Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1917 — TO AVOID CENSORS [ARTICLE]

TO AVOID CENSORS

Soldier Boys Use the Regulation Blue Envelopes. Mutt Sign Certificate on Outside That Contents Are Personal or Family Matters Only. ‘The bine envelope has made a big hit with Sammy. It is the one feature of the army’s field censorship regulations to which he gives a kind word. Not that the censorship Inhibitions are unreasonable or Irksome especially to him, but because It is soldier’s proverbial and Inalienable right to “beer* against the censor, writes a correspondent with the American expeditionary force in France. The provision regulating the blue envelopes reads as follows: “In order that men may forward personal or family letters without the necessity of having them read by officers known to them personally, such letfefs may be Inclosed In the authorized blue envelope and sent directly to the base censor through United States army postal service.” authorized envelopes supplied to organizations at the rate of one per man per week may be used. More than one letter, however, may be forwarded In the envelope, but all the letters must be from the same soldier wjio signs a certificate on the outside of the envelope to the effect that the letters Inclosed relate to personal or family matters only and do not refer to military subjects. “It’s a great stunt,” said one dough boy. “You see If me and the missus want to have a little tiff on paper I don’t want the captain to be knowin’ all about it. What do I care If some fellow miles away, whom I’ll never see in my life, reads It I gtiess it will seem like a little bit of home sweet home to him I” Or, as another put It: “You know any time a fellow writes his girl, of course he has to gush a little. Maybe spring a little poetry and sometimes, by gosh, you mean it. Believe me, you get mighty lonesome over here hearing a lot of chattering you don’t know nothin' about And when her picture Is lookin’ down at you from the wall and the moon is helpin’ out the candle to light the room and you get thinkin’ of the .night you said good-by, It’s powerful helpin’ to sit down and write her all about It.” The blue envelope Is a development of this war. It Is new In our service. The French and English, though, have been using It for quite a while, and as we have adopted In many respects the censorship regulations of the English army, the lady In blue, as the envelope has come to bo called, came with them. Today she Is the one popular member yf her family.