Omaha daily bee., 1919-05-17

form. They gave me a bolshevis
uniform, and then, together wit
some French and British prisoners
I started on a terrible hike for 80
versts (more than $50 miles) t.
Vologda. 1t was about 40 beloy
zero. Otherwise we were having
hot time.
ut was hell, pure and simple. w
were fed irregularly with blacl
bread and fish soup that would gal
a hog. Of nights we slept in peas
ants huts alive with vermin. w
couldn't talk to our captors becaus
they didn't know English. But
laughed and kidded 'em and calle'
'em all the rough names I coult
think of and they'd laugh and vel
| 'Amerikanki.'
With British Officers.
From Volodga / was taken b!
train to Moscow where was LOCKED
up in the barracks, not regula
prison. l was the first American t.
get to Moscow, but French an,
British fellows were with me, also
Captain Wilson, of the royal en-
gineers; Major Frazer, British
supply officer, and a Canadian fly
ing lieutenant-I don't remembel
his name, but he was a regular
prince.
For two months l was the only
American there, then the rest O
these boys and the ~ workers drift
ed in. l nearly died of lonesome
ness before they arrived.
"All these boys suffered worse
than hell in marching to the rail
road because they were captured
later when it was colder. Houston
was captured on November 20. He
didn't get to the railroad until New
Years and was all in"
How did they feed your queried
the correspondent.
Then big Schultz beloved:
"kasha."
All laughed and sang a song ir
queer Russo-English, about black
bread, kasha and fish soup which
makes your belly stick" Then
Albers resumed his tale.
Nothing But Fish Soup.
I'VE were all in bed when the frs,
meal was served-soup. God knows
what's in professionally somebody
would make a mistake and leave a
bit of meat in it, but it was mostly
dried peas and punk fish. I'll never
eat another fish as long as I live.
The last two months they began
putting horse in the soup-I know,
because | found horseshoe nail in
mine. We got a pound of black
bread daily. You had to soak it in
soup to bite it.
imprisonment was a joke. Each
day we got passport permitting
US to go anywhere we liked in
Moscow, but we had to return BY
9 P: m.
THE 'bo1shies' treated US fine. We
never got rough word because we
were Americans-in fact, the reds
tried the best to make us comfort
able. We had as much as anybody
to eat and they paid US Is rubles
when we worked.
Confscated Furniture.
"Often we'd go to the houses of
wealthy people to carry out furniture
which the government had con-
hscated.
"Once we dug graves for people
that had starved to death. We
blasted the ground four feet down.
1t was nasty job. Rows of starved
men, women and children were laid
out on the ground. They were froz-
en- on top of'being starved, waiting
for graves.
Sunday is scream in 'bolshy-
land Every Sunday all the prison
ers would be taken to church. -
really some officials house, where
they lectured us on bolshevism.
Wed sleep during these lectures,
but afterwards we'd get big~feed.
That feed we understood, all right,
all right.
"On Christmas there was a big
powwow in Petrograd. They said
they would take us along if we
promised to tell the convention how
we loved bolshevism. Great stuff!
There we were for a week, visiting
in the winter palace. eating horse
meat, which is a delicacy. Every
body had big time.
Put Bull" in "Bullshevism."
"Sure, we addressed the conven-
tion--we all gave 'em a great line of
bunk, putting the bull in 'bullshe-
vism' as it were, so to say, old top
per. Yes, we told 'em how we loved
the bolsheviki.
"1ke Spiegelmann, a New York
Jew, translated our speeches as we
went along. Petrograd is not as
bad as people here believe, through
hundreds are starving. They don't
get as much food there as they do
in Moscow. In fact, Petrograd is
almost without food.
"The thing that is feared most
in Russia, especially in the big cit
les, is a massacre of Jews. Many of
the latter hold important offices"
In answer to questions, the refu-
gees were unanimous in declaring
there was no hostility against Amer
leans in Russia, but that the Rus
slams were determined to drive out
all allies and govern themselves in
their own way. The threatened
counter revolution, they say, if it
comes, will be mainly against Jews,
not against the bolshevist.
The bolshevists, according to the
returned prisoners, have moved
much heavy artillery to the northern
front during the winter and are con-
fident of driving the allies into the
sea.
The release Of the prisoners was