Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-09-29
Expects to Finish
Hun Forces Soon
Richmond Boy Writes That
americans Are Confident
and Determined.

Honestly. / think we are going to
put the finishing touches on Jerry some
day soon Talk about morale in the
many men over here as we have morale,
every one left at home would be wear
ing skirts; This bunch is not fcazed
one DIT q know that Is pure slang.
but ii does express III. and 1t seems
TO be the general opinion that the war
| Is not as bad AZ we expected: but. by
Jovc, 1t is inconvenient. the accustom-
ed things we do without, the coolies.
the many little annoyances the rain
and the mud are really rotten. OF
guerre. and we are surprisingly we'll
taken care OF, much better than L ever
dreamed possible want to put in u
word for the Y. NJ. c. A.: they do more
for US than l could attempt to describe;
they represent everything but home TO
us. and il you ever hear any of your
does with their money, tell them it Is
spent where the boys get the benefit
OF 1t. can't speak too highly Of their
work.; .e wrote SIs.. a Richmond boy on Au-
1T Is SO long" began the letter.
Since L have had a letter from you
that am becoming afraid that you
have either become paralyzed or eloped
with the cook. Tho fact that L am in
| Europe should not make you feel 1 am
on the map; you have spent enough
that.
This is an extremely dizzy war, and
| IT is not very much like the newspapers
inside stories OF 1t and somewhat less
like the various books on the subject;
! but there is one sure thing: there is
an awful lot Of 1t, and l am fast learn
ing the ropes.
Spent an hour in she'll hole while
Jerry blew up the surrounding scenery
with high explosive. 1 rather suspect
he was after some battery position.
st was raining hard. and Bill and 1
were taking a short cut Everything
I mas 1T to-
we heard something coming our way.
closer and closer too close, and into
the shell hole we went, some good
sized chunks of mud on our left went
some OF it on the way down. For fifty
five minutes after that we were treat
cd to an intermittent shower of mud
and small debris. and there was not
much interval between showers. When
the 'strafe' was over we had lots OF
nice, new shell holes all around us
and plenty of the Justly celebrated
Flanders mud all over VS.. but no dam
age whatsoever.
Thigh explosive is not really dan
tho nearest ditch and keep his head
above the water (Which you will find
waiting FOR your, but it Is darned thrill
a radius Of thirty yards. il is hard to
get rid of the idea that they not
dropping on one. Barring the rain, We
had a rlBht decent time OF IT. eacn or
us has q bit of sense OF humor. and we
had quite 4 few laughs las we'll as
shclls) at Jerry's expense. You would
have died laughing IL you could have
seen us the other night. We were lay
ing wire and there was some stun
coming over. One of the boys was up
pole fastening the wire to cross the
road. and every time n she'll landed
the pole would rock and the chap At
the top Of IL would look 4 bit uneasy.
We would all assure him that there was
n
down where we were, and he would go
on with the work. We do have lot
OF fun and no mistake. An, Jerry is
on him this time. for am in nice
,dugout. and il is just A. NJ. 1 am
on duty tonight.
There goes one OF our batteries af-
ter him. There is one great consola-
ton about this business. and that is
when Jerry gets fresh we give him
back his iron rations with an interest
that even loan shark would ad-
init is usurious. Al times we have
our shells whis,ling over SO thick that
guish the separate shells; IL is all one
rushing sound as they go by. Believe
me. after listening TO our barrages, !
would not he q Jerry for anything. And
the blooming artillery is certainly
hard working branch OF the service.
There is one feature OF this war: II
gets one In the habit of staying up all
that respect. but guess VIII be Will
ing to sleep nights hereafter. don't
have to mention that l do not expect
you to read this letter 10 mother; 1t
| assure your for your amusement. but
mother might not look on 1t in the
same light"