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

One night there was an exception.
ally heavy air raid going on. A num-
ber of German officers came into my
room, and they all seemed very much
frightened. I jokingly remarked that
1t would be fine If our airmen hit the
old prison-the percentage would be
very satisfactory-one English officer
and about ten German ones. They
didn't seem to appreciate the joke,
however, and. indeed, they were ap-
parently too much alarmed at what
was going on overhead to laugh even
at their own jokes. Although these
night raids seem to take all the starch
out of the Germans while they are
going on, the officers were usually Us
brave as lions the next day and spoke
contemptuously Of the raid Of the
night before.
l saw thousands of soldiers in Cour-
trai, and although they did not i'm
press me as having very good or abun.
dant food, they were fairly well
clothed. I do not mean to imply that
conditions pointed to an early end of
the war. On the contrary, from what
I was able to observe on that point,
unless the Huns have an absolute crop
failure they can. in my opinion. go on
for years! The idea Of our being able
to win the war by starving them out
strikes me as ridiculous. This Is a
war that must be won by fighting. and
the sooner we realize that fact the
sooner 1t will be over.
Rising hour in the prison was seven
o'clock. Breakfast came at eight. This
consisted of a cup Of coffee and moth
Ing else. If the prisoner had the fore
sight to save some bread from the pre-
vious day. he had bread for breakfast
also. but that never happened in my
case. Sometimes we had two cups Of
coffee. that Is, near-coffee. It was
really chicory or some cereal prepare
ton. We had no milk or sugar.
For lunch they gave us boiled sugar
beets or some other vegetable, and
once in a while some kind Of picked
meat. but that happened very seldom.
We also received a third Of loaf Of
bread-war bread. This war bread
was as heavy as a brick, black and
sour. It was supposed to last US from
noon one day to noon the next. Ex'
cept for some soup, this was the whole
lunch menu.
Dinner came at 8 80 p. m. when We
sometimes had a little jam made out
Of sugar beets. and preparation
called tea. which you had to shake Wig
orously or 1t settled in the bottom Of
the cup, and then about all you had
was hot water. This "tea" was q sad
blow to the Englishmen. II 1t hadn't
been called tea they wouldn't have felt
so badly about it. perhaps, but It was
adding insult to injury to call that
stuff "tea." which with them IL almost
a national institution.
Sometimes with this meal they gave
US butter instead of jam, and once In
while we had some kind Of canned
meat.
This comprised the usual run Of eat.
ables for the day-I can eat more than
that for breakfast In the days that
were to come learned that / was to
fare considerably worse.
We were allowed to send out and
buy q few things, but rs most Of the
prisoners were without :. - wnS
but an empty privilege. Once ! took
advantage of the privilege to send my
shoes to a Belgian shoemaker to be
half-soled. They charged me ~
marks-$5l
Once in a while a Belgian Ladies'
Relief society visited the prison and
brought us handkerchiefs, American
soap-which sells at about $1.b0 q
bar in Observation-Disclosures and
other little articles, all Of which were
American made, but whether they
were supplied by the American re-
lief committee or not don't know.
At any rate, these gifts were mighty
useful and were very much appre-
ciated.
One day I offered button OF my
uniform to one of these Belgian ladies
as q souvenir, but q German guard
saw me and I was never allowed to
70 near the visitors afterwards.
The sanitary conditions In this
prison camp were excellent as gen.
eral proposition. One night, however.
I discovered that I had been cap
tured by "cooties."
This was q novel experience to me
and one that would have been very
willing to have missed, because In
the flying corps our airdromes are a
number Of miles back Of the lines and
we have good billets and our acquaint-
ance with such things as "cooties" and
other unwelcome visitors is very linn
tied. g.
When I discovered my condition,
made holler and reused the guard,
and right then I got another example
OF GERMAN emClency.
This guard seemed to be even more
perturbed about my, complaint than
myself. evidently fearing that he would
be blamed for my condition.
The commandant was summoned
and I could see that he was very an
CRY. Someone undoubtedly got q Sc
we're reprimand for 1t.
was taken out Of my cell by q
guard with rife and conducted about
a quarter Of q mile from the prison
to an old factory building which had
, been converted into an elaborate fumi.
eating plant. There I was given q
pickle bath In some kind of solution
and while I was absorbing 1t my
clothes, bed clothes and whatever else
had been in my cell was being put
through another fumigating process.
While I was waiting for my things
to dry-lt took perhaps half an hour
I had a chance to observe about one
hundred other victims of "cooties"-
German soldiers who had become In
tested In the trenches. We were all
nude, Of course, but apparently IL waf
not difficult for them to recognize me
as a foreigner even without my uni
form on, for none Of them made any
attempt to talk to me, although they
were very busy talking about ma
could not understand what they were
saying, but I knew I was the butt oi
most Of their Jokes and they made nc