Letters From the Front

Dated: December 30, 1915

A prisoner of war at Glessen, Germany, Private Alfred F. Raper, of the First Canadian Contingent, wrote recently as follows to his parents:

I've been getting plenty of mail and parcels the last two weeks from all over. Live like a prince. Two parcels from you last night with the jelly, pickles, and horse radish. There are hundreds, and perhaps thousands of parcels arriving here every week. They get knocked around pretty much. This is the first letter I have had a chance to write for a month. I can tell by your letters that you are worrying and fretting all that time. For heaven's sake, don't do that. What good will it do? I am all right. All you have to do is be contented and wait. How nice everything will be when we all get home again. All I am looking forward to is getting home again; you must do the same.
I have not received any money that you sent. You see, it is taken out here, and they give us books of stamps, from which we get the full value figured down to less than a cent. That all takes time, but I will get every cent of it sometime soon.
You have send me everything that I could wish for, and I needed them all too, but you forgot a shaving outfit. However I can buy a razor when I get the money. I have had only four shaves in three months. Some have not shaved at all.