Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-04-10
LIEUT.. PETIT SAYS
GERMAN WILL GE 7
.H|S-AND He DID
OTTAWA OFFiCERsWIrH BRITISH
FORCES PREDICTS GREAT
DRIVE IN LATEST LETTER
WRITTEN FROM BATTLE FRONT
ON MARCH 12.

A forecast which later was proven
true was made March ~ by Lieut..
Roswell r. Petit, Ottawa doctor who
Is now on duty with the British forces
in France In his last letter home
written in France before the Ger.
mans opened their last costly drive
Or Petit predicted the terrific sirug
gle that has ragged during the past
three weeks and ended his proenosti-
cation with the best anu most accu.
rate forecast of all when he said il
Fritz comes over here. he will get all
he is looking fol"
Later events prove that Fritz not
only got his then but is still gcttins
II The doctor tells of the change
made in soldiers after they have beer
brought out of the trenches and thei.
clothing thorOly renovated by SAM
tary processes. His story. as is usua
IL best told in Dr. Pettit's own way
He says.
March L., 1918
Dear Father.
received your letter OF Janu-
airy 10th, yesterday. Your letters
reach me irregularly, but ! think
they all reach me finally Since
writing you last, very little of IN
terest has happened. and ! have to
! scrape around to find something
to say.
When came back from Paris
the lsl OF March. | came back to
snow, ice, and cold and had a hard
time keeping warm in our nimsy
shacks This was followed by a
couple of days of rain and mud,
but for the past four or tiye days,
we have had bright, clean. warm
sunshiny weather The grass is
| green. Spring flowers are coming
out, and have a bad case of spring
fever Yesterday afternoon ! went
! for a long walk across the country
! and If ii had not been for the old
/ abandoned trenches, and the barb
! ed wire cntanglements, ! was con-
tinually running into, together with
/ the boom, boom, of the cannon sew
! eral miles away at the front. |
might easily have forgotten that
| was in the midst Of war | ran
across bunch of soldiers playing
foot ball. and in another place a
group Of officers playing polo with
pick.aX handles and basket ball.
With decent weather life out Of
the line ie not bad al all. We are
housed in shacks much like those
Fort Sheridan and other training
camps but not 50 large nor so well
built. When The weather is cold
II is very hard 10 keep them warm,
as fuel is hard to get, but ! do not
imagine that we have near as bad
a time as the boys in the training
camps at home with the sever
weather you have been having
However, over here the climate is
damp and the cold very penetrat
inL.
A few days like the past four
or five does wonders for the men
when they are out OF the trenches
They 20 twice week to the diys
ienal baths; underclothing Is
changed each week. the blankets
and clothing have all been steamed
TO kill the lice, every man has hat
his hair cut. buttons are polished
and on parade they look very smart
II IL hard to believe that two weeks
ago these men were wallowing II
the mud In the front line and were
dirty beyond description,
We are all very much on thu
qu vive wandering when and wher
, the long promised German .oiIensiv
Is to take place. A captured Gel
man says the boche are also in
: state of expectancy that the
!. stood at the alert thirty.siX hour
: one time last weei expecting Il
!, TO come over. We are like coupl
: of boxers, sparring and feintin
trying to get the other Fellow
measure before jumping in and mil