nd savagery. With Rheims Cathedral, and
hundreds of lesser churches and chateaux, these ruins will be
perpetual monuments to the wanton ruthlessness of German kultur.

When we first went there the towers of both these structures were
still standing and formed landmarks that could be seen for miles.
Gradually, under the continued bombardment, they melted away until,
when I last passed through the martyred city, nothing but small bits
of shattered wall could be seen, rising but a few feet above the
surrounding piles of broken stones.

Glorious Ypres! Probably never again will you become the city of more
than two hundred thousand, whose "Red-coated Burghers" won the day at
Courtrai, against the trained army of the Count d'Artois; possibly
never again achieve the commercial prominence enjoyed but four short
years since; but your name will be forever remembered in the hearts of
men from all the far ends of the earth where liberty and justice
prevail.
H. W. McB.

NEW NAMES FOR OLD LETTERS

When reading messages sent by any "visual" method of signaling, such
as flags, heliograph or lamp, it is necessary for the receiver to keep
his eyes steadily fixed upon the sender, probably using binoculars or
telescope, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, for him to
write down each letter as it comes, and as this is absolutely required
in military work, where nearly everything is in code or cipher, the
services of a second man are needed to write down the letters as the
first calls them off.

As many letters of the alphabet have sounds more or less similar, such
as "S" and "F," "M" and "N" and "D" and "T," many mistakes have
occurred. Therefore, the ingenuity of the signaler was called upon to
invent names for certain of the letters most commonly confused. Below
is a list of the ones which are now officially recognized:

A pronounced ack
B " beer
D " don
M " emma
P " pip
S " esses
T " tock
V " vick
Z " zed

The last is, of course, the usual pronunciation of this letter in
England and Canada, but, as it may be unfamiliar to some readers, I
have included it.

After a short time all soldiers get the habit of using these
designations in ordinary conversation. For instance, one will say: "I
am going over to 'esses-pip seven,'" meaning "Supporting Point No. 7,"
or, i