often used to slip in comments about the prison. One article wrote "Secondary to the influenza more or less than 50 people died- unofficially. All here greater than a short time are more or less crazy-officially." Prisoners were also allowed to grow vegetables in the prison garden and use them in their food. Non-canned food from family and friends and foods from the Prison Exchange could also be used. Illnesses, deaths and escapes The illnesses included tuberculosis, instances of insanity, and influenza. Tuberculosis patients were isolated in a tent and put on what was described as an unpalatable diet. The cases of insanity in a population of 4,000 included "dozens and dozens of men" who were transferred to St. Elizabeth's Asylum for the Insane in Washington. The postwar influenza pandemic was "perhaps the most ghastly of them all; day and night ambulances rushed through the camp; day and night patient after patient was transported to the hospital....More than half of the inmates became ill." The total number of dead is not provided. The usual escape attempts took place but, as in most such cases, most of the escapees were recaptured. It appears that the one successful escape artist was one "Henckel" who made several unsuccessful attempts but at last succeeded, "and thus probably the only real spy the United States had interned at Oglethorpe disappeared for good." Legal aspects of imprisonment The Swiss Embassy represented the German interests and the Swedish Embassy represented those of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Some of the prisoners performed hard labor on the roads and in the quarry. They were ordered to sign a document that they were doing so of their own free will. Many refused to sign and were locked in a separate camp behind barbed wire. Protests to the Swiss Consul, Dr. Huebscher, were ineffectual; but the Swedish Count Rosen, who represented the Austro-Hungarian prisoners, was able to reverse the decision, "and the prisoners were returned to the main camp and put back on full rations." Otherwise, the treatment of the prisoners was generally fair ("not that we were badly treated") but the prisoners suffered from two major irritants. Letters and cards were heavily censored, and, following the Armistice of November 11, 1918, the prisoners suffered "from the unbearable uncertainty as to the duration of our detention." 2,000 German prisoners and 1,600 civilian internees who agreed to be deported were returned to Germany