davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20

succeeded in getting mail to Mr.. Ra
CONS son. Forest. who had not receiv-
ed any for seven months until just
recently Sergeant Moe states that he
remembers meeting Marine Chando s
Ragon at LaMans. France. during the
armistice days Sergeant Moe says ne
n@0ects 70 Eet -ome IN Garv soma
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20
| THE PASSING |
Snow
THERE is sun every reason

FOR conserving our food supplies
But ever since the signing ~ Of the
armistice
WE have been using our
INFLUENCE to have it stop short or
warming W
BAKING powder biscuits the second
time.
ONE hing that we never could
QUITE understand
IS why man cant carry an UNI
brelIa
AHD keep the rain OF his own wife
LIKE he can carry it and keep The
wet
OFF some other mans wife
1T j. quite possible that our neuritis
IS bothcring US
EFT more than usual but it looks to
ua that
wHEa tia PEACE treaty and the
League Of Nations is all signed UP
Enn>,v VIII be the only free ma
tlon on earth
~ spite Of the FAC, that
UNTOLD millions Of people over the
world
SEEM determined to borrow trouble
EVERY day there is always enough
to 50 around
MEN are 50 Stubborn
THAT If a fellow had TO pa tax
ron having rheumatism. he would
de
BEFORE he would walk lame.
GUESS we'd better see II we
CAN'T ind out what the Anti-ssloon
League
! is going to recommend for
SNAKE bite after the first Of July
THE bolshevists
CONTINUE to deny that they have a
/ pact with Germany
or course not it's little early yet
THE wobblies have hard time
UNDERSTANDING that
KEEPING UP appearance is not folly
WHEN it means a clean collar.
THERE is at last real tang Of
spring
IN the air
AND we never felt # as much as We
did
YESTERDAY while walking home
FROM church with dear young girl
whose
HAND " hal hard tin. keeping
from
PRESSING surrepuuously
JUST be patient think Of the big
quartette IF
BURLYs who VIII be honerlns for
mercy one Of these days
AUSTRIA. Turkey. Bulgaria and Hun
gary
UGH.
IT is easy enough
TO say that an editor SnOulo
HAVE neither frisnds nor enemies
BUT ii T. hard TO see how consoi-
entious one
CAN be more than 80 per cent
RIGHT under this rule Of life.
AND then there is another thing
WOMAN may do she may
GIVE SIS for a pair or coiored high
| heelers
BUT she doesn't run a
POOL or a bowling bill OF twice thai
sum.
AN old woman IN Serbia carried 3
barrel OF
WINE without staggering
AND yet some fellows can't carry two
glasses and
WALK home straight from wes'
Hammond.
Soldier Bow
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20
Soldier Boy
News

SerRt. Lucien Hlrsch. Of the 3Srd
division. wired his parents, Mr. and
Mrs Dave Hirseh OF HarT ond. that
he had arrived n Philadelphia and
viii be sent to Camp Dix for dis
charge.
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20

ant surgeon at the Gary steel Mills
before entering the service
letter received Monday by r. Z.
Ragon or the Gary Evening Times
from sergeant-MaJor Moe. Gary SOL
der now n the Central Records office
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20

time In June OF July A cablegrs n
vas received by Mr.. and Mrs. Ragon
Saturday from Forest Ragon. stating
that he expected TO get home soon. II
aas dated from Esch. Luxembourg
X. A. Sparks, Jr., son of Mr.. and Mrs
f. a. Sparks. OF Highland. returned
home nom France Tuesday. Ma NJ
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20
Major Frank Mcrrltt. VIC be-. b.

