The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1918-09-05
A LETTER PROM THE
TRENCHES
Rolls Kash Describes the Life of q
Soldier in Active Service in the
Trenches of France.

Roll& Kash Describes the Life of /;
Soldier in Active Service in the
Trenches of France.
The following clipping is from j.,
California paper and was written b,
Corporal Rolla Kash, nephew of J
NJ. kash. of the east part of the coun
ty. 1t contains one of the best de
scriptions of the daily life and doings
of the soldier with the American Eek
peditionary Forces that has so far
appeared in print.
France, July n, 'I8.
Dear Mother:
Will write you few lines today as
this is kind OF all anniversary for me.
Six months ago today sailed from
the harbor OF New York. can you
imagine it. six monthse And it
doesn't seem bit more than six
years. never realized in all my life
before how much could happen in
six months here. have heen time
and tim, again in the trenches, came
out o. X each time. and am writing
this while one of the heaviest artil
lcry battles | have ever heard in all
the time have been in the war zone
is going on. one can hardly hear an
other speak even when he is alonG
side of you, we practically have 90
shout. and my head is aching and
ringing from the conclusion OF the
big guns. when you can imagine bat;
tcries OF from four to six big guns
placed so thick that they are prac-
tically hub to hub and extending for
miles and miles on each side ct yoi
all firing at once and from four to
six shots minute. ranging in calihrc
from the little French ~ - the big
boys Oslo and II inch. then YOU can
begin to realize the magnitude OF
big artillery duel, and beside this
don't forget the Germans have thou
sands and thousands OF guns drop
ping shells around us like hail and
exploding with deafening noise. a
big artillery fight like this usually
takes place at night and the front
line trenches are as bright as day
from bursting shells, ammunition
dumps exploded from big aeroplane
raids, bombs. star shells shot away
up in the air and upon bursting make
"A light like huge electric light:
These lights are fastened to kind
OF sikcn parachute. which, holds 1t
up in the air when it floats along un-
til it burns out, you can read news
paper for hundreds of yards around
on the darkest nights we have. by
one of the lights. They are used on
No Mans land to locate patrol or
raiding party, believe me mother
dear, when one sees these things 60
ing up in the air he had better flop.
and flop quick, or if you haven't time
to drop remain standing absolutely
Still for if you make the slightest
move after it bursts the result will
be sad, sad indeed. the only thing
said of you is this he did his duty,
Tor about hundred machine guns
will open UP each one playing rat
tat tat. to the tune OF about 500 shots /
each a minute, fat chance man has
then. could tell other things about
this if it were possible, but can't as
can only tell you OF things i'll gen
eral wa anyway you can realize
this is mans size job. and yours
truly is holding his end up. not only
holding it up but doing it Ii could
only tell you what front we are ON
you'd realize that, but Of course that
is impossible
| forgot to mention that about one
half these shells are gas shells, while
the rest are shrapnel, and high eN-
nlosives SO it keeps you Jumping for
a deep dug out is not good for gas.
as that is the first place it will go.
right down in to the very bottom.
gas is heavier than air. So it always |
seeks the low places, and this gas is
hellish thing. 1t is put in the shells
in liquid form under high COM
preston and upon exploding. if it is
a warm day, turns to vapor at once but
on damp, rainy day the liquid will
lay on the ground until it gets warm |
enough to evaporate into gas. l have |
seen boys gassed two and three days |
after the shell had exploded. so you
see a fellow has to be OH the alert |
day and night A man can never |
take his mind off the job and then |
again if you should happen to touch |
the liquid on the ground before it
evaporates you are in bad again.
wherever it touches the flesh will
come off clear to the bone and l
know of several instances where
some of the boys happened to sit
down in some of it or even lay on it,
the result was awful, you can easily |
see that the ones who started the
use of this damnable stuff were
worse than savages, and no mercy |
should be shown them, in fact, many |
regiments of the English and Canad-
ian forces absolutely refuse to take a
prisoner, the reason one of the regi-
ments in particular, are SO severe is
that about two years ago some OF
their men and officers were captured
in a raid and upon looking across at
the German trenches the next morn
ing were greeted with the sight of
their comrades hanging dead above
the trenches, crucified to crosses, and
from that day to this they will not be
bothered with live prisoners, dead
ones are more easily handled. I am
glad to say nothing like this has hap
pened to any of our troops and Ger
man prisoners are treated much bet
ter than they are over in their own