Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1918 — LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS [ARTICLE]

LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS

Dorris Crooks Writes Home Folks From France. William D. (Dorris) Crooks of Rensselaer, who is now in the navy service, writes home from France uirtler date of May 31 and The Democrat is permitted to publish his letter, omitting *ome personal 'matters that are not of g.'neral interest : U. S. S. Canovicus, European Waters, U. S. Naval Base-No. 18. We went from Chicago to Philadelphia. We were treated fine all through the East; stayed in Philadelphia five days and were sent from there to Newport to be shipped, and now we are over here. This sure is a beautiful country. We were on shore liberty last night. The base is right by & lively little town of about 40,000, but oh, w<hat a difference in everything; anyway they sure know how to relieve the Jackies of their money. Money is supposed to go .farther here than at (home, but I spent the equivalent' of $2 for eats last night and didn’t founder either. You can’t buy any sweets here. Their candy hasn’t hardly any sugar —it’s gum; sour pies, cocoa and coffee without sugar. The navy

eats better than they do. We had a good trip over; came as passengers. Only sick one ■morning. Our old boat rolls around quite a bit, too. One nice thing about this country is that there’s lots of girls and very few boys, and believe me the U. S. Jackies have the inside track with all of them-. I will send you some pictures I have taken if 1 can get them developed. Yesterday was the 30th, my birthday, and we coaled ship. , Some dusty crew. Anyway it made quite, a party-—we were all there. I guess we are here for some time, so write me and give all the local news. I can’t tell you what our business it, but take it from me we will see as much service as the next one, and we’re all glad of it. This is the most carefree bunch of fellows I was ever with. Nt thing worries us qnd it is some contrast to the fellows of the other navy branch we meet 'here. They seem to take all the worry - of the war and talk about as gloomy as if the}’ were afraid of getting “trapped.” They sat at the Y. M. C A. last night and looked at the (J. S. Jackies, sing ajtd halve a good time, in a gloomy silence as if it were sacrilege or something. We 11,.! must cut it short. Write when you get this and I’ll be more prompt after this. With love, YOUR JACKIE. Sullivan, Ind., June 20. —In a letter written to Sullivan friends, Rev. George W. Titus, former pastor of the Sullivan Christian church and the First Christian church at Rensselaer, and now a war secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in France, he describes his first impressions of the firing line. The letter was written just before Rev. Mr. Titus was wounded. He says: “After being fitted out by having a" tin pot put on my head, and being equipped with a hideous false face which looks as if it might scare the devil out of the Germans, I started on my way, but I will be honest and say it was not with rejoicing. Off in the distance I could hear the cannon booming and the buzzing of aeroplanes. So it was with fear and trembling but nevertheless, on I went. “If I live to be a thousand years old I will never forget my first night in the trenches. I had never heard the crack of a shot before in my life save the crack of a safe hit right off the bat. It seemed that everything the Germans had, and the Americans too, had been waiting for my coming. They sure turned them loose. It appeared that the very mountains on, every side of me- were tumbling down. lam not overstating it when I say that it seemed that all the thunders of the universe since nature’s morn, had heen gathered into one storm. Guns roared, shells whistled and screamed around me, over my head and behind me. Oh, how they barked. Was I scared? Well, I should say I was. No tree ever shook more than I did. You could have heard my bones rattle a hundred yards away. If I had ever got my feet turned away from those crazy Dutchmen that night I never would have stopped until I was safe in Indiana. “Well, in the midst of my fear, I suddenly came to myself, and gathering together my few remaining senses I said ‘look here you spalpeen, it’s time for a pinch hit. You get into the game.’ And I did. After

this little scene’With myself I was ready for anything. I really believe I could have marched right through to Berlin with nothing more than a pea-shooter in my hand. Since then I have been in the big game nearly 1 every day. After spending about 1 forty days in the trenches with my | outfit —the First trench mortar battalion, we were changed of cdurse to the scene of the world’s mightiest battle.” “I suppose you are quite anxious to know how the big game over here is going. Well, it looks very much to the men on the ground here that Kaiser Bill is fanning out. He was a hummer for the first six innings but Jfee is weakening in the seventh and before many months the allies will be batting hW to the tall timbers. It may appear that the game will go ten innings but if it does it will be all to the allies’ advantage. Our heavy hitters from America will appear and we’ll trim him in the last half of the tenth if we have to wait that long.” Rev. Mr. Titus was pastor of the Sullivan Christian church for two years and went from here to Rensselaer, later took up Y. M. C. A. work. Before entering the ministry, he was a professional basebag player in Canada and for a nmnber of years played in the International league as a shortstop.