Connecticut western news., 1919-01-30
WILLIAM BLASS NOW LOCATED IN GERMANY Tells of Taking Germans Cah~ bage With Mask
 and Gun

Mrs. Frances Blass of TorringTe~
 received the following interestinK
 letter from her son, William Blas%
 who is with the American 'armY &
 occupation:
 December 24, 1918
 Dear Mother and Sis
 The night before Christmas on tAp
 banks of the Rhine. Some systcxSk Everything is running along smookh- Y ly, and one would never think we were scrapping with these guyn n little over a month ago. They arT erecting big Christmas tree in otss of the vacant lots near town and tho whole regiment is going to have n blowout. Of course it won't be any thing like home, but we will get ss much enjoyment out of it as We eaA else we wouldn't be good soldiers. & seems rather strange to spcn& Christmas in foreign country. The climate is so much different. FhA grass is still green and a man caA go around with just his shirt on ex- 'cepting when the wind is blowipw down the river. And it isn't se much Of a brook either, sort O& muddy and about as wide as the oM Housatonic near home. There ls n lot of traffic up and down it, anm occasionally you see side-whecluw go by with the Stars and Stripss floating from the flag staff, and ths& looks pretty good.
 We are located in little town called Brohl, which is about north- west of Coblenz, I should judga Coblenz is quite little burg, bat tvs didn't finger there any. We spent N couple of days in Trier and three aw four in Boppard, also on the RhfrsA You see we have hike5 all this dis- tanee, and if you will look it up UR the map you will see it's quite . ways. We were on the Toul Sectar when the war kas going on.
 1 have got to tell you about tt@ time l went after the cabbages. Ono day our major found out where there was a patch of cabbages which FriA< had to leave when the St. Mihl2 drive occurred, so he sent out ordew for a. man from the train to go up for load. got the job. WeA 1 guess nobody knew just how far ' was, so as we thought we couN make it in one day we didn't bottsr to take our blankets. We'll, we hs& four cripples, so we couldn't nraks much time, so we put up at A cona- pany for the night. Next mornInfS bright and early, we started. WeI we made it about noon and got on . load of the incest cabbages you evd< saw, but the patch was almost on tua front lines and they were shellTnE around there pretty fierce. Believe me, that's the first time l ever wcr& after any garden truck with T Is@ mask and a rife, and ! hope it's ths last. don't know what kind uG shells they were sending over, pSEK they made hell of noise And q hole about 12 feet in diameter and made a fellow think he was directly in the path of each and every onA You don't get scared, but yon w0R- der which one is going to get yon You would have to hear one to aw- preciate it. .@.
 Another great thing IS to see aM air battle. A man couldn't descrIhs ! 1t, but it sure is exciting.
 And now we are on the Rhine ana it's Christmas. Tonight the whoB regiment gets together around tho tree and sing and have some speeches and each man is to receive some surt of a present, I understand NeA year I hope the whole Blass fanItF is together once more We'll, mJ-A close now, but will write ofteneE Much obliged for those papers, si1 ,nly the next ones you send just tudk n a few Hershey bars, It will g$ ,y all right and I bet they wouu ! aste fine. Give my love to ths brothers. Love to all Billy