We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important for us.

They have wives, children, occupations, and interests, they have a background which is so strong that the war cannot obliterate it. We young men of twenty, however, have only our parents, and some, perhaps, a girl–that is not much, for at our age the influence of parents is at its weakest and girls have not yet got a hold over us. Besides this there was little else–some enthusiasm, a few hobbies, and our school. Beyond this our life did not extend. And of this nothing remains. We had no definite plans for our future. Our thoughts of a career and occupation were as yet of too unpractical a character to furnish any scheme of life. We were still crammed full of vague ideas which gave to life, and to the war also an ideal and almost romantic character.