Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1918 — Rainbow Division Soldier Writes From the War Zone. [ARTICLE]

Rainbow Division Soldier Writes From the War Zone.

Willie Potts of Fair Oaks, one of the ten Jasper county boys wiho left Rensselaer last August andvere placed in the ‘‘Rainbow Division” of the U. S. Expeditionary forces, writes home under recent date; France, July 9, 1918. Dear folks: — , ... Well, 1 am. still well and getting your mail O. K. We are having a good imitation of summer here now, but one is never bothered wibti insomnia over here. One would think from what some write, back that th-.s is a real hell all over France. 1 will admit that it is a good imitation at times in some places, especially when one hears from a 30-30 to a 12-incher laying over a barrage for Fritzy. Just picture him when these are going over whistling, then a long drawn out .whine and the explosion —c-r-r-r-unnip —slhirapnel, gas, dirt and everything else trying to gnaw into his dugouts and many times they do eat through his house. In a case like this we would go for our dugouts until the shelling had ceased, for the efficiency of the American engineers have made them bomb and gas proof. This is sure an odd looking country, with a kilometer apart one can find town after town ruined by bombing planes or artillery. It is quite impossible fpr one to ever .approximate the waste and of this war. But Ido not worry about the minor incidents nor be capsized as one is apt to be by inefficiency reasons, for one is less likely either to generalize incorrectly himself or to be imposed upon by the false generalizations of other people. So don’t worry, but be happy, for we’ll’lick th Am by and by for they are continually growing Weaker every day and the allies are growing stronger with complete satisfaction. Yours as ever, WILLIE POTTS.