Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 101, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1918 — RAINBOW SOLDIER WRITES INTERESTING LETTER [ARTICLE]

RAINBOW SOLDIER WRITES INTERESTING LETTER

April 10, 1918. Dear Mother: . I have received letters from you up until the 12th of March. The mail is coming in fairly regularly now. I believe and I am trying to write'and mail letters the same way. . The weather has been fairly pleasant here lately—cloudy, but not raining quite all the time. We get so accustomed to the wet weather that we don’t notice anything less than a solid week of rain. I have a new pair of big hip boots so of course don’t mind the mud. I’m glad to hear from Cliff BouL den, even indirectly. I know Where he is, although I can’t tell you, and I know, top, that there will be no chance of seeing him for a long time. When I was in the hospital last January I met a sergeant of the 'Q. If. Corps, who knew Cliff and he told me where Ke was. Louis Lehman, in the Coast Artillery Corps, is almost aS far (presumably) as Cliff. Well, there are lots of strange meetings in the army. Howard Ames is in my locality and I see him quite often—he’s quite well, and seems to be as comfortable as any of us. Now, I want to assure you that I am well cared for, safe, healthy and O. K. in every way. I’m getting good food, have a good shelter (a barn) and a comfortable office to work in. , Don’t let that barn scare you—it’s the hay mow, and we cleaned it all up spick and span before we moved in. We have wooden beds with straw mattresses arid plenty of blankets.- I still have the sleeping bag with me, and it’s a real luxury, let me tell you. I have a comfortable job as battalion mail cleric and acting supply sergeant for the Hq. detail. It keeps me busy most of the time, but it’s pleasant work and rather a rest for me just now. I havC a little room all to myself with a big wooden table for desk and a little square window thru a two foot qlatip wall There is a Y. M. C. A. in this town and the Y workers even go up into to the front line trendies. You don’t realize how much the Y. is doing for all of us here. They operate reading and writing rooms and canteens all thru the danger zone just as in the camps back home. I once saw aY. secretary writing a letter for a dough boy on an up-turned bacon box, setting in a foot of mud, while shells shrieked overhead. One Y. secretary has had shells fall right into his reading rooms. You see now, just how much the Y. can be depended upon over nere. I’m trying to write 'to you all often, but there are times, of course, when I can’t get letters off. The folks at Cissna haven’t got all my letters, I’m sure. Must close, Hastily, CORP. W. E. ROSE, Hq. Co., 150 F. A., A. E. F.