The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-01-25

IIllnS W uO. l. lOuuu WHAT Wdutcus
oil right.
I had quite talk with a sentry In
front of barracks. 1t must have
lasted three-Quarters of an hour. He
did not know what was calling him,
and did not know what he was CALI
ing me. I could have handled him all
right, but another sentry came up on
my blind side and grabbed me and the
talk was over.
They dragged me to the commander
of the camp and he instructed them to
give me bath. So they took me to
the bathhouse, where I was stripped
and dashed. All the time they were
whipping me / was thinking what a
| joke it was on me, because had been
looking for excitement and had got
more than wanted, so laughed and
the Huns thought was crazy sure.
Twas dumped into vat of hot water
and at the same time my clothes were
given boiling, which was good for
them.
Then I 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 a draft for a second and catch
cold, wonder that am still alive to
catch it. 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 q
hole in a church carpet and break my
neck. That 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 1t
was not long before we were using the
dividing boards from our hunks, pieces
of 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 it, give it as much
service as we could, in the way of
prayers and hymns, and put it 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
was slower than the rest.
, You understand had hadno medical
, treatment except crepe-paper ban
q dages and water; my wounds had been
p opened by swimming from the Georgia
t to the Moewe and they had been put
in terrible shape in the coal bunkeSs.
e On account of the poor food and LACK
e of treatment they had not even startsd
a to heal. Incidentally, the only cloth
!. bandages that any Of US had were A1hal
J. we would tear from our clothes and
= have seen men pick up an old dirty
d rag that someone else had had around
:. his wound for long time and bandage
e his own wounds with 1t.
S So it was all could do to drag my
e self along. The officer noticed that
n was out of line and Immediately asked
d my name and nationality. When he
10 heard American" he could not say
v enough things about us and called me
D. all the swine names he could think OF
n was pretty thin at this time and
getting thinner, so / figured l might
y just as well have it out before
n starved. Besides. thought, he ought
l. to know that we are not used to being
,r bawled out by German swine in thi:
10 country.
g So told him so. And I said that hi
should not bawl Americans out, be
h cause America was neutral. He theI
It said that as America supplied food AMI
e munitions to the allies she was no bet
n ter than the rest. e
e Then I said: 'fDo you remember thu
% Deutschland? When she entered Bal
1t timore and New London she got all thu
e cargo she wanted, didn't she?" @
e EYES,"
e swell, If you send over your mer
1t chant marine they will get the same
e For that answer he gave me ten day
d in the guardhouse. He did not like t,
g be reminded that their merchant ma
h rine had to dive under to keep ava,
r from the Limeys.
n admit was pretty flip to this Of
e ficer, but who would not be when
e slick German swine officer bawled hin
e out?
|. IT was while was in the guardhous
It that Mr.. Gerard, the American ambas;
y sador, visited the camp. He came !,
Il this camp about every six months, q.
,, rule. Even in the German prisol
e camps the men had somehow got infor
nation about Mr.. Gerard's efforts u
improve the terrible surroundings Il
p which the men lived. Some of the mel
J. at Dulmen had been confined in VAR
d GUS other camps and they told me tina
s when Mr.. Gerard visited these camp
(. all that the men did for week or 8