Jackson County journal. (Sylva, N.C.) 19??-19??, 1919-01-31

other times trying TO PICK a light. Il
was all one t. me: just waneed some
thing to do. I found what I wanted.
all right.
had quite talk with a sentry in |
front of a barracks. It must have
lasted three-quarters Of an hour. He i
did not know what l was calling him,
and did not know what he was call |
ing me. I could have handled him all |
right, but another sentry came up on |
my blind side AID grabbed me and the |
talk was over.
They dragged me to the commander
| of the camp and he instructed them to
give me bath. So they took me to
| the bathhouse, where I was stripped
and dashed. All the time they were
| whipping me I was thinking what a
joke it was on me, because I had been
looking for excitement and had got
more than wanted, so I laughed and
the Huns thought was crazy sure.
| was dumped into vat Of hot water
and at the same time my clothes were
given boiling, which was good for
them.
Then l 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
sit in draft for q second and catch
cold, wonder that am still alive to
catch 1t. Having gone through Dix
nude and the Dardanelles and the
sinking Of the George and four Ger
man prison camps and a few other
things-I shall probably trip over q
hole in 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 collins
from any wood we could find. So it
2 was not long before we were using the
! dividing boards from our hunks, pieces
! Of flooring and, in fact, the walls of
! the barracks. The officers were quar-.
}. tered in corrugated iron barracks, SO
I they had to borrow wood from us fol-
their collins. We would make the box
; and put the body in it, give it as much
s service as we could, in the way Of
b prayers and hymns, and put it away ir
!. a hole near the barracks. There was
s SO much Of it that a single dealt
q passed unnoticed.
d One morning the German sentrie,
e came to our barracks-they neve
y came singly-and told us that an off
Ger was going to review the prisoner
le and ordered us to muster up, which W.
t did. was the last man out Of the bar
10 racks and on account of my wounds
was slower than the rest.
20 You understand had had no medica
TO treatment except crepe-paper bar
le dages and water; my wounds had bee
re opened by swimming from the Georgi
ct to the Moewe and they had been pu
in terrible shape In the coal bunker,
le On account Of the poor food and lac
he Of treatment they had not even starte
to heal. incidentally, the only clot
y, bandages that any of US had were whs
IS. we would tear from our clothes and
r. have seen men pick up an old dirt
Id rag that someone else had had aroun
r. his wound for long time and bandag
be his own wounds with it.
as So it was all could do to drag m,
be self along The officer noticed that
en- was out of Line and Immediately aske
i'd my name and nationality. When /
so heard american" he could not ga
" enough things about us and called n
70. all the swine names he could think o
in I was pretty thin at this time an
getting thinner, SO l figured / migl
lily just as well have it out before
on starved. Besides. l thought. he ougl
"a to know that we are not used to beir
Ter bawled out by German swine in tn
so country.
ng So told him so. And said that !
should not bawl Americans out, b
ch cause America was neutral. He tn,
get said that as America supplied food al
pc munitions to Che allies she was no be
an ter than the rest.
he Then said: do you remember Il
no Deutschland? When she entered Bs
,ht timore and Ne%l London she got all Il
me cargo she wanted, didn't she?'
he EYES,"
lie "Well, if you send over your me
out chant marine they will get the same
he For that answer he gave me ten da
lad in the guardhouse. He did not like
vas be reminded that their merchant n
tch rine had to dive under to keep aw
err from the Lin,eys.
in I admit was pretty flip to this
the ficer, but who would not be when
he slick German swine officer bawled b
lille out?
ed. It was while was in the guardhou
not that Mr.. Gerard, the American amb,
be- sador, visited the camp. He came
all this camp about every six months,
me, rule. Even in the German pris
me camps the men had somehow got inf
nation about lGr. Gerard's efforts
e improve the terrible surroundings
up which the men lived. Some of the m
do ut Dulmen had been confined in va