Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 150, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1915 — TOMMY IS WRITER OF "MOIST" LETTER [ARTICLE]

TOMMY IS WRITER OF "MOIST" LETTER

With Water, Water Everywhere, Private Longs for a Nice Hot Bath. London. —'‘Same what an ..American would on this bit from the pen of a British private now at the front: “I had the most miserable time in my life two nights ago; we went into some reserve trenches, which are 2 feet wide and 2 feet 6 inches deep; they are covered with straw and mud and sticks so as to be hidden; there is no room even to sit up and they are absolutely dark; it began raining like blazes In the middle of the night and went on incessantly; the water came pouring in, and finally, after lying soaked to ike skin In about 3 inches of mud and water, we had the order to evacuate them. It really was perfectly awful; we had nothing to change into, as our packs with a spare shirt and socks In were full of mud and water. How I longed for a hot bath and some whisky and a nice warm bed. “We were sent into an old bulletriddled barn and had three sows, some little pigs and a goat as bed-fellows, ljut it was absolutely Paradise to what we had just been experiencing. “Last night we left at 7 o’clock and got to bed at 1:20 in the morning. It was raining the whole day and our kits seemed like lead; It is awfully heqvy at the best of times, but when one’s blanket and coat Is soaked it is too awful to carry with a rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition.”