Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1917 — WORSE THAN AUSTRIAN FOE [ARTICLE]

WORSE THAN AUSTRIAN FOE

Soldiers Fighting in the Alps Find the Snow and Sun Their Worst Enemies. .The ItaUans holding down trenches In the Alps have two enemies to deal with, the Austrians and the snow. Of the two the Italians prefer to encounter the Austrians. As It is, they have to face both and get along as best they can, says Popular Science Monthly. In order to do this thqy supply

themselves with gunpowder and rifles for the Austrians and black grease and glasses for the sun. A recent photograph shows four members of an Italian scouting party about to partake of their-midday meal. Their faces and hands are besmeared with black grease to protect them them against the burning rays of the sun, which are doubly strong when reflected from the snow. They prefer to use vaseline, but that is too expensive. The snow not only burns the faces of troops, but it injures their

eyes, so that sun glasses nave to be worn. Needless to say, the black grease and the sun glasses make the Italians excellent targets against e background of white snow. However, the Alpine Italian troops do not always use grease and 1 sur glasses. When there is hot fighting to be done in the Alps, they don snowwhite suits and even paint their rifles white. In such a uniform they are practically invisible. Never joke a man about his salary.