Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1918-09-18

R SAN
body. Shell and air bomb fire is
not as dangerous as you would think,
for if one fops on his belly and hugs
the ground the pieces go over. For
instance, a high explosive shell in
variably burrows from one to six feet
into the ground and then explodes,
blowing a crater from one to five
yards in diameter and the pieces fly
in a wide arc so a person prone on
the ground makes a small mark.
Shrapnel is bad stuff as it bursts in
the air and rains soft lead bullets ov-
er quite an area of ground. The on
ly protection from that is trees or
dugouts. Believe me! this is a land
of j~ack-rabbits. We all burrow or
use what Fritz left behind.
German gas has gotten to be more
of a nuisance than a menace as our
chaps are we'll masked and trained
in fact, in view of what / have seer
1 don't think there is anything that
our Dough boys fear unless it may be
that Fritz will get the soup wagon
and there'll be no chow. We have
nothing but praise for the Dough boy
who goes over the top and fights
hand to hand and they in turn praise
the artillery-"After you guys blow
h out of things, all we have to do
is go over and camp on it," And sc
they go, each branch swearing by all
that's holy that the other guy did the
real work. Don't suppose they will
ever get the question settled. The ar
tillery works all night and the Dough
boys work all day. The Cavalry is
into every nook and corner looking
for machine guns and the anti air
craft men never sleep-as someone
has said, TITS a hell of a war but
it's the only one we've got"
We found a German newspaper Of
July list date. Here is their dope on
the Great German Drive Many OF
u chaps read and speak German
~fiuently so this is no jolly-but the
Official German Communique":
1--WE have taken 191, 900 unwounded
prisoners besides thousands of wound
ed-4,000 officers, 4 generals-3,O OC
to 1000 machine guns and immense
supplies"
Now can you imagine intelligent
people swallowing such dope? But
somehow or other kaiser Bill seems
to get by with it. On the other hand
a personal letter from a wife to a
husband stated:
Il am so sorry to hear you suffer
so from hunger. Did you get the food
| sent you some time ago? l would
send more and often if it were to be
had 1t has been hard for us at home
also; but just before Easter we kill
ed a pig so will have plenty for a
while"
| found another French edition OF
a German paper of July 9Th and will
send it separately.
Earl!-I had a good laugh when
hauled out Augustus hair ribbon. ]
will send it to her There was a Bit
of grim humor to it all. Here l was
sitting out on a side hill in a potato
patch, my feet hanging over into a
shell crater, a quarter of a mile be-
low me the wreck and ruin of a pros
porous city, my own pack stripped to
the barest necessities and then to
haul out a yard of baby blue ribbon
when there wasn't a girl for a mile
around. That struck me as being
funny, but Augusta will surely be
proud of that ribbon.
Must tell you of our farewell to
A-. Grill and l asked one of
our girl friends there to write us. No,
she wouldn't but gave us her mothers
address and then she would reply in
her mothers name. Some customi
AT any rate we were associating with
nice people. I skipped over to
Schruoffenger, my particular friends,
to say good bye. Marie offered me
first one cheek and then the other to
kiss. l wanted to give her an Amer
lean smack just between the two but
was afraid | might overstep their
conventions. Ha! Hal She did not
kiss me. Some time when l get hcme
want to send her some little re-
membrance as they certainly were
nice to me.
Just had supper and the mail is
leaving so will say good bye now or
this may be delayed several days
longer. Am we'll and fine.
Aug. Is, 1918.
Have accumulated some half doz-
en- letters from home from July 1-22,
also letters from California, Alabama,
KonSoe U;+v rb;oa-0 o.-- -