The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1919-01-23

and laid down with him, and we had
quite talk. will not give his name
here for certain reasons.
He had received several wounds at
the time he was taken prisoner. He
had been in the Canadian service for
two years. We used to talk about
New York and Boston and the differ
ent places we knew In both towns, and
we also talked lot about the rotten
treatment we were receiving, and tried
to cook up some plan of escape. But
every one we could think of had been
used by some one else, and either had
failed, or the Huns had fixed it so the
plan could not be tried again. We
doped out some pretty wild schemes at
that. Altogether, we became great
pals, and were together US much as
possible at Dulmen. The day left
the camp, he gave me ring made
from shell, and told me to get it safely
back to the States, but some one stole
1t at Brandenburg.
One day while was in his barracks
an Englishman stepped out of the door
for some reason or other, and though
he did not say word to Fritz, in two
minutes he was dead, in cold blood.
We never knew why they killed him.
At Swinemunde and Neustrelftz,
must admit that the Germans had us
pretty badly buffaloed, but at Dulmen
the prisoners were entirely different.
nnInoon woe tho roooiyipo oov,op for
the whole western front, and the pris-
oners there got to be pretty tough
eggs, as far as Fritz was concerned,
before they had been in camp many
days. They thought nothing of pick
ing fight with sentry and giving
him good battle, even though he was
armed with rife and bayonet. We
soon learned that unless his pals are
around German will not stand by his
arguments with his fists. In other
words, if he can Outtalk you, he will
beat you up, but If he cannot, it is a
case of "Here comes Heinie going
back"
The Russian prisoners at Dulmen
were certainly a miserable. looking
bunch. They spent most of their time
wandering around the Russian bar
racks, hunting for rotten potato peel
ings and other garbage, which they
would eat. When they saw Fritz
throw out his swill, they would dive
right through the barbed wire one
after another, and their hands and
| face and clothes were always torn
| from it. 1t was unhealthy to stand
between the Russians and their garb
age prey-they were SO speedy that
nothing stopped them.
One morning, just after barley-cof'
fee time, came out Of the barracks
and saw an Australian arguing with
the sentry. I was not only curious
but anxious to be q good citizen, as
they say, so I went up and slung an
ear at them. The Australian had asked
Fritz what ila1 been done with the
flag that the Huns were going to fly
from the Eiffel tower in Paris.
That was too deep for Fritz, so thu
Australian answered it himself. Dom
| you know, Fritz? Well, we have NJ
blankets, you know"
Still the sentry did not get it. 81
the Australian carefully explained t.
me-so that Fritz could hear-that thu
Germans had no blankets and wer,
using the flag to wrap their cold fee
I in.
This started fight, of course-th'
German idea of a fight, that is. Tit
sentry, being a very brave man for {
German, blew his whistle very loudly
and sentries came from all directions
So we beat it to the Australians bar
racks, and there / found the secOnt
American in the camp. He was bar
Der named Stimson, from one of tn
Western states. He had heard wa
there as well as the Boston man in tn
Canadian service. but he had beel
too sick to look us up, and in fact di'
not care what happened, he was s.
miserable. He had been wounded sew
eral times, and died in a day or two
I never knew how he came to be Il
the Australian service.
Those two and myself were the Cnl
Americans I knew of in this prisOl
camp-whether in Canadian, Austria
liam or French service. The othe
two had been captured in uniform, 8
there was no chance of their bein
released.
Dulmen was very near the Dutc
! border and as it was quite easy to &c
out of the camp attempts at escap
were frequent. Most of those who ra
!