he could draw money at any time
from the funds standing to his credit. These accounts were kept in a
very businesslike manner, and a prisoner was permitted to go into the
paymaster's office and examine his books whenever he wished. I know of
at least one instance in which a prisoner had been permitted to
overdraw his account.

The prisoners spent most of their time at Osnabruck in playing tennis,
football, walking up and down the yard, learning French or Russian,
playing cards, or reading.

The books which prisoners receive from time to time from England are
passed round, thus forming a sort of circulating library.

In living a life of this kind one cannot help but develop the habits
of school-days, and become boyish in many things.

One lives for letters and parcels. It is not the length of letters or
size of parcels which count so much as the number; and when the parcel
list comes round, he is a lucky fellow who finds four or five parcels
awaiting him, even though their total contents amount to no more than
that of the man who receives a single parcel.

On Tuesdays and Fridays the number of parcels was an absorbing topic,
and one would turn to another in schoolboy fashion, and say:

"How many parcels have you got to-day?"

"Only one--how many have you?"

"Six."

"Lucky devil!"

In each room the men throw their parcels into one mess, and share
alike; and if a new prisoner arrives, who would not be receiving
parcels, he shares with the others in his room.

If several prisoners just arriving are put in a room by themselves,
they do not, of course, fare so well, and until their parcels arrive,
many weeks later, they are more or less dependent upon the food issued
to them; although presents of food are frequently sent in by the
others, and articles of clothing are loaned.

The charge made to the prisoners for food was forty-five marks per
month. We were afterwards informed that by a new regulation the
charge, by some international arrangement, had to be reduced to thirty
marks per month. And the commandant explained that for this sum he
could only supply the same ration which the men received; but would
continue to supply the old ration if the officers would voluntarily
agree to continue paying forty-five marks, and extra for their
bread--which, of course, they did.

This ration consisted of imitation coffee for breakfast and no food. A
plate of washy stuff called soup, for dinner, followed by some sloppy