LETTER FROM CAPTAIN HODGE

Mr. Noreph Hodge received the following interesting letter last week from his brother, Capt. H.E. Hodge:

Dear Brother:
Just a few lines as I am lying here in the trenches listening to the coal boxes and all kinds of shells going over my head, and believe me there are certainly a lot of them. We always seem to get a bad piece of line. I tell you this is a battlefield all right. It is funny we don't get reinforcements. We were short about ***** men after the last draught came and keep losing a few all the time. If Canada thinks she can keep the first and second contingents up to strength, I am afraid she is mistaken. If she is not, they will want to give the Second a good piece of the line for this bunch is away short since the big scrap up the line. We got a few thousand, but that is not enough and now we all into it again. I would not be surprised if it would take the Second for reinforcements. Well Noreph, you talk about excitement, this is where you get it, but it is certainly a good game and sure beats deer hunting and fishing. A good bayonet charge is the most exciting and the Germans don't like the cold steel. The Huns are using dum-dum bullets and also cut the point off pointed ones, nothing is too dirty for them. The gas (Chlorine) is the worst of all and the sooner our troops use it the better. If I get out of the trenches this time I have a Prussian Helmet badge to send you, also the spike. There are lots of things here but it is hard to get them out of the country. I would send you a German rifle if I could get it out, as there are lots of them here. Give my love to all.
HARRY.