Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1919-01-01

'''1 ~
Ono Man Would Trade His Whole Ra.
ton for the Next Day for Half Ra-
tIon Today.
cause at first we did not know they
were crazy. When we had them down,
however, they were scratched and bit
ten and pounded from head to foot.
Both of them bled from the nose all
that night, and toward morning one
Of them became sane for few min
utes and then died. The other was
taken away by the Germans, still
crazy.
Another time an. Australian came
into our barracks and very seriously
told us that he had drag with the
German officers and that he had been
to dinner with them, and had had tur-
key, potatoes, coffee, butter, eggs,
sugar in his coffee, and all the luxuries
you could think Of. We just sat and
stared at him. It seemed impossible
that any of our own men would have
the gall to torture US like that, and yet
we could not possibly believe that it
had really happened. Finally. one
fellow could not stand it any longer.
He was nothing but skin and bones,
but he grabb.u a dividing board and
there were just two wallops: the
board hit the Australians head and
the head hit the floor. Then half q
dozen more pounced onto him and
gave him a real licking. When he
came to he had forgotten all about
the wonderful dinner he did not have.
Not long after this the Russian doc
tors proved to the Germans that there
was no black typhus in our barracks
and we were allowed the freedom Of
the camp except that we could not
visit the Russian barracks. That was
no hardship to me nor to the rest Of
US, except one chap from the Cambrian
Range, who had q special pal among
the Russians that he wanted to see.
And, of course, when 1t was verboten,
he wanted to see him all the more.
A day or two after the order I was
standing outside the barracks door
when I saw this fellow come out with
dividing board In his hand. thought
he was going to smash somebody with
1t, so I stood by. But he stopped over
and damned one end of the board
against the threshold Of the door,
scratched the ground with the farther
end of the board and measured again.
He kept this up, length by length, In
the direction of the Russian barracks.
The sentry in the yard stopped and
stared at him, but the fellow kept
right on, paying no attention to any
body. Pretty soon he was right by the
sentry's feet and thought any minute
the sentry would give him the butt,
but he just stared while and let him
pass. That lad measured the whole
distance to the Russian barracks, went
inside, stayed while and calmly
strolled back with the board under his
arm. When he reached our barracks
again he told us he had found a vino
mine. What he had found was some
thing not so unusual-a boneheaded
German.
There was a lot Of bamboo near the
Russian barracks and the Russians
made baskets out Of it and turned
them in to the Germans. For this they
got all the good jobs in the kitchen
and had q fine chance to get more to
| eat. But they were treated like dogs
that is, all except the few Cossacks
that were in the bunch. The Huns
| knew that q Cossack never forgets and
will get revenge for the slightest mis-
treatment, even If 1t means his death.
have seen sentries turn aside from
| the beat they were walking and get out
Of the way when they saw Cossack
coming. There were very few Coss-
acks there, however. I do not think
they let themselves get captured very
often. $3.50. e
| We had roll call every morning, OF
course, and were always mustered In
front Of our barracks, the middle Of
the line being right at the barracks
! door. Sometimes when the cold got
too much for them, the men nearest
the door would duck into the bar
racks. AS they left the ranks the
other men would close up and this
kept the line even, with. the center still
opposite the barracks door. Finally
almost all of the men would be In the
barracks and by the time the roll was
over not one remained outside. This
seemed to peeve the German officers
q great deal. but they did not punish
us for It until we had been doing II
Tor some time. z sss
For several days / had noticed that
someone else answered Tor two men
who had disappeared; : at least I had
not seen them for some time. / did
not think much about It, or ask any
questions. and ! did not hear anyone
else talk about It, but was pretty
1sure the two men, i Russian ana q
/ Britisher. had escaped But they were
marked present af roll call ana al
J accounted tor Every thln2 went alona