The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1919-01-16
'ying, and I do not blame them

clouted him from one end of the bar-
racks to the other. His nose WINS
broken and his face mashed to n telIy.
But there was nothing we could do.
80 we just wandered up and down the
barracks, about as we did between
decks on the Moewe, trying to keep
warm.
While this marathon was on we
heard whistle blown very loudly.
and when we looked out we saw a
wagon piled up with old tin cans.
Then we were told to form single file.
walk out to the wagon and each get
can for himself. Each man had to
take the first can he laid his hands
on. and many Of us got rusty ones with
holes In them. So that about half nm
hour later, when we received barley
coffee, and all we had to drink IT from
was the cans, lots of the men had TO
drink theirs almost In one gulp or lose
half OF 1t.
The barracks were very dirty and
smelled horribly, and the men were
still not even half clothed. We all
looked filthy and smelled that way,
and where the coul dust had rubbed
OF, we were very pale. And all OF us
were starved looking.
About eleven o'clock that morning
the whistle blew again. and we came
out and were given an aluminium
spoon and dish apiece. Then We
cheercd Up and saw cOrned beef and
cabbage for ourselves. An hour later
they drilled us through the enr~ Ia
the kuche. When we got there we
stood In line until at least hnlf.pnst
twelve. and then the Germuns shout
ed: "Nichts III essen" But we did
not Know what thut meant, so we lust
hung around there and waited. Then
they started shouting, "Zuruck! Zu-
ruck! !! and drove us back to the bar
racks.
Later we heard the words "nIchts
zu essen!" so often that we thought
probably they meant mo eats" We
had our reasons for thinking so. too.
Those words, and "zuruck" and
'raus,' were practically all we did
hear. except. Of course, various kinds
of schweinhunde.
1t was awful to see the men when
we got back to the barracks. Some OF
the boys from the George, not much
over twelve years old, were almost
crazy, but even the older men were
crying, many OF them. 1t was nothing
but torture all the time. They opened
Oil the windows and doors In the bar
racks, and then we could not heat the
room with our bodies. When we stnrt-
ed to move around, to keep warm, they
fired :: few shots ut us. do not
hot hnr 81 l,t.
we had got so that we did not puy any
attention to things like that. But 1t
stopped us. and we had to stand still.
The Huns thought we would take the
rifles from the sentrIes and use them.
too.
never saw yellower bunch of
people In my life. do not mean peo-
pie. I wish could publish what
really mean.
we hnd stoves In the barracks, but
no coal or wood to burn. There were
many boxes piled up there, but they
belonged to the Germans. We would
have burned them II we could. but
the Germans made us carry them
ncross the road. They weighed about
$50 pounds apiece. and we were so
weak that 1t was all two men could do
to bulge them. And we had to carry
them they WOULD not let us roll them.
We were so cold and hungry that even
that exercise did not warm us.
About 2 80 the whistle blew again,
and the Huns picked out few men
and took them down the road. We
could not figure out why, but they
came back about three o'clock, all of
them with bread In their arms. They
were chewing away on 1t when they
had chance. Whenever the sentries
were not looking they would bite at 1t
like fish going after a worm. Each
man carried five loaves.
When they got In the barracks the
sentries made them put the bread
down on the floor. and then, with
their bayOnets, tie sentries cut each
loaf once down the center lengthwise
and four times across. which meant
ten men to loaf about the size of an
ordinary ten.cent loaf in this country
now. They gave each OF us q piece
little larger thun safety-match
box.
The bread was hard and dark, and
1t had just exactly the same smell
that the dirt around trees has.
We filed past the sentries single file
to get our ration Of this mud. and
there was no chance Of getting In line
twice. for we had to keep on filing
until we were out In the road, and
stand there In the snow to eat 1t. We
could not go back In the barracks un-
I'll every man had been served.
Our meals were like this: A can OF
barley coffee In the morning; cabbage
soup. so called. at noon: n tenth Of Il
loaf Of bread at 8 p. IN. That was
our menu day in and day out. the
kalser's birthday, Lincolns, May day,
or any other time.
This cabbage soup was great idea.
We called 1t shadow soup. because the
boys claimed they made 1t by hanging
cabbage over a barrel Of water and