New-York tribune., 1920-01-24

Mt the lazarct were scanda.ous, and
the medical treatment grossly made
Quate, and there were constant fights
with various epidcmcs. This part Of
the story, in fact, is an exposure of a
scandal which Germany will find it diff
cult to live down."
Education Carried On
Few chapters make more pleasant
reading than the one which describes
theeducational work carried on at Ruhl-
chen. At fist it was spoadic and un-
organized. Thus one pro-German made
the following announcement to his pro-
German confreres: 81 give English
lesson very chepe. Also haircut or
shave" Later, however, matters thor
oughly improved, and there were lee
lures on travels, excellent literary lee
lures, and others on music, illustrated
by competent choir. There was also
debating society, which attacked all
manner of subjects, grave and gay. A
school was formed wherein theteach-
ing OF languages took a prominent
place. Probably there were more
competent teachers of large number
Of languages at Ruhlebcn than there
have ever been at either Oxford or
Cambridge. Thetongues in which in
struction could be had included Eng
lish, Latin, French, German, Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese, Greek (modern
as we'll as ancien), Russian, Polish,
Danish, Yiddish, Serbian, Hebrew and
Arabic; and there were serious stu
dents of almost all of them"
In somewhat lighter vein, as befitting
this branch of their story, the authors
give an account Of the excellent ar
rangcment Of the camp. There were
Of oyiN l., IND, t,o L -.
known as the Summer House Limited
to membership of one hundred, there
was an exclusiveness about it (which
sometimes provoked stern, unbending
democrats to make acrimonious re-
marks" Wines and spirits were OBJ
tainable, though the latter could be Sc
cured only with the aid of smugglers.
" Competition for employment as snug
glers became very keen among the Ger
man soldiers as time progressed. At the
beginning most of them could be per-
suaded to do most things for money,
toward the end almost any of them
would do almost anything for a pot of
dripping." Count Schwerin tried to
stop this smuggling business, and, "driv-
ing into the camp one day in his car
riage, he pulled up. harangued group
of officers and captains on the evils of
alcoholism, and announced that any
soldier caught smuggling spirits into
the camp would be punished with the ut
most rigor Of military law. Little did
he guess than a dozen bottles of brandy,
smuggled by his own coachman, were
slowed away underneath the seat on
which he sat while delivering that i'm
pressive address,
Papers Struggled In
Interesting, too. is the recital of the
ruses for obtaining English newspa-
pers, as much as 40 marks being at
first charged and paid per copy of
The Daily Telegraph" "The Times"
and "The Daily Mail"
"The distribution of the copies thus
procured was undertaken by a mystic
rious gentleman known to the camp as
the W. II. Smith, of Ruhleben." In
time the supply, however, increased,
and reading clubs were formed. "The
papers sometimes got into the camp
within three days of their publications
and they were never more than four
teen days late. The whole business
was another Of the triumphs of Brit
lsh organization" Games were started
under difficulties, but these were over
come in due course, and the first foot
ball match was arranged cat which
Baron Won Taube, in full uniform, and
with the inevitable cigar in his mouth.
consented to kick off" The athletic
standards we're high, for the camp in
cluded football nternationals, an old
Cambridge Blue, an ex-champion
sculler, university and county cricket
ers and professional golfers. Here is
delightful account of an August bank
holiday celebration:
For the afternoon we organized
worlds fairr-a real Hampstead heath
revel. Claims were pegged out and
side shows were set up. A pierrot
company performed, and men put on