The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-04
Sioux Falls Soldier
 Describes Brutal Acts
 'HardbOiled' Smith
BEAT AND STARVED SICK MEN WHILE IN A. K. E. JAIL BARNS-MEN WERE CHARTERED LIKE HOGS-NONE
 COULD WRITE HOME.

corner while 8 sentry IuTneU the nose on us with ice-cold water. Sick and well took the bath alike, nobody be- ing excused although 8 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 f1cers 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 with rings. watches or any thing else valuable. These articl"S were all placed in a box, and the of- ficers anG sergeants were greedy to get them that they would go over to the box and pick the articles over be- fore 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 and lofts of the big barns and were so packed together that the floors | were actually covered with men, | oftentimes not even a passageway l from one end of the room to the other. We slept so close togeth CT that no matter which way we turned we would be breathing in some one else's face.
 f "The bed sacks were old and dirty and actually alive with cooties. There were no lights, not even candles, is | sued. Although it 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 1 bed.
 1, There was no chance to wash the | face and hands for days at 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 ID | change of underwear, even though | that worn had become so dirty and was covered so thick with cooties | that it had to be thrown away This camp quartered about 1000 | men-sometime many as 1900. | Most of them were quartered in the l harm in tS mi up in the mud outside. We were all | sleeping just like a bunch of hogs l but the sanitary conditions were not so good as in an up-to-date hog | house in the States.
 ] "Our meals were the worst ot | everything. We had mess kits, or a
 least part of us did; but we had nc knives, forks or spoons, and used tir
 cans for coffee cups. We got prac-
 tically nothing to eat. We had tc
 lick our food out of our mess kits
 or else eat out of our dirty hands
 often with no water to even wasf
 the mess kits or hands
 Everything for 1,2OO men wa:
 cooked in seven G. I. cans (ordinary
 galvanized iron garbage cans). Tn, meals were so light that the mer
 were actually starved, and were SC | weak that they were not able to d.
 the drill and work that was given | Good, proud American soldiers were
 so hungry that they would picl
 pieces of bread out of the muddy roat
 and wipe them off and eat them.
 "Others that got a chance q was
 one of them) would pick pieces O.
 bread and meat out of the personne
 garbage can, until a sentry was
 r.aced there to keep the men away
 Tba lived wh
 we were working knew that we were
 being starved and when they got 8
 chance would give us some of their
 old stale black bread.
 "When 1t was given to them, the
 men would run after it like chickens do after corn.
 Tt wasn't just a few of us that were in that condition, but every man who was in the camp for any length of time. We did not receive even half a soldiers ration, and what Wa did get was seldom in any form but lslum---and very poor at that. It was | very seldom that we ever got more ithan one thin slice of bread at a meal and lots of times not any. The same was true with coffee---lots of times we got only half a canful, and often lnone at all; never any milk, sugar or jam. We were not allowed to smoke Tor have any tobacco in our posses lsion.
 We were not allowed to write or send any letters; nor receive any mail. Even though many of the men had just come from hospitals, or the front, and had been in the habit of writing to their people regularly, they were not allowed to write home to lei their mothers or friends know that they were still alive and all right, but
 just in prison. Mothers and friends at home had to worry about these men for as long as two or three months before they could get a chance to write. If they asked for the privf- lege of writing they were most likely insultedj or beaten.
 "A great many of the men got sick
 living under such conditions, but
 those who answered sick call were
 treated so badly that it wasn't safe
 to go to the doctor until one had tc
 be carried there. Nearly all who
 answered sick call were cursed and
 insulted in the very vilest way; if they \. were still able to walk they were sen1 u (Continued on Page Five.)