Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 219, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1918 — HAVE IT IN FOR THE KAISER [ARTICLE]

HAVE IT IN FOR THE KAISER

MEN FROM HATTIESBURG, KEEN FOR ACTION, . REACH. CAMP MILLS, N. Y. Camp Mills, N. Y., Sept. 23.—Another big dent is certain to be punched into the German line immediately after thir fighting-mad division of tra ned soldiers from Hattiesburg, including 5,500 enlisted men and officers from .Indiana, reaches the battle front. This division is fighting mad because, for some unexplainable reason, more than a year of this war has passed without it being given a chance at the Huns. Just why it took so long for this division to get away from that Mississippi camp may never be known, but for want of better explanation some of the soldiers have decided that the Kaiser himself shall be hefid responsible and they propose to wreak vengeance on him—to give the devil hisMues —when once they do go into battle. But this Thirty-, eighth Division, if one may judge by its fighting spirit, will fight hard enough when it does get into the great fray to soon make up for that lost year and then some. To mingle With these 27,000 men, feel their spirit and know the grim determination which possesses them as they are about to enter on the great adventure, gives one renewed confidence that this war can end only with America victorious. These men are trained to the minute, they know why America is in the war, they believe in the cause and they are prepared to make any sacrifice required to gain victory. They want the war fought to a finish. They would spurn a compromise.

President Wilson’s recent curt note to Austria in which a few choice words he spurned the Huns suggestion for a peace chat at an unbinding conference was a correct in.terpertation of the soldiers’ feelings on the subject, and President Wilson, with none other than Mrs. Wilson as the messenger, has learned, too, of this division’s strong approval of his stand. Capt. Cleon W. Mount of Tipton, Ind., a company commander of the One Hundred and Fifty-first Infantry, was among the Indiana officers permitted to meet Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. * / Mrs. Wilson was in the group of Red Cross canteen workers who met an Indiana troop train when it paused at Washington a few days ago enroute from Hattiesburg to this camp. Capt. Mount seized the opportunity to send direct word to the President th St the Austrian note deserved no other answer than the curt note he gave. “I’ve never voted . for President Wilson and we don’t agree politically, but I wish you would tell him for me and for the other soldiers of this division,” said Capt. Mount |o Mrs. Wilson, “that we all like the way he told the Kaiser to politely go to hades.” Mrs. Wilson smilingly told the Indiana ofiicer that she liked his spirit and that she would be delighted to carry his message to her presidential husband.

This division has been full of spirit and on its toes since it got away from lattiesburg. Before moving orders idd come the men had worked with drooped-spirits because they despaired of getting across but now every man is full of pep and keen for what is ahead. - No intimation, of course, is ever given of the time of departure, but the parents of men will know when several days have passed without letters being received from this camp. The camp is generous with passes and the soldiers are swarming to New York to see the sights of the world’s biggest city. Broadway is new to most of the men, but it is no

less fascinating than to those accustomed to the great white wr.y. After being in Mississippi pine? for a year one may understand the eagerness of these men to seek a bit of recreation in the great city. The theatres have been the special attraction for the soldiers. The soldiers are full of praise for the treatment accorded them in the city. The big hotels give soldiers discounts on their balls, some of the theatres knock off a certain per cent on tickets and citizens in general give them the glad hand. Their treatment here is in striking contrast with that at Hattiesburg, where, they say, everybody was trying to get rich by boosting prices. Colonel George H. Healey, of Rensselaer, Ind., commander of the One Hundred and Fifty-first Infantry, is entertaining his daughter, Miss Vera Healey, who came up from Washington, where she is a war worker, to see her soldier father before he goes. Captain Arthur Tuteur, of Rensselaer, who is now Stationed at Washington in the military intelligence ser-

vice, spent the week-end at Camp Mills, visiting his comrades of the Mexican border service. In the border service he was a battalion adjutant of the old Third Indiana Infantry, now converted into artillery. Will H. Hays, Republican national chairman, spent a few hours at camp hunting up different Indiana friends, both among the officers and enlisted men. From the beginning Mr. Hays has urged a vigorous prosecution of the war and, after coming in contact with this division, he feels sure the Huns’ finish is in sight.