The worst features, of course,
were the food and housing. Human nature seems always to be the
same. Establishment of clubs seems inherent to the Anglo-Saxon
nature. Ten or more persons would combine together and erect a
sort of wooden shed against the brick walls of a barrack, hire
some poorer person to put on a white jacket and be addressed as
"steward," put in the shed a few deck chairs and a table and
enjoy the sensation of exclusiveness and club life thereby given.
Owing to the failure of Germany and Great Britain to come to an
agreement for a long time as to the release of captured crews
of ships, there were in Ruhleben men as old as seventy-five years
and boys as young as fifteen. There were in all between fifty and
sixty of these ships' boys. They lived in a barrack by themselves
and under the supervision of a ship's officer who volunteered to
look after them as sort of a monitor. They were taught navigation
by the older prisoners and I imagine were rather benefited by their
stay in the camp. I finally made arrangements by which these boys
were released from England and Germany.
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