pound of currants; bean soup,
two hundred gallons of water, fifty pounds of beans, and twenty pounds
of potatoes; pork soup, two hundred gallons of water, ten pounds of
pork and fifty pounds of potatoes. Porridge was made of two hundred
gallons of water, fifteen pounds of oatmeal and two pounds of barley.
The diary states: "To be served hot as a drink."

Once in two months a ration of sausage was dished out. For breakfast
once a week there was one pint of acorn coffee without sugar or milk
and one and a half square inches of Limburger cheese. To quote from
the diary: "Before serving, open all windows and doors. Then send for
the Russians to take it away."

The Germans discriminated against the British prisoners. When there
was any disagreeable duty; the cry went up for "der Englaender." The
much-sought-for cookhouse jobs all went to the French, who waxed fat
in consequence. No Britisher was ever allowed near the cookhouse. The
French had for the most part been there for some time, and, their
country lying so close by; they were receiving parcels. We were not,
and this made the food problem a very serious one for us. Their
supplies were received through Switzerland which was the one anchor to
windward for so many of us in this and other respects.

At first the French used to give us a certain amount of their own
food, but eventually ceased to do so. Most of them worked down in the
town daily and could "square" the guard long enough to buy tobacco at
twenty-five pfennigs--or two and a half pence--a package, which they
sold to us later at eighty pfennigs--until we got on to their
profiteering.

CHAPTER XI

THE WAY THEY HAVE AT GIESSEN

"Raus!"--The Strafe Barracks--The Appeal for Casement--Why
Parcels Should Be Sent--A Hell on Earth--That Brickyard
Fatigue--Gott Strafe England--Slow Starvation--Merciless
Discipline--Canadian Humor--The Debt We Owe--Inoculating for
Typhoid?--Joseph's Coat of Many Colors--The Russian Who Unwound
the Rag--The Monotony of the Wire--Teaching the Germans the
British Salute.

Except for the starving, as I look back now, Giessen was not such a
bad camp as such places go. At least it was the best that we were to
know. The discipline, of course, was fairly severe, but on the other
hand the Commandant did not trouble us a great deal. The petty
annoyances were harder to endure. Frequently we would get the "Raus!"
at half-hour intervals by day or night; "Raus out!" "Rau