Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1915 — Page 3 Advertisements Column 6 [ADVERTISEMENT]

SOLDIERS DREAM OXLY OF WAR Pictures of Home and Former Scenes Seldom Appear to Sleeping Warrior, It Is Said. The popular idea of the soldier’s dream, as represented by the colored supplements of our weekly periodicals, would appear, from the statements of men who have come home fromjtlie front, to be as fallacious as it is delightful. The soldier’s dream, according to the supplement artist, is a dream of home. He sees his old mother and father, hale in their longevity, comfortably ensconced on either side of the fireplace (with or Without fire); he sees his sweetheart, (or is it his sister?) clad in plain pinj, setting the knives and forks for dinner; and he sees himself coming in at the door, bronzed and handsome. The dream varies, of course, with the supplement, but it is always a dream of home, a dream rooted in the sentiment that would appear to go hand-in-hand with the threecolor process. That is just where the editors and artists who are responsible for these heartstring pullers make the mistake. The soldier in action very rarely dreams of home—far more rarely than he could wish. His sleeping hours, like liis waking hours, are crowded with thoughts of war and war’s alarms. It appears that one of the commonest dreams is that of a sudden call to arms. The dreamer imagines that lie has been suddenly awakened from liis sleep and that all his comrades are busy pulling on their clothes. He follows suit—but he cannot find his gun, or else some article of attire. He begins to search for it, while the others drift away. He goes on searching for it, suffering a mental agony more and more intense as every moment flies by, hut can find ii nowhere. At last ho is left alone, still searching, searching. * * * Thai is a real soldier’s dream. It is not a good subject for a supplement. 1 1 brings home to one too vividly the harassing anxieties of war. Another common dream is concerned with live shells, The dreamer sees a shell hurling through the air, or he finds it in his bed. For some reason he is unable to move. All he can do is to stare and wait—wait for the shell to burst, as it will clearly burst, before another second has gone by, and send him to the land of Kingdom Come. It must not be thought that it Is only the nervous and neurotic soldiers who are given to these terrifying dreams. Apparently the bravest are , subject to them. Sometimes they become somnambulists and w ander about in search of their regi meats. For one of the greatest fears by which a soldier is haunted is that he may lose contact with his regiment. He imagines that he is all alone, that he is stealing through some forest in an attempt to rejoin his comrades, or that he is wandering through a wildering and intricate network of deserted trenches, as complicated and baffling as the maze at Hampton Court. —London Globe. Do You Want Lightning Protection? I have been in the lightning rod business for 15 years and during that time have never lost a building by lightning. A five-year guarantee with all rods. If Interested call and see me or phone 568. —FRANK A. BICKNELL, Rensselaer, Ind. ts