The Elk Mountain pilot. [volume] (Irwin, (Ruby Camp), Gunnison County, Colo.) 1880-19??, 1919-06-12


was al u1s to ~: I ~ wentsd soss-
thing to Do. I found what wanted.
IN right 49,
I had quite q talk with . sentry n
front Of . bArracks. Il must have
lasted three-quartcrs Of an hour. He
did not know what ! was calling him.
and / did not know what he was call
ing me. ! could have handled him all
right. but another sentry came up on
my blind aide and grabbed me and the
talk was over.
They dragged me to the commander
Of the camp and he instructed them to
give mo q bath. 80 they took me to
the bathhouse. where I was stripped
and lashed. All the time they were
whipping me was thinking what
joke It was on me. because had been
looking for excitement and had got
more than I wanted. 20 ! laughed and
the Huns thought was crazy sure.
Twas dumped into vat Of hot water
and at the same time my clothes wers
given Q boiling. which was good for
them.
Thea ] was forced into my wet
clothes and marched back to the bar
racks. This bath and the stroll
through the snow In wet clothes Just
about did for me. Nowadays. when I
ut IN . draft for q second and catch
cold. I wonder that am still alive to
catch II. Having gone through DIX
nude and the Dardanelles and the
sinking Of the George and four Ger
man prison camps and q few other
thinSS[I shall probably trip over .
hole In q church carpet and break my
neck. That would be my luck.
There were all the diseases you can
think Of In this camp. including black
cholera and typhus and somebody was
always dying. We had to make cofnns
from any wood we could md. 80 It
was not long before We were using the
dividing boards from our hunks, pieces
q flooring and. In fact, the walls of
tho barracks. Tho officers were quar-
tered In corrugated Iron barracks, %
they had to borrow wood from NJ for
thsir co61ns. We would make the box
and put the body in It. give 1t A. much
seEvice - We could, In the way o<
prayers and hymns, and put 1t away n
Q hole near the barracks. There was
% much Of It that q single death
passed unnotieed.
One morning the German sentxiee
came to our barracks-they never
came sinsly-and told NJ that an on
Ger was going to review the prisoners
and ordered ~ to muster up. which We
did. I was the last man out Of the bar.
racks and On account Of my wounds I
was slower than the rest
You understand had had no medical
treatment except crepe-paper ban
dases and water: my wounds had been
opened BY swimming from the Georgic
10 the Aoewe and they had been put
In terrible shape in the coal bunkers.
On account Of the poor food and lack
Of treatment they had not even started
to heal. Incidentally. the only cloth
bandages that any Of N had were what
We would tear from our clothes and I
have seen men pick up an old dirty
Fag that someone else had had around
his wound for long time and bandage
his own wounds with It.
So It was all could do to drag my
self along. The oficef noticed that I
was out Of line and Immediately asked
my name and nationality. When he
heard .American" he could not ny
enough things about ~ and called me
al the swine names he could think Of.
was pretty thin at this time and
getting thinner. % figured might
Just a. well have II out before
starved. Besides. thought, he ought
b know that We are not used to being
H. ~, O..
country.
30 told him %. And I said that he
should not bawl Americans out, be-
cause America was neutral He then
said that a. America supplied food and
munitions to the allies she was no bet
ter than the rest.
Then I said: do you remember the
Deutschlandf When she entered Bal
timore and New London she got all the
cargo she wanted. didn't sher'
Yea"
well. II you send over your mer-
chant marine they win get the same"
For that answer he gave me ten days
In the suardhouss. He did not like to
b. reminded that their merchant ma
rine had 10 dive under to keep away
from the Limsys.
admit was pretty Zip to this Of
6cef. but who would not be when q
slick German swine ofylcef bawled him
outf
It was while I was In the guardhouse
that Mr.. Gerard, The American ambas-
sador. visited the camp. He came to
this camp about every six months, a.
rule. Even IN the German prison
camps the men had somehow got infor-
nation about Mr.. Gefard's efforts to
improve the terrible surroundings in
which the men lived. Come Of the men
at Dulmen had been confined In vari-
Oua other camna and they told ma that