Major Frank Merritt. who has been
in France In the medical service for
over a year Is now at ST. Maurice. In
France. and writes TO friends in Gary
that he soon expects TO sail for home
having gotten ready and things packed
on several occasions but no ship was
coming" Major Merritt was an assist
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20
v - - - " y -

There Is only room for flag Lake county and
that ls the Stars and Stripes There only
one language and that is the language people
the United States
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20

chasers struck such rough wealth
er for four days that no food could
be cooked ana the crews lived on
canned foods and crackers during
that time.
The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1919-05-20
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.

as you have IN the past please do not think has beer
LOST or was not sent time Remember that the NAIL
service not what used to be and that complaints are
genera from many sources about the and mail
TIE TINES has increased its mailing equipment and
STRIVING earnestly 70 reach time Pc
Pront IN advsrg Us when do not and
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-20

low secretly. Three or four days
later he died in hospital
The hospitals OF Mosul were shame
fully overcrowded, as indeed was the
Ca@" verywhere in Turkey. Often the
men were put two or three in a bed.
Sometimes the sufferers were left in
he'd. without food or attention, until
life had left them. Their bodies were
then carried away and pitched all to-
gether into the graves dug hastily by
Arabs. One man remembers mott ing,
among the corpses being taken for
burial. a comrade who was evidently
still alive. He pointed out this fact to
the guards, who grinned, and having
laid the Tommy on the ground, poured
water down his throat until he was
lead. The burial party then continued
Its work.
It was the heart breaking duty OF
the British officers as Mosul to decide
which of the men they should help
with their slender funds and which
were too far gone to warrant any at
tempt at saving them.
! Capt. Brown received a wind
fall of $l25 in gold, telegraphed by a
German pre-war acquaintance who
/ had formerly been Ambassador at Con-
stsntinople. This money. coming from
such an important person, could not
I be confiscated. Being paid in the pres
! ence of the German Consul It provided
an opportunity of bringing to light the
sufferings OF the men. Capt, Yeats
Brown told the Consul that the gold
To- he
Tommies than for the officers, and
that such necessary articles as blank
! cts, soap and tins to hold drinking
water should be purchased from fund
formed with the $125 as a nucleus
He further suggested that the Red
Cross should be approached imme-
diately and that the Consul himself
should inquire into the shocking bar
barities practised on our men.
The Turkish commandant was flu
r1ous and the nine British officers were
moved from Mosul on the following
day. Although at the time the Ger
man Consul did not appear TO be SYM
pathetic. he probably acted on Capt
Yeats Browns suggestions, for in the
course of time the commandment was
removed and the treatment OF the
British prisoners in Mosul improved
slightly,
But Abdul CHAM Bey before leaving
Mosul had done his worst. In Deem
Der, 1916, the "Bagdad Consular Guard
consisted Of one Indian officer and fifty
Indian soldiers, all picked men. AS I
direct result of the barbarous III treat
ment for which he was responsible
only three are now living, This wa:
enc OF many similar examples.
The treatment of the Kut-el-Amars
garrison was an appropriate, sequel t.
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-20

TIE savagery in the dollhouse OF
Mosul. When Gen. Townshend was
forced to surrender, a condition ac-
ccpted by the Turks was that the gar
r.son should be taken to captivity UNI
der proper conditions. This promise
tn, Turks kept by sending the thou
sands OF British and Indian soldiers.
already weak as a result OF the star
walton rations of the siege. on an aw-
full march over 500 miles OF desert and
mountains. For the most part the
guards rode on donkeys, while the men
walked. The boots OF many OF them
we're stolen. and IL by reason of this
they dropped from the column death
was almost certain. Such as fell out
were either left on the desert to die In
tho sun or were knocked on the head
ny Kurds. Arabs or Turks.
Driven Across Desert.
With hardly any clothes, no money
and insufficient food, they were driven
across Mesopotamia. Syria and Ana
tolia. Their nameless sufferings will
never be known in full, for many re-
manned in the desert, dubbed to death
BY their guards when they could no
longer remain with the party, their
bodies afterward being stripped naked
and left by the roadside. Others died
in Arab villages. where they were
abandoned when in the last stages OF
fever or dysentery. Others were found
dead after the nights halt. when the
huddled sleepers turned out TO face an
other day OF misery.
Hopeless, indeed, the outlook must
have seemed to some boy who but a
year earlier had enlisted in England.
The brutal sentries, the arid desert,
the daily deaths, the daily quarrels,
the bitterness OF the future-bleak as
the acres OF sand that stretched to-
ward their unknown destination-the
dwindling company of friends, the
grip of thirst. Ihe pangs Of hunger,
the pains OF death, Ghosts OF such
memories must not be lightly evoked
among the survivors, but always they
will haunt the trails of the Syrian
desert.
Through It all the men were heroes.
The cowardly Kurds. who were the
worst OF the various escorts between
Dobuah anu HiSppS' hcNoi uoiSu W III
suit the Brit!shers unles. they out
numbered them by four to one. Even
thus they generally waited until some
sick man fell down from exhaustion
before killing him with their rife
| butts.
In some cases the Turkish officers
commanding the escorts were humane
men and endeavored to provide trans
port for the sick but they were almost
powerless to deal with their sub
ordinates. 1t was so easy to say that
prisoner had tried to escape. or had
died q natural death. Moreover. or
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-20

