Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-18

sANNiO yoh " tiluI SdlQ SOUP
was mostly composed of cabbage,
knowing how strictly avoided that
vegetable at home. 1t did not oc-
cur to me at the time, but under
pressure my likes and dislikes were
certainly undergoing some change,
mostly the latter, for / still had an
appetite for bonbons, chocolate cake
and ice cream. G
Whether l would ever taste these
dainties' again was often an open
question, oh, yes, there were other
things in the soup, too, flour, oats,
and II you were lucky you might find
several small pieces of meat. That
was the German idea of a meal
for a soldier. OF course, his own
men received better soup than us, but
the plan was the same. Everything
was chucked together, meats, veg
etables, etc., and cooked to a thick
gooey mass. That was dinner and
incidentally the only meal in the day.
, For breakfast and supper you drank
your black, tasteless coffee and ate
several bites from your small, very
small, allowance of black bread.
Dividing the bread and other
things given to the prisoners to eat
was the big event in the day, al
ways looked forward to by every
Dody' and l was amused many times
during this ceremony to see how
CLOSELY the man. doing the dividing
was watched for fear he cut one
piece just tiny bit larger than an
other. Believe me, / did not envy
him his job! Yes, we had other
things to eat, too, such as sausage
tlnned meat, oleomargarine and ev-
cry TWO days spoonful OF, sugar. or
! course, we did not receive all these
dainties on the same day, only one
OF them being handed out and only
taste at that. 1 nearly forgot to
say one of the dainties was lam.
IL was good eating, too, but only
spoonful of this was ones lot by the
tlme 1t was equally divided.
Something Learned
Often have 1 noticed the animals
IN the Zoo going round and round
MS cage, hunting, always hunting
away out. l can understand his feel
ings now, and incidentally, let me
remark, that man is much the same
in that respect to the beast. for no
sooner had we been. settled in our
quarters and learned the hour of tho
next. slim eats than nearly every-
| one made tour of inspection of our
parDwire barrier. There were two
| OF these formidable barriers placed
built at that. Even with a pair of
close together and mighty strongly
wire cutters they would have pre-
sented fought job. Therefore.
since ways OF escape by the route
would require more thought turn
ed my attention to things more i'm
| portant. First of all 1 needed. some
sort or vessel to hold my share of
soup and coffee, else bad as it was
4 IL would
many others in the same boat. and
the camp being absolutely bare of
| SUCH things or anything else for that
matter, we needs must hunt else
| where. And where do you think we
flnaiiy found these articles?-In q
dump outside the fence! the guards
| chucking different shaped kettles
and cans over the fence for us.
| That they were dirty and filthy be-
yond description goes withoat say
Ing. and seeing all kinds of filthy
stun being thrown on the dump the
next day did not help me enjoy my
hEd much. Although had
scrubbed 1t thoroughly clean with
sand and mud and water, you begin
| to see the character of the Boche
showing up. don't you? If a prisoner
mad no knife, spoon, pail, coat or
| blanket, he was out of luck, for 1t
never occurred to the Boche to help
him out. Either he found or stole
these articles or he went without.
Being necessaries you could trust a
Frenchman to get them-generally
by the latter method. Stealing from
the Boche, however. was not crime.
IL was an act to recommend q man
\ for, and since nearly everything
stolen was of an eatable nature it
disappeared too quickly for the
Boche to find 1t! call to mind one
particular day when wagonloads of
| supplies had arrived in camp, and
the BQche being a lazy brute. made
the prisoners unload them. This was
a job that no one shirked.
l. Willing Workers
| In. fact, there were so many willing
workers that they were in each
others way. By that evening so
|