Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/38



MILAN, March 27.

Continuing his story of the first year in Siberia, Captain “N.“ gave me a picture of what was happening in every prisoners’ camp in Russia and Siberia where Czecho-Slovaks formed important groups. They had no idea that they should some day later become the masters of the very regions where they lived as prisoners, occupying a line that stretched a distance of 8,000 kilometres (about 5,000 miles). They hoped some day to be brought back in an organised national army to fight against the Austrians or Germans. Meanwhile they continued to make friends of the Russian people, became popular with them wherever they were, and formed little local clubs to pass the time. Captain “N.“ proceeded with his story as follows:

We still enjoyed our liberty at Ishim at the end of 1915. and had learned to ignore the “Gnädige Frau Colonel.“ We formed an officers’ mess of our own and lived in comparative luxury on 1½), roubles per day. Our housekeeping was cheap, a hare for 3 kopecks, a chicken for 7 kopecks, 100 eggs for 60 kopecks, and a pound of flour for 3 or 4 kopecks. We found the cultured Russian families in the town very kind to us, and they invited us to their houses. They were very patriotic. They were fond of music, and as I play the violin well I had two young ladies in one Russian family as my pupils, and gave lessons in several other families. We formed a quartet, consisting of one first violin, two second violins, and an American harmonium. The young ladies who were sufficiently advanced sometimes joined us, and we gave musical evenings unknown to “Frau Colonel.“ Each officer had a family where he was the favourite guest and where he was at liberty to invite us, and in this way we gave a musical evening about once a week in turn