LETTERS ARE EAGERLY LOOKED FOR AT FRONT

Mr. Donald Hyslop, Formerly Well Known Here but Now With the Medical Corps in Belgium, Says Letters are a Godsend.

Miss Jean Drysdale is the proud possessor today of a brooch, made of a regimental badge with a pendant in the shape of a button which was cut from the coat of a German officer captured in the course of a bombing raid in February. The donor thereof is Mr. Donald Hyslop, who before he went over to do his bit, was very well known here and especially in musical circles.

Mr. Hyslop writes as follows:

Somewhere in Belgium, April 9.

My dear Jean.

Your very welcome letter reached me a day or two ago, so I hasten to reply, hoping that it will bring an answer, for I get so few letters that the ones I do get, I keep a corner in my heart for the writers of them.

Letters are a God send in this country, regular bolts from the blue When the mail is distributed everyone is expectant, and if a chap does not receive a letter he is so disappointed. The letters help one keep in touch with the outside world for our world here is war, and letters make us realize that there is something else than war. Here we see hardly a soul except in khaki, no rigs except army transports, no cars but army cars, no buildings except they are occupied by troops, so that it is only natural that we who are hemmed in on all sides by the army life are delighted to receive letters which make our thoughts travel to the place where the letters are written. So when I receive your letters I see your house on the Townsite with daddy and mummy on the verandah, and yourself with several other girls playing on the lawn, and I think of the happy times I have spent with you all, singing to the piano and playing over the rolls of music, etc.

You ask me for a souvenir of myself, well I am sending you a badge and a button. The badge is from my tunic, and the button, well, it has quite a history. No doubt you read in the Vancouver Province during the month of February that our battalion (Tobin's Tigers) made a bombing raid on the German trenches, and captured three prisoners. Well, one prisoner (an officer) did not want to come over his parapet so one of our men proded him in a very sensitive part with a bayonet to make him hustle, the consequence was, he (the officer) as brought to me to get the wound dressed. While the officer was in the dressing station I cut this button from his great coat as a momento So you will have something to say when you show anyone the button.

You can give mummy which you like, please write very soon, give my kindest regards to your mummy and daddy and tell them I should like to hear from them.

Thanks so much for writing.