months through scenes OF squalor and
misery which from the viewpoint of
civilized country cannot be conceived.
The Indians we're dying at the rate of
four or Ave a week in the cellar. Some
went mad. The majority were suffer-
Ing from dysentery. Scarcely any
clothes were left on their backs. They
had no money to buy the most ordinary
necessaries of life. They were sup
piled with nothing but the veriest mini
mum OF food and water to keep them
wrctchedly alive.
For these sick and starving crea-
used to Turkish bread and soup. kept
short of drinking water, unable to buy
soap, bootless. thin as skeletons. clad
in a few squalid rags. shivering in the
raw winter OF northern Mesopotamia,
the conditions OF life meant almost cor
tain death. Four-ficths OF them dS
die. killed by the cynical brutality of
Abdul CHAM Bey, commandment OF
Mosul, and of his subordinates.
Occa sionally, for an hour or two in the
daytime, the men were allowed out OF
the cellar. A CHASTITY band would then
shamble to the barrack square-tot-
tering, limping and some crawling.
Practically all were barefoot and
clothed only in shirt and trousers. Sew
eral men, dragged out by the sentries,
actually died under the eyes OF the
British officers who were watching
from their window.
Recaptured Arab deserters were
sometimes lined up for inspection on
this barrack square. Abdul CHAM
Bey passed along their ranks. flashing
one in the face with his whip, kicking
another and knocking down third.
Capt. Yeats Brown once saw him fell
a helpless old man and stamp on his
face with spurred- boots. After their
inspection the deserters were locked
two by two with great wooden Jokes
and taken off to await transportation
to the front. The handouts were
never removed until they were actual
ly in the trenches. with machine guns
behind them. Until then they ate,
walked and slept two by two. each
man with his yoked companion.
The commandant considered that
his dignity did not permit him to use
personal violence on the Britishers.
but his subordinates were free to
strike them as they pleased, the only
check on their behavior being that
sometimes they were themselves
knocked down by a prisoner who was
still strong enough to hit back.
There was insufficient water for
drinking, and none at all for washing.
AS the men could never change the
rags they wore and as the majority
were suffering from dysentery their
state was dreadful. Four or FIVE would
huddle together on the damp nag
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-20

