Evening journal., 1915-11-29
SOLDIER IN Trench
HOPES FOR Peace
Soldier on Ypres Battle Line
Say War is Scientific
me Murder"
FRIEND KILLED
AT HIS SIDE

Special to THE EVENING JOURNAL.
DELAWARE CITY. Del. Nov. 29.--
Sergeant George II. Picken, of the
One Hundred and Twelfth Company,
stationed at Fort DUPONT. has received
very interesting letter from his
brother, who is a member OF a com
pany of Royal Engineers IN the British
army. and who at present is stationed
In France. The letter received last
Wednesday was mailed November Q
Pickens identification number is
"Sapper 1879. Third Section, r. A. r.
H., Second Siege Company, y. ". r."
The letter gives considerable first
hand information of conditions on the
west front and gives some idea of the
life Of the troops The letter in part
follows
You asked me to tell you all about
what i have been doing since ] left
England and how like living in dug
outs. For my part. would rather bo
IN dng-out than in those trenches we
are in now. | got quite used TO Il and
l am thinking of making a dug-out I'm
the garden when I get back home " /
ever do
We'll. George, left with a draft Of
sixty men TO fll a company of Royal
Engineers and after five days travel
ing. arrived at regimental headquar-
ters, at a place about two miles from
Ypres. The FIRST day IN Belgium was
spent making dug outs for ourselves
and ] shall never forget the spectacle
we Witnessed. on this night Ypres
was being bombarded and from where
we were. the the whole city looked as
n Il was on FIRE. We could see the
German shrapnel bursting around the
Cathedral and decided I was getting
initiated in fine style. That was the
night OF May 19th.'
"A few weeks after we we're lent TO
entrench ourselves on the User canal.
During the march we were attacked by
artillery and several shells burGt In
our vicinity, so we took cover in a
ditch and when we got out of It we
Noro poor looking specimens Of the
spry, neat Tommy Atkins you read
about. But as none Of us attend any
full dress receptions out here, we
don't notice. little things like that.
Several OF us had a near squeak (es-
cape) that day. but we dccidedfit was
part Of the game.
"A am becoming used to it now, as
since then / have seen hundreds OF
shells bursting and lots OF them TOO
close to be healthy. or course we
are In trenches or dug-outs and so are
protected a lot, otherwise | would
not be writing this now about a. m
one day the signal was sent down the
. ltne that the gas was coming on US
IS Elost no time in getting on our
~ rators. That was my hrst ac'
a.aintance with gas and I'll tell YOU
i,fs rotten. ] don't mind II ! have
10 die fghting. but | hate TO get chlo,
reformed. II smarts your eyes ana
about half chokes you even win the
.nrocautions we use.
"a few weeks ago we were treated
10 severe shelling with high expios-
. ives and gas shells. Two officers thlr-
fpcn men and eleven horses We're
.kilied out of our company, besides
.cven wounded That day l lost my
s8est chum He was on my right ana
No. were talking together when we
,o,,l1 shell burst on the pafape1
4 n the trench and a large piece mt
,im was nearly buried with the
nrf b,t .unhurt. We had orders to
In M gaps II possible and was about
move when another she'll struck
g 8.oa,lv the same place So ! figure that
+. ..einc half buried by one (sheln saved
ne from getting hit with the other.
after that we we're moved back as
hey lCermansl had our range too
God TO suit us. lust wait. we are
ning to pay that all back with inter-
81. We have had lots such expert
# noes and from what I have seen OF
ar artillery they (Germans) are get
S. ing lots of H. too.
',Wc arc making slow advances and
e olding on in some places. We are
W Ding hne work and are confident OF
uccess. I still have an even chance
there is thirty OF us left out Of the
M lxty I came with. The worst part al
ais war is when we go through soml