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Show foecember 25, 1862, Was a Day of Truce Along the Rappahannock ea uare-,- " Elions' le L That Christmas Day, 75 Years Ago, p "Yank" and d "Johnny Reb," Recent Horror the of Fredericksburg, Declared an Unofficial Armistice, and Forgetting Met Between the Lines for a Friendly Exchange of Food and Other Gifts. at" wjiV ' nf0ri!Ss Jl, Blue-Cla- e Western d Gray-Garbe- Newspaper Union. But what of other wars in which the opposing sides spoke a different language and had a long tradition of strong nationalistic feeling to breed the kind of hatred so necessary for waging a For the answer to that question we need go back no farther than the Great war which was raging only 20 years ago. One of the strangest episodes in that conflict was the unofficial armistice which was observed in No Mans Land between English and German soldiers at Christmas time during the first year of the On Christmas eve, 1914, a sergeant in an English territorial battalion reported to his commanding officer, Maj. Henry L. Cabuche, that