Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 253, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1917 — BRUTALITY OF HUNS TERRIBLE [ARTICLE]

BRUTALITY OF HUNS TERRIBLE

SO SAYS SAMUEL DUVALL WRITING FROM SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE. Samuel Duvall, son of John Duvall, writing under date of October 5, from somewhere in France, where he has been since August as a member of the ambulance corps, has the following to say of his work along the western front: Dear Mother and Dad: I received your two letters last week and was sure glad to learn that you are all well. lam sitting in my ambulance just outside of our cave abri at a Post de Secours, two kilometers behind the battle front, or one mile in American measurement. It is now just twelve o’clock noon, so it is five o’clock in Rensselaer, seven hours’ difference between us. I’m thinking of Dad just crawling out of bed as I write this. Here in northern France the weather is very damp and cold at night. Uncle Sam gave us all some nice, warm blankets the other day, so we sleep very warm now. Believe me, Uncle Sam is a good old man to his boys and we are all glad and proud that we are under his flag, Old Glory. I have felt fine every day that I have been in this wonderful countrjr. We also have some fine doctors in our section so don’t worry about me getting sick. The only thing we dread is, poison gas the Germans make attacks with. We never close an eye on night duty here at the very front and always have our gas masks on. It is the gas i over here that kills so many of the soldiers. They do not mind shells and bullets so much as they do the dreaded gas. Last week we had nine cars running all night carrying soldiers back to the hospital, and every one of them had been in a gas attack, either dead or dying. In some instances they had fallen over dead and looked as if they were asleep, not a bullet scratch on them.

I have sure seen some pitiful sights, things that would give you the nightmare, so I will not mention them. In regard to the little children and babies having their hands cut off by the Germans—-that is not newspaper talk, for I have seen scores of them already. I have also talked to French soldiers whose sisters have been ravaged. The brutality of the Huns makes one’s blood boil. France is destroyed in every way imaginable here in the north. Homes, towns, cities, and miles and miles of country with every tree cut down, bridges all blasted, canals destroyed, everything in ashes and ruin. You would have to see what I have to realize the terrible truth.

Several days ago the King of Italy passed through our camp. I am enclosing a newspaper clipping giving an account of his visit and with his picture on it also, so keep it for me. The 20th of next month I am going to Paris on a ten day vacation, so think of me Thanksgiving eating my dinner there. “Bummer” is all right, he has heard from home many times and also written, so I guess there is nothing I can tell you to tell his parents. Please stop in Jack Montgomerv’s and tell him to send me the Century, American, Literary Digest and Photo Play magazines each month, for I haven’t a single thing to read. I heard from Alfred Thompson, although I did not get to see him while in Paris, but he told me he was well and pleased with his work. I am going to go into aviation corps some time in January. I passed the examination O. K. I have been up in a machine twice with a French aviator. There is an aeroplane field very near here and'he promised to take me over the Germair lines next week. . We are getting thirty-six dollars per month and if I get iqto the American air corps, I will get SIBO per month. Well, I will close for this time. Write often and don’t worry. Keep well and be happy, for you have lots to be happy for in America, if you don’t realize it. Will write every week. With love,

SAM.