Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 150, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1915 — SOLDIERS WEARING HIDES OF SHEEP [ARTICLE]

SOLDIERS WEARING HIDES OF SHEEP

Flarea and Close Battles at Ona Point —-Sidelights on tha Great War. Paris, France —Six months of living in the open has almost turned the soldiers into brutes, 0b far as their appearance goes. Most of the French soldiers, owing to their coetome, have the appearance of primitive men. Uniforms are caked with mud and tattered beyond recognition. Coats have been stripped of brass buttons and gay braid. Undressed hides of sheep, worn with the skin side out to shed rain, are tied on the backs of the men with thongs. Beards are long and unkempt The Germans in the opposite trenches are in like condition. Near Pont-a-Mousson savage fighting has continued almost daily. While siege conditions prevail at most points along the battle line, there the French and Germans have had close battles with bayonet against bayonet, revolver against revolver and sometimes fist against fist A few days ago a French officer shot a German so close at hand that the Revolver he used was stained with small spatterings of blood from Us enemy’s wound.