South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-04-03
CENS0RS
READ MUCH MAIL
TOmmy'S Letters Home Are
Strange and
Amusing.
'niernationaI News Service

international News Service.
LONDON. April s.-A British
regimental chaplain in the field
writes the following description Of
the censoring of soldiers letters
Pity the padre in the Iealzy postal
wagon. knee-deep in picture post
cards. love letters, brief acknowledge
ments of parcels. and stold accounts
Of doings too epic for the written
word. AS postal censor We parsons
often relieve keen. comDatant sub
alterns who would otherwise be fret
ting and porting over the pencil
scrawls which Tommy produces 10y
the hundred thousand.
Each letter is carefully read for
incautious revelations. unreasonable
grousings and matter calculated 10
alarm or depress' folks at home II
published our soldiers know what
not 20 say What is more. they
know they are better looked after
than soldiers ever were before The
man 10 be checked is the lonely
soldier" who is after creature COM
forts and such is public kindness
succeeds i'm coaXinG perfectly mon
strous mail from home-to the fury
and disgust of the postal section or
our royal engineers.
So we clip the lonely soldier He
may be a good sort. and share the
booty but any extra stress thrown
on our field postofiice is very prop
erly resented at headquarters. Then
there is the too fluent amorist-a
real nuisance TO the censor landed
Cand bewildered with five "darl-
ings" and ducks" 10 get safely back
into the right envelopes. together
with acres of heroics. screaming
shells and Y. q. deeds (entirely un-
| rewarded). which I know took place
miles from the firing line.
Very sad are unfinished letters OF
the dead We'll. Ciss. We are
parading in a minute. Goodbye,
, and the dearest kiss. To be con
tinued tomorrow Alas. there was
no tomorrow, The padre viii CEN
sor this" 1 read again. Look up 10
heaven. says ne last Sunday. u
said no such thing. we did-and
bang, came bombs from Aviatik'
Consider the fields says he-and
up went a mine under our feet.
There is victory in the air says he
but AN we could see of it was
poison gas from a new she'll"
In the main. Tommy's letter is
stolid enough or gay. Hal and Jim
have little gift for self-exr ression.
whereas French soldiers translate
their deep emotions into real prose.
| I've read the letters. SO / know. Yet
| cur mems poverty in this way re-
veals their real strength. You can't
impress or depress a lad who tells
! his mother:
We need more ground TO bury
these tin hats"
Last winter 10 leave a trench was
called going ashore" and the
waddle OF frost bite drew "quack.
quack,' from the victim himself.
Dear Mother" wrote The rustic pri-
vate. yesterday a shell burst and
tor my trousers. ] shall dror comp
sashun." ] knew that shell You
could ride a bus in the crater OF it,
one man was never seen again. even
in bits He whose trousers were
tor was blown mp tree, where
he hung dazed md mute. with his
rife swaying on still higher
branch For TWO DAYS the lad could
neither hear nor speak.
These men write gaily Of their
hair breadth escapes. They give
brief accOuns Of daily life IN the
, dog kennel" with its door from
ruined cottage. and Hotel Cecil"
ACROSS il i'm sprawling chalk. Have
read OF my death but am Well IS
startling postcard ] pity the ad-
jutant generals department. charged
with these endless casualty lists 7
know a family who'd been il black
six weeks for a son when ne wrote
them "chirpy" letter from "A pris-
oners' camp AT Torgau. Letters
from the dead are astonishingly
frivolous saw an anxious note at