a bit of soap. a mug-all, in short. that
they had been able to save from the
systematic looting of their guards.
Once in hospital the survivors
Jared little better. No provision was
made for them, and they died by twos
and threes. 1t was a common sight to
sec parties of Tommies carrying the
bodies of their friends TO the burying
ground-for they had to bury their
own dead. The Turks kindly lent
stretchers. Day after day the weary
professions passed with stretchers and
shovels, skeletons alive carrying skele-
tons dead
Tribute 10 MorEenthau.
II is small wonder that only q
fifth of the surrendered Kut- -Amara
garrison are alive to-day. Had il not
been for the staff of the American
Embassy at Constantinople-mo es-
peclally for the devoted help OF Am
bassador Morgenthau and Mr.. Hoff-
man Phillips-it is probable that not
more than tenth would be alive
Every British soldier captured before
the United States entered the war
owes a decn debt OF gratitude to the
American diplomats in Turkey.
I could tell of many more atrocities
on the prisoners in Turkey. but enough
has been said to show the nature of
the Turk when he thinks he can afford
10 shed his thin disguise OF civ4Iiza-
ton. Light and shade are in ey~-y
picture, and II must be admitted tina,
certain Turkish officers behaved well
to the captured British, just as certain
Turkish officials showed consideration
for the Armenians. But as a nation
the Turks are at rock bottom as cruel
and savage as they were when Tam
erlane the Conqueror led their hordes
from the plains OF Central Asia and
committed barbarities worse than those
OF Attlla the Hun.
As soon as he is away from the re-
straining influence OF civilized Powers
the Turk gives rein to his brutal and
degenerate instincts - the lust OF
cruelty, sadism. sodomy 1.-TWO British
soldiers were forcibly violated al
Afion-Kara-Hissar by Muslum Bey.
the commandanD and other vices For
this reason he must never again be
given the chance TO cast loose this re-
straininG influence.
Meanwhile nothing, alas. can give US
back our murdered prisoners. But IN
the name of justice, whatever nation
Is the mandatory power over Turkey
must see TO II that the murderers are
sought Out captured and punished
| Copyright, 1919 by the Mcclure Ns~n.po,
| SyndcAte)
ITO be continued IN neI4 Sundays sus.)
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-20
By CAPT. ALAN BoTT, r. A. F.

n EVENLY per cent. Of the British
and Indian prisoners taken by
the Turks died in captivity. OF
the Kut-e -Amara garrison more than
50 per cent died, Their deaths were
due to restitution, disease, neglect,
starvation. brutality. or sheer murder.
am anxious for these facts to be
known, for in America I find a mis-
taken belief that the Turks treated
their prisoners better than the Ger
mans. For a long time this fallacy
was accepted even by the British, so
that we in the Turkish internment
camps often received letters contain
ing the sentence: "1Iow glad l am
tfat you are in the hands Of the Turks
and not of the Huns"
And with thoughts Of the thousands
OF Tommies and Indians who died on
the Death March from MLesopotamia to
AIatolia we would smile bitterly.
The false report that the Turkish
authorities In their relations with en-
emies were behaving like gentlemen
began on Gallipoli. There the Turk
gained a reputation for bravery, which
he deserved. and for chivalry, which
he did not deserve.
only Fear Deters Them.
Fear is the one influence that tends
20 keep the Turk from graft and saw
agery; and at the time he was desper-
ately afraid that the British would
capture Gallipoli, sail up the Darda-
nelles and so to Constantinople. Turk
ish officers who fought on Galipoli
often told me that every day they were
expecting to be driven off the PENN
sula. The Ottoman Government was
very pessimistic and all its gold re-
serves had been moved to Anatolia,
whittier the Ministers planned to re-
tire as soon as allied warships entered
the Sea Of Marmora. With this more
than possible defeat in view he was
anxious to pose as a civilized Euro
pean. And the Turkish soldiers obeyed
blindly their orders not to send shells
and bullets in the neighborhood OF
burial parties or hospital ships. just as
they would have obeyed blindly orders
to the contrary.
But the men who were captured on
GalIipoli and still survive-their num-
bers are very few-have a different
tale to tell. Most OF them were robbed
OF money or boots, many saw the
Turkish soldiers killing British wound
ed. and all suffered from terrible treat
ment In STEAMBOAT jail and in various
parts OF Asia Minor.
After the British had evacuated
Gallipoli the Turk no longer feared
defeat, but believed himself to be in
vincible. He threw of the mask OF
mock chivalry. and in the words OF
Ambassador Morgenthau reverted to
ancestral type" Among the results OF
this reversion were the massacre
with indescribably dreadful tortures)
OF nearly a million Armenians, the i'm
prisonment without trial OF many
thousands OF Christians and Arabs
and the Death March of the British
and Indian garrison OF kut-el-Amara,
OF which the story has never yet been
published.
Although the early days Of my cap
tivity were unpleasant, they compared
very favorsbly with those OF the pris-
oners captured in 1915 and 1916; for
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-20

