er," we were likely to receive a welt with a pick handle and a
strafe of several marks. Sometimes we only received a mark or two for a
week's work. Most of this we spent for soap. It was impossible to work
in the mine and not become indescribably dirty, and soap became an
absolute necessity.

[Sidenote: Uncomfortable quarters.]

We lived under conditions of great discomfort in the camp, 250 of us in
30 x 30 quarters. There were two stoves in the building in which coke
was burned, but the place was terribly cold. The walls at all seasons
were so damp that pictures tacked up on them mildewed in a short time.
Our bunks contained straw which was never replenished and we all became
infested with fleas. Some nights it was impossible to sleep on account
of the activity of these pests. On account of the dampness and cold we
always slept in our clothes.

[Sidenote: Cruelty of discipline.]

[Sidenote: Seven plan to escape.]

Discipline was rigorous and cruel. We were knocked around and given
terms of solitary confinement and made to stand at attention for hours
at the least provocation. Many of the prisoners were killed--murdered by
the cruelty. It became more than flesh and blood could stand. One day
seven of us got together and made a solemn compact to escape. We would
keep at it, we decided, no matter what happened, until we got away. Six
of us are now safely at home. The seventh, my chum, J. W. Nicholson, is
still a prisoner.

I made four attempts to escape before I finally succeeded. The first
time a group of us made a tunnel out under the barricade, starting
beneath the flooring of the barracks. We crawled out at night and had
put fifteen miles between us and the camp before we were finally caught.
I got seven days' "black" that time, solitary confinement in a narrow
stone cell, without a ray of light, on black bread and water.

[Sidenote: Two attempts to escape fail and are punished.]

The second attempt was again by means of a tunnel. A chum of mine,
William Raesides, who had come over with the 8th C. M. R.'s, was my
companion that time. We were caught by bloodhounds after twenty miles
and they gave us ten days' "black."

[Sidenote: The third attempt.]

The third attempt was made in company with my chum Nicholson, and we
planned it out very carefully. Friends in England sent through suits of
civilian clothes to us.

The next day we dressed up for the attempt by putting on our "civies"
first and then drawing