Jackson County journal., 1919-02-07
CHAPTER xxll-Continued.

Most of them had died from cholera.
typhoid and inOculations. We heard
from the prisoners there before us that
the Germans had come through the
camps with word that there was an
epidemic of black typhus and cholera
and that the only thing for the men to
do was to take the serum treatment to
avoid catching these diseases. Most of
the four hundred men had died from
the inOculations. They had taken the
Germans word, had been inoculated |
and had died within nine hours Which |
shows how foolish it is to believe a |
German. None of us had any doubt !
but what the serum was poisonous.
The second day that we were in the
regular camp the Germans strung
barbed wire all around our barracks
They told us we had q case of black
typhus among us. This was nothing
more nor less than bluff. for not one
of US had typhUs, but they put up the
wire, nevertheless, ard we were not
allowed to go out.
One day when / was loafing around
our barracks door and not having any
thing particularly important to do, l
packed a nice hard SNOWFALL and land
ed 1t neatly behind the ear Of little
sentry not far away. When he looked
around he did not blow his whistle but
began hunting for the throwef. This
was strange in German sentry and
thought he must be pretty good stuff.
When he looked around, however, all
hn c-%c ~
as If he were drunk. The man was
the one who had done the throwing, all
right, but the sentry could not be sure
Of 1t, for surely no man would stay
out in the open and invite accidents
like that. But still. who had done it?
So / just kept staggering around,
and the sentry came up to me and
looked me over pretty hard. Then l
thought for the first time that things
might go hard on me, but l figured
that If quit the play acting it would
be all over. So l staggered right up
to the sentry and looked at him drunk
emily, expecting every moment to get
one from the bayonet.
But he was so surprised that all he
could do was stare. So I stared back
pretending that l saw two of him, and
, otherwise acting foolish. Then l guess
t he realized for the first time that the
! chances of anybody being drunk il
: that camp were small--at least for the
r prisoners. He was rubbing his eal
;. all the time, but finally the though
:, seeped through the ivory and he begaI
!. to laugh. l laughed, too, and the frs
/. thing you know he had me doing i
e again-that is, the imitation. On
j SNOWFALL was enough, figured.
l. / used to talk to him quite oftel
X after that. We had no particula
!. love for each other, but he was game
/. than the other sentries, and he did no
call me schweinhund every time he say
me, so we got on very we'll together
His name must have been Schwartz,
Il guess, but it sounded like "Swatts''
II me, so Swatts he was, and l wa
% "Chink" to him, as everybody els
4 called me that.
le One day he asked me If / cOul
e speak French, and said yes. Italian
v. yes. Russian; yes. No matter whs
ar language he might have mentioned
IT ! "Oulu nave Sdlu yes, UcCduSc COUl
ct smell something in the wind, and
was curious. Then he told me that
/ went to the hospital and wOrke
there, l might get better meals ar
y. would not have to go so far for theI
It and that my knowing all the languag'
n l said l did would help me a gre
he ways toward getting the Job.
~ Evidently he had been told to get
70, man for the place, because he a
nigg pointed me to it then and there.
Of put me to work right away. We we
III over to one of the barracks, where
case Of sickness had been reporte
and found that the invalid was q
Barbados negro named Jim, fiji
man from the Voltaire. At one ti1
'u- Jim must have weighed 25O poun(
as but by this time he was about t'
pounds lighter than a straw hat,
tu- still black and full Of pep. Light
he was, was no white hope" and
NJ was all l could do to carry him to t
hospital. Swatts kept right along
hind me, and every time l would st
to rest, he would poke me with
an broom-the only broom l saw in G
Mt maryland laugh and point to his e.
ith Then I thought it was frame
Ike and that he was getting even with 4
,ns but 1 was In for it then, and the b.
ite l could do was to go through with
But l was all in when we reached
. hospital. The first thing / saw VIII
we got In the door was another neg
at also from Barbados, and as tall a
o. thin as Jim had once been short a
wa fat This black boy and l made
great team, but I never knew WI
his name was. I always called h
Kate, because night and day he v
rect @ whistling the old song, "kate, ks
Meet Me at the Garden Gate or wo
to that effect. l have walked up ms
on- oirh+ ond hoord that whistle !