A Captive at Carlsruhe and Other German Prison CampsLee, Joseph
History
A Captive at Carlsruhe and Other German Prison Camps
Lee, Joseph
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
The first film, which gave rather charming glimpses of German family
life, represented the adventures and misadventures of a poor little
girl, who, after drinking a magic elixir, dreamt that she had become
the daughter of a Graf. Mark Twain’s “Prince and the Pauper” in more
modern guise. Second item, the efforts of a policeman to bring home
his sheaves with him in the shape of a very sly and slippery tramp.
The third, a _Lustspiel_ in four most amatory acts, introducing the
customary machinery, so well known to the cinema stage, of love
missives, magnificent motor-cars, bedrooms and bathrooms; keyholes
betwixt these apartments; the never-failing porter with the inevitable
trunk which forms the last inevitable stronghold and sanctuary for the
inevitable hapless lover pursued by the inevitable unhappy husband.
Altogether, not too bad an entertainment for the money, which was
one mark per head--_Lagergeld_, we having not yet been supplied with
ordinary currency. This was the first night I had been out after dark
since my capture, and it was pleasant to step free upon the pavement,
and to see the comfortable lights in the shops. At a second cinema
entertainment, we had--by request--a series of pictures showing German
soldiers at work and play in rest billets.
In the outskirts of the forest stood the Gesellschaft Gasthaus,
with, in the window, announcement of an entertainment in the form of
an acrobatic act by “Les Original Alfonso Geissler.” The handbill,
highly coloured, represented in one part of it, Monsieur, in evening
dress, and with all the suavity of the dove, making request for a
glass of beer from Mademoiselle at a public bar; in a second tableau
discovers him, sloughed of his garb of respectability and, arrayed
in multi-coloured tights, displaying all the cunning and pliancy of
the serpent in marvellous contortions among the barroom properties.
The proprietor informed us that he and his wife and three sons--one
the hero of the handbill--were all travelling acrobats, that they had
appeared frequently in England, and that they were in Sweden when the
war broke out. It was observable that during the entertainment--which,
despite the bill, proved to be entirely cinematographic--the proprietor
obtained his incidental music by making demand upon several of the
talented among the audience.
In this connection a rather notable incident occurred, though here
it seemed to pass without note. A boy of about fourteen, who had
earned his admission by operating the cinema for the major part of
the evening, came quietly forward, took the violin from the rather
faltering hand of a young soldier who had been agonizing for the last
hour, and commenced to play with a sure and virile bow. He proved to be
a friend of our German soldier pianist, and like him has studied at the
Berlin Conservatorium.
SKETCHING IN THE STREETS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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