This was a sure cure for the “cooties,” and for a few days, at least, we enjoyed perfect freedom from them.  Every week after this we had a bath, and it was compulsory, too.

[Illustration:  Giessen Prison-Camp]

As prison-camps go, Giessen is a good one.  The place is well drained; the water is excellent; the sanitary conditions are good, too; the sleeping accommodations are ample, there being no upper berths such as exist in all the other camps I have seen.  It is the “Show-Camp,” to which visitors are brought, who then, not having had to eat the food, write newspaper articles telling how well Germany treats her prisoners.  If these people could see some of the other camps that I have seen, the articles would have to be modified.

* * *

News of the trouble in Ireland sifted through to us in the prison-camp.  The first I heard of it was a letter in the “Continental Times,” by Roger Casement’s sister, who had been in Germany and had visited some of the prison-camps, and was so pleased with the generous treatment Germany was according her prisoners.  She was especially charmed with the soup!!!  And the letter went on to tell of the Irish Brigade that was being formed in Germany to fight the tyrant England.  Every Irish prisoner who would join was to be given the privilege of fighting against England.  Some British prisoners who came from Limburg, a camp about thirty miles from Giessen, told us more about it.  Roger Casement, himself, had gone there to gather recruits, and several Irishmen had joined and were given special privileges accordingly.  However, there were many Irishmen who did not join, and who kept a list of the recruits—­for future reference, when the war was over!

The Irishmen in our camp were approached, but they remained loyal.

* * *

The routine of the camp was as follows:  Reveille sounded at six.  We got up and dressed and were given a bowl of coffee.  Those who were wise saved their issue of bread from the night before, and ate it with the coffee.  There was a roll-call right after the coffee, when every one was given a chance to volunteer for work.  At noon there was soup, and another roll-call.  We answered the roll-call, either with the French word “Present” or the German word “Hier,” pronounced the same as our word.  Then at five o’clock there was an issue of black bread made mostly from potato flour.

I was given a light job of keeping the space between A Barrack and B Barrack clean, and I made a fine pretense of being busy, for it let me out of “drill,” which I detested, for they gave the commands in German, and it went hard with us to have to salute their officers.

On Sundays there was a special roll-call, when every one had to give a full account of himself.  The prisoners then had the privilege of asking for any work they wanted, and if the Germans could supply it, it was given.