stones OF the cellar in an effort to
keep warm.
The one Englishman who lived
through those bleak and bitter days in
the CELLAR did much to cheer the In
dian prisoners. but always he will bear
the marks OF that terrible time. When
Capt. Yeats Brown last saw him he
was paralyzed in the left arm as the
result Of his experiences.
Never will Capt. Yeats Brown forget
the pit!able procession that arrived one
day at Mosul from Kirkuk, on the
borders of Persia. About two hundred
men had started from Bagdad six
weeks earlier. They marched, bare
foot and in the bitter cold. to the
mountain town of Kirkuk Probably
there was disaffection there. and It
had occurred to Enver Pasha that il
British prisoners, after a course. OF
starvation. made a detour by forced
marches to Kirkuk. they would on ar
rival be in such state as to convince
the citizens that the dreaded English
were not so very dreadful after ALL
After a fortnight in the town our men
took to the road again.
Eirh,x Arr,x. n, Maui,
They arrived at Mosul only eighty
snohe' amer 'e'iioie suieri'sS' ou'
e.N' uiu"u'''eu III ''er eou' age Inc
ns"s'ine'' 'eu o9 d 'ail sergeant
iean as ,a'h' inarcheo at the mead
VI 'ne coiuliih' men io'io"eu the
nuah eo'u,eis anu 'ne" the camp
'oi ,,s ooine SHY men i',arvneu ,
eaia'S uu' s'o",S' mo 'he oaiiaen
Suua Da.e'oT,. sor!e ~ 'aip p1.
snpps, suahe m sun s'e'ss Nn''
.. 'n INV - :" Nv. .nn
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-20
In the Twilight of the
Turkish Empire.

This is the fourth of a series
of articles by Capt. Alan Bott,
r. A. F., who was captured by the
Turks while flying with Gen.
AHenby's Army of the Palestine.
His amazing experiences as
Turkish prisoner of war are the
, basis for the present narrative,
Tin the Twilight of the Turkish
Empire" He had opportunities
for observing the collapse of
Ottoman power such as few other
|. men could find.
The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-20
Scarcely Fifth of the Men Who
Fell Into Hands of Ottomans Live
to Tell of Tortures They Endured
in Prisons and in Hospitals
Which Were Just as Bad

a march OF twenty miles it was diff
cult to supervise a column extending
tor several thousand yards. And at
night, tramping for ten hours, unless
the officer possessed exceptional
energy it was next TO impossible to
see that the rations issued were ac-
tually received by the prisoners.
The men were generally packed into
a locked room at the end of the days
march. They were not allowed out for
any purposes whatsoever. The dying.
the dead, and the healthy remained
together until dawn. when the march
began again. Officer prisoners were
generally allowed a mount of some
kind but unless the officer was very
i'll he preferred to walk and let a sick
man ride. small proportion OF
donkeys was generally allotted to
each convoy 10 carry the weakest men,
but the guards made a practice of in
ducing the sick riders to remain be-
hind the column, where they were
killed and looted. The guards thus
obtained the donkeys for their own
use.
On the march from Mosul to Aleppo
to be had. In the middle OF the desert
British officer found six half de-
mented soldiers, who had been propped
up against the wall of a mud hut and
left to die, There was no transport,
no medicines Nothing could be done
for them. They died long before the
relief parties organized at Aleppo
could come to their rescue.
Ill Treatment In Hospitals.
At Aleppo the hospital treatment
was extremely bad. All men fit to
move land many who were not) went
on in cattle trucks to the Taurus
mountains. They were made to walk
over the mountain passes. and there,
again, many fell out and died. The
survivors reached the prison camps of
Anatolia only to come upon the plague
OF typhus at its height. They were
shamefully neglected by the doctors
and in their weakened state they sue
cumbed by hundreds. Once when the
typhus epidemic visited Yozgad 80 per
cent. OF the men in that prison camp
died.
The sight OF body of British pris-
oners arriving at Atom Kara -Hissar
from Bagdad, pushed and kicked and
beaten by their escort, can never be
forgotten by any VINO were present.
They were literally skeletons alive.
skeletons with skin stretched tight
! across their bones, and but a few rags
| TO their backs. They struggled up the
road, scarce able TO carry their pitiful
little bundles containing scraps OF
bread, a blanket betwssn two or three