ten days
in the guardhouse. He did not like to
be reminded that their merchant MAJ
rlne had to dive under to keep away
from the Limeys.
I admit was pretty flip to this Of.
fcer. but who would not be when q
slick German swine officer bawled him
out7
1t was while was in the guardhouse
that Mr.. Gerard. the American ambas-
sedor. visited the camp. He came to
this camp about every six months, as
Q rule. Even In the German prison
camps the men had somehow got infor-
nation about Mr.. Gerard's efforts to
improve the terrible surroundings In
which the men lived. Some Of the men
at Dulmen had been confined In vari-
GUS other camps and they told me that
when NJ. Gerard visited these camps
NIL that the men did for a week or 80
eASCA "uto ~oo ~ tuih HIS tlolS
and what he had said to them. We
knew Mr.. Gerard had got the Germans
, to make conditions better In some Of
the worst hell-holes in Germany and
the men were always glad when he
came around. They felt they had some
thing better to look forward to and
some relief from the awful misery.
Mr.. Gerard was passing through the
French barracks and a man I knew
there told him there was an American
there. The Germans did not want him
to see me, but he put mp an argument
with the commanding officer and they
finally said he could interview me. ]
never was so glad to see anyone as
] was to see him. The picture is still
with me Of him coming in the door.
We talked for about an hour and a
half. guess, and then he got up to
anA q ~