The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-02-16


camp, herded across Switzerland and
respected 10 be herded into box cars
there for transport for France, when
Fifty four and Fifty five. with the be.
/ loved letters u. 5" painted large on
their sides and ends, and with Ameri-
tcan flags fiutteriug from every win
idow, swept into Geneva to meet them.
Attt~<'Ssss the, ,wdadoW too AasrStTuqsd,
A.r1ar9c faces land shouIdefs cad,
i'm American uniforms and yes, by
George; American girls.
Had His Doubts
say, guy, Is this on the square
Are these trains really for us?" asked
THE first prisoner who climbed aboard.
There's something in here you
haven't seen for q long, long time,
fellows" shouted another. poking his
head out a window to give the good
news 10 those still on the platform.
I Its pillows-p-i-l-l-o-
And what are those white things
on the beds?' demanded another
seems like / have a vague recollec-
ton OF seeing things like that years
ago. Are those what they call
Sheets"
They came trooping on like school
boys, Joking and frolcking and snak-
ing hands fervently with the three
Officers ond three nurses and enlisted
men on the train. And they broke
mo a song which one of them. Harry
l.. Sheffield. of Co. Il, 307th infantry.
had composed and which they had
sung in prison, In defiance of the
frowns OF their German guards. Ii
was to the tune of Are you from
Dixie ?" and ran thus:
We're you prisoner. were you in
Dutchlend,
Where all you had to eat was watery
soup,
Were you on arbeit, out OF
kommando.
Where II you did not work you'd fee
Jerry's boot?
Were you from England, Canada, OF
the good u, $. A.
II matters mott understand-you
need not say.
II you were a prisoner, then you
should worry,
For ! was there with you.
Would the Huns stand for your
singing song like that" / asked
sheffield
They had to-" he replied, AT frs
hey didn't understand it and ii wa
an established thing before they did.
Aud 1t was literally true. When We
'irst got to camp the rauons were SC
toor that we were starving and We
I were eager to wor,S on commando
work out, that is,-where we would
/ get a chance TO steal something TO
eat. Those OF us who got to work
about supply depots were In great
| luck and many a hungry man took
Il chance on being cracked over the
head with a lueger to get a taste OF
| food
yet they didn't mistreat us as they
! lid the other prisoners. practically
| he Russians and English. Forty
/ Thousand Russians died at Rastatt and
1ouIy nine Americans. Our Y III. C.
| A. cabinet and American help com
mittee kept us informed us to our
rights, and when the guards tried to
abuse us we stood up for ourselves"
| Red Cross to Rescue
Yes said j. B. Tatman, a private
| from Hartford kas.. m 1t hadn't
been for the Red Cross we would
for the Y NJ. c. A, we would have
wished we were dead, any way"
But you fellows all look healthy
and happy" | SAID. You don't look
as If you had been mistreated."
That's because of the Y. NJ. c. A.
and the Red Cross, replied Tatman
After the Red Cross packages be-
gan reaching as we were much bet
ter fed than the Germans We'd con-
itinue 10 take their rations every day
one loaf OF bread for five men. one
4 bowl of "barbwire" soup and one
cup Of substitute coffee--but we'd
either take it over to the Russians
or throw it away. The Russians all
had money-some Of them starved to
death with as much as one thousand
marks sewed in their clothing--and
were glad enough to buy bread. We
gave good deal of II away. but
sometimes sold 1t in order tn buy
things. Often our fellows paid five
francs a piece for empty tomato cans
to use as mess kits.
"Our soup was helf grass and some
times was made of beets, cut up,
worms and all 1t. had no meat or
fessence of meat in IL except when
they had hutchered dead war horses. -
And maybe you'd like to know
our opinion of the greatest hero OF
~" war;" suggested Sergeant II. A
Bergman of New Haven. Conn. 1T
was Conrad Hoffman, Hoffman was
AN American Y. NJ, G. A worker, but
at the beginning Of the war he was
lin Berlin and somehow ne managed
TO stick and organize force of "Y'
workers from neutral countries who
fkept tuif1S Hl'NiiS at al ttAS NiiiaFT
IT was Hoffman who got to us the
! instruments for our twenty piece
band, our eight-piece orchestra and
our hugle corps. organized the
hand and Clyde Grimsly OF Salina.
ka,. led II til he got sick, after which
II led II, II was a good band and
kept things lively in Rastatt F.vcrs
night ii played. taking turns in the
different barracks, Grin1sly was A
composer too and we got up a rnusi-
cal show Of our own and rented the
biggest theatre in Rastatt to nut 1t
on in. We played at football games