The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1918-03-29
HAYNES LEADS
]. U.S.PATROL INTO
NO NAN s LAND
Local Man Approaches To
Within $50 Yards OF
Hun Wire
VIVID DESCRIPTION OF
WORK IN FRONT LINE
Takes Mt. Vernon Stogies
Into Action; Trenches
Disappointment

llcul. tldTrH IL. il1l lnCS, SOD u MT
and Mrs. Frank Haynes of West Vino
street, has boen Within 100 yards OF
the German wire cutaDglcmeuts and
has carried o Mt. Vernon product
Cuban Beauty" s,ogios, with him
according TO o letter received from
Lieut.. Haynes by Carl Taughor
to whom the former refers in tho FOL
lowing lines as "Pinkey":
Dear Pinkcy
want TO thauk YOU from tho bot
tom Of my heart for tho box OF stoglcs
you sent. They came TO me in the
trenches whcu | was wonderful. what
I would do when my package Of Cam
els and can Of Prince Albert ran out
AT that time had six days TO 60. ]
had a plug Of Star as an emergency
ration but some low down thief made
OF with It. Probably one Of the
friendly rats. They're slmCst tame
enough to cat out OF your hand.
Fink, II q stosic Was ever spprocI
atcd II surely was UP there. AS Vol
vet Joe says: "lt Is Just tho thing tu
put mans nerves back iu ebupo af-
ter o heavy boubardmcnt or gas at.
tack!" l'oN'g that? You can tell
your Uncle Tom that Cuban Beauties
went into tho trenches With tho first
American troops. The 18th was ono
OF the first regiments hero and WAS
the first In line. feel quite proud
that belong to il, even If IL was No
vcmhcr when joined 1t borc.
cant tell where am CT give any
information, but in one Of the papers
| saw map OF our sector, a doscrlp-
tion Of the place and what we are do
ing. told mother TO watch the pa
pors and she would know all about
me. In fact, the papers love TO elab-
crate, so they make you do all sorts
OF things.
| am sorry to say that was some
what disappointed with the front inc.
No nice clean trenches, free from
mud, and no fcatbcr-beds aud not 3
lot of sleep. IT is poor time Of the
yoar for g. person TO fall in love with
trenches. for they are all dug in this
coufoundod French mud and the
uuckbuard3 like TO sink in SO you
can slip off them and get into mud 10
your neck.
Stray shells and rife bullets are
familiar objects, 80 in about one day
YOU get used to them. However, that
first day ycu keep busy ducking. It's
just habit because ii is absolutely
useless. Mind now, I'm not claiming
to be Il veteran and I'm still known
to duck when u friendly 70 millimetor
shells goes sbiWming over the top Of
tho trench and lands sUmc yards
away. also had the extreme pleas
siBtins Of myself and corporal, and
examining our barboJ wire and the
next night takiUg out a detail to re-
pair H. It's lovely for YOU can make
so much noise and the Huns have to
waste so many fares and machine
gun bullets trying to lCcate YOU jt
WAS. rather ticklish. for cur wire was
only l50 yards from theirs.
Tho only thing missed was going
to inspect Il Bocile ware and | could
not do that because coushcd too
much. There isn't much doing III
the daytime SO We try to catch few
hours sleep then. Alrplancs are plen-
tlful, especially Cn sunshiny days.
Several Boche planes have shot al us
with machine guns, \Dut *hey can't
shoot straight A man Is harder TO
hit than person thinks.
Well Pink old man, ! hope we FIN
ish this blamed war before YOU ent er.
not that | don't want YOU to enjoy
great round OF pleasure. IT'S nice TO
read Of the boys and see their smll-
ing faces in Sunday papers, but be
lleve me, that smile isn't pasted
there. II comes off many times. AS
I heard Que man say today: you've
surely got to hand 1t TO the Indian for
picking Il decent country TO live H."
The cause Of the remark was that IL
rained all day and we enjoyed it
thoroughly. If rain meant rest, we'd
be resting all the time.
Now Pink, want you TO write TO
me once in while and send me all
the news and scandal. Thanks again
for the stogies,
"CAppY."