Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1919-01-28

| When I got back to my cell foun,
that it had been thoroughly fumigated
and from that time on I had no further
trouble with "cooties" or other visi
tors Of the same kind.
AS we were not allowed to write
|anything but prison cards, writing wa.
out of the question; and as we had NJ
reading matter to speak of, reading
was nil. We had nothing to do tt
pass away the time, so consequently
cards became our only diversion, fol
We did, fortunately, have some oi
these.
There wasn't very much money as 8
rule in circulation, and I think for once
in my life held most Of that, not due
to any particular ability on my part
in the game, but I happened to have
several hundred francs in my pockets
when shot down. But we held lot
terry that was watched without quite
such intense interest as that. The
drawing was always held the day before
20 learn who was the lucky man. Their
was as much speculation as to who
would win the prize as II 1t had beer
the finest treasure In the world. The
great prize YES one-third Of loaf o1
bread. Through some arrangement
which l never quite figured out, II
happened that among the eight or ter
officers who were there with me, there
was always one-third of q loaf OF
bread over. There was just one way
Of getting that bread, and that was tc
draw lots. Consequently that was what
started the lottery. I believe If man
had ever been inclined to cheat he
would have been sorely tempted In this
instance, but the game was played alb
solutely square, and If man had been
caught cheating the chances are that
he would have been Stunned by the
rest Of the officers as long as he was
in prison. / was fortunate enough to
win the prize twice.
One man-and I think he was the
smallest eater in the camp-won 1t on
three successive days, but 1t was well
for him that his luck deserted him on
the fourth day, for he probably would
have been handled rather roughly by
| the rest of the crowd, who were grow
| ing suspicious. But we handled the
| drawing ourselves and knew there was
nothing crooked about it, so he was
spared.
We were allowed to buy pears, and
being small and very hard, they were
used as the stakes in many q game,
But the interest in these little games
was as keen as If the stakes had been
piles of money instead Of two or three
half-starved pears. No man was ever
so reckless, however, in all the betting
as to wager his own rations.
BY the most scheming and sacriic,
ing I ever did in my life managed to
hoard two pieces Of bread (grudgingly
spared at the time from my daily ra-
tions), but was preparing for the day
when I should escape-if I ever should
It was not q sacrifice easily made
either, but instead of eating bread
ate pears until I finally got one piece
| Of bread ahead; and when l could
force myself to stick to the pear diet
again, I saved the other piece from
that days allowance, and in days to
come had cause to credit myself fully
for the foresight.
Whenever new prisoner came IN
and his German hosts had satisfied
| themselves as to his life history and
taken down all the details-that Is all
he would give them-he was immedi.
ately surrounded by his fellow prison
ers, who were eager for any bit OF
news or information he could possibly
give them, and as rule he was glad
to tell us, because, If he had been To
the hands Of the Huns for any length
| Of time, he had seen very few English
| officers.
The conditions Of this prison were
bad enough when man was In nor
mally good health, but 1t was barbar-
GUS to subject wounded soldier to
the hardships and discomforts Of the
| place. However, this was the fate OF
a poor private we discovered there one
| day In terrific pain, suffering from
| shrapnel in his stomach and back. ALI
| of us officers asked to have him sent
to q hospital, but the doctors curtly
| refused, saying 1t was against orders.
So the poor creature went on suffering
from day to day and was still there
when I left-another victim OF Ger
man cruelty.
| At one time in this prison camp there
| were French marine, French flying
officer, two Belgian soldiers, and Of the
United Kingdom one from Canada, two
from England, three from Ireland, q
couple from Scotland, one from Wales,
q man from South Africa, one from
Algeria, and a New Zealander, the
latter being from my own squadron, q
man whom thought had been killed.
and he was equally surprised when
brought into the prison to find me
there. In addition there were Chi
naman and myself from the q. 8. A.
It was quite cosmopolitan group
and as one typical Irishman said
"Sure, and we have every nation that's
worth mentioning, including the darn
Germans with US whites" OF course
this was not translated to the Ger
mans, nor was it even spoken in theil
hearing, or we probably would moi
have had quite 80 cosmopolitan bunch
Each man In the prison was ready tt
uphold his native country in any argu
ment that could possibly be started
and 1t goes without saying that never
took back seat in any of them witt
my praise for America, with the Capa
dian and Chinaman Ginning In on my
side. But they were friendly argu
ments; we were all in the same boa
and that was no place for quarreling
Every other morning, the weather
allowing, we were taken to q large
swimming pool and were allowed t.
have q bath. There were two pools
one for the German officers and ont
for the men. Although we were OH
GERS, we had to use the pool occupied
by the men. While we were In swim
ming German guard with a riff
across his knees sat at each corner O
| xhn ooo1 ond wotchpd us CLOSELY a!