Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-05-13
ESTABLISHED 1855
AMERICANS In RUSSIA
Infantry Prisoners Tell Of Their
Adventures
BOLSHEVISTS were VERY FRIENDLY

Impressed OF the Russian ioea o
Government.
Five soldiers of the 33sth Infantry
Detroits own-the first American prls
oners from Russia, who arrived II
London last week by way Of Stock
holm, gave Universal Service won
der-tale of adventures in the blacl
heart Of mad Russia
They were six weeks enroute iron
Moscow, where they had been lmprls'
oned, via Finland and Sweden. They
left behind John Tripler, Kentuck!
mountaineer, who was lost In th'
crowd just as they were entraining II
Moscow; M. j. Arnold, Of Nebraska,
Y. NJ. C.. A. worker, who was released
with them, and John Ryall, of Ohio
another "Y" worker. Three Other
Americans remain prisoners in Mos
cow, together with 66 French and
English soldiers.
When interviewed at the Eagle Hut
London, the refugees wore Bolshevis'
caps and nondescript CLOTHES. The
latter were supplied by the British
consul at Helsingfors. Their faces
were gaunt and lined with deep fur
rows from months of semi-starvation.
But they unanimously gave this cheer
full pledge:
Were going back to get these Boil
sbies &c soon as we get rested and have
had big feed"
Before giving their narrative must
convey a typical heart appeal very
earnestly put to me by young Scheulte;
"Tell everybody's mother back home
not to worry. Our boys in Russia are
doing fine. There's nothing the matter
with them, except homesickness."
Seated in a circle in an inner room
of Eagle Hut, their outlandish boots
hanging on the rungs of chairs, the
boys sprung breathless yarns about
their experiences, ranging from dig
ging graves at % subles a day for peo-
pie that had starved to death to ad-
dressing Socialist congress in Petro-
grad and visiting the winter palace.
Their narratives were kaleidoscope
of weary marches in the bitterest cold,
their comic opera Imprisonment In
Moscow, and wild junkets through the
Bolshevist capital. BY mutual consent,
Albers, a rawboned lad who mixed
Russian words with his Yankee speech
was appointed spokesman. He said:
81 was captured on November g;
the others here were captured later.
Scheulte didn't get captured till last
March II, but we all had the same ex-
periences. None of us, l guess, Is
ashamed of the way we got captured.
They got us fighting. In my case the
guy wearing a white nightown crawl
ed through the snow on a moonlit night
when was on sentry, gun-butted me
senseless and took me with him. When
I came to I was being carried on
stretcher, headed for Bolshyland.
1.-The first thing they did when l got
into the Bolshevist camps was to
swipe my fur coat, shoes and uniform
and then together with some French
and British prisoners, 1 started on
terrible hike for 800 versets (more than
$50 miles to Vologada. 1t was about
40 below zero. Otherwise we were
having a hot time.
1T was hell, pure and simple. We
were fed irregularly with black bread
and fish soup that would gag hog.
OF nights we slept in peanut huts alive
with vermin. We couldn't talk to our
captors because they didn't know Eng
lish. But I laughed and kidded 'em
and called 'em all the rough names
could think Of and they'd laugh and
yell 'Amerikan.'
From Vologada l was taken by
train to Moscow, where 1 was locked
UP in the barracks, not regular pris-
on l was the first American to get
to Moscow, but French and British fell
lows were with me, also Captain Will
son, of the royal engineers; Major
Frazer, a British supply officer, and
Canadian flying lieutenant I don't re-
member his name, but he was g. regu-
lar prince,
For two months I was the only
American there, then the rest Of these
boys and the "Y" workers drifted in.
I nearly died of lonesomeness before
they arrived.
"All these boys suffered worse than
hell in marching to the railroad, be-
cause they were captured later, when
it was colder. Houston was captured
on November 29. He didn't get to the
railroad until New Years and was
all in"
How did they feed you queried
the correspondent.
Then big Scheulte beloved, "Kasha."
All laughed and sang song in queer
Russo English about black bread,
kashe and fish soup, which makes
your belly stick" Then Albers resum-
ed his tale"
1--WE were all in bed when the first
meal was served-soup. God knows
what's in it-occasionally somebody
would make mistake and leave bit
of meat in it, but it was mostly dried
peas and punk fish. I'll never eat am
other fish as long as l live.
"The last two months they began
putting horse in the soup. 1 know be-
cause 1 found a horseshoe nail in mine.
We got a pound of black bread daily.
You had to soak it in soup to bite it.
imprisonment was joke. Each
day we got passport permitting us to
go anywhere We liked in Moscow, but
we had to return by p. m.
THE Bolshies treated us fine. we
never got a rough word because we
were Americans-in fact, the Reds
tried their best to make us comforta-
BILE. We had as much as anybody to
eat and they paid us 25 rubles a day
when we worked.
"Often we would go to the houses OF
wealthy people to carry out furniture
which the government had conhScated.