Republican farmer., 1919-08-08
Sioux Falls Soldier
 Describes Brutal Acts
 fHardb0iled' Smith
BEAT AND STARVED SICK MEN WHILE IN A. E.. E. JAIL BARNS MEN WERE
 CHARTERED LIKE HOGS-NONE COULD WRITE HOME

told to undress. We were stood in a
 corner while a sentry turned the hose on us with ice-cold water. Sick and well took the bath alike, nobody be-
 ing excused although a lot of the men had just come from the hospital and
 were weak from sickness or wounds
 Some even had open wounds that had not yet healed.
 The men were searched by the of
 ncers and prison sergeants. There
 were no receipts given for anything
 taken from us. Men who had sou
 venirs from the front, or that had
 been purchased while in Paris, such
 as pillow-tops, fancy work, cigarette
 lighters, etc.. that were intended for
 friends at home, were compelled to
 give them up without a receipt, the
 same as with rings, watches or any,
 thing else valuable. These articles
 were all placed in a box, and the of-
 1cers anf sergeants were so greedy to
 get them that they would go over to
 the box and pick the articles over be-
 Tore the men had been marched away
 or the box carried out of sight.
 Men with rings given as keep sakes from their mothers were com pelled to take them off and were just mocked for protesting and were given a good, hard beating if they refused. Others with pictures of loved ones such as wife, mother or sweetheart were asked by the officers: What Paris courtesan is that?' and then tore the pictures to pieces and threw them in their faces. Thousands of francs were taken and never given back
 We were billeted in the stables ar IoPt 70 II
 so packed together that the floors were actually covered with men, oftentimes not even a passageway from one end of the room to the other. We slept so close together that no matter which way we turned we would be breathing in some one else's face.
 The bed sacks were old and dirty and actually alive with cooties. There were no lights. not even candles, is- sued. Although 1t was the middle of winter and we had only one suit of clothes and were compelled to work or drill in the rain with no raincoats when our clothes and feet got wet, we had no place to dry them, as there were no stoves at all; no chance to get dry or warm at all, but to go to bed.
 AhcTe was no Chdnce to wash the face and hands for days at a time, lots of times no water even to wash the mess kits or even to drink The men did not get a bath for five and six weeks at a time. There was no chan1e of underwear, even though that worn had become so dirty and was covered thick with cooties that it had to be thrown away
 This camp quartered about 1000 men-sometimes as many as 1900. Most of them were quartered in the barn. but some were in pup-tents put up in the mud outside. We were all sleeping just like a bunch of hogs, but the sanitary conditions were not SO good as in up-to-date hog house in the States.
 Our meals were the worst of We had mess kits, or at least part of us did; but we had no knives. forks or spoons, and used tin ,ans for coffee cups. We got prac- tically nothing to eat. We had to lick our food out of our mess kits or else eat out of our dirty hands, often with no water to even wash the mess kits or hands.
 Everything for 1900 men was cooked in seven G. I. cans (ordinary galvanized iron garbage cans). The ! meals were so light that the men were actually starved, and were SO ] weak that they were not able to do | the drill and work that was given | Good, proud American soldiers were | SO hungry that they would pick pieces of bread out of the muddy road | and wipe them off and eat them.
 "Others that got a chance q was | one of them) would pick pieces of ord ~f garbage can, until sentry was | placed there to keep the men away. 1 The French who lived near where | we were working knew that we were l being starved. and when they got a | .hance would give us some of their | ,ld stale black bread.
 When 1t was given to them, the | men would run after 1t like chickens | 10 after corn.
 Tt wasn't just q few of us that | were in that condition, but every man | vho was in the camp for any length I if time. We did not receive even 'alf a soldiers ration, and what We id get was seldom in any form but aum---and very poor at that. It was very seldom that we ever got more han one thin slice of bread at a meal, md lots of times not any. The same vas true with coffee---lots of times ve got only half a canful. and often lone at all; never any milk. sugar or am. We were no. allowed to smoke IT have any tobacco in our posses ion.
 We were not allowed to write O. end any letters: nor receive any nall Even though many of the men | Iad Just ccrne frczn hospitals. or the ront. and hac been in the habit of vrittng to their ,,eapie regularly, they | Ters not allowed to write home to le. he!r mothers or friends know that hey were still alive and all right, but lust in prison Mothers and friends t home mad to worry aSou. these nen for as long as two or three nonths before they could get & chance o write. If they asked for the privt- sge of writing they were most likely nsuitcs1 or beaten.
 "A great many of the men Rot sick lying under such conditions but .hoso who answered sick call were treated 60 badly that 1t wasn't safe lo so to the doctor until ono had to be carried there. Nearly all who -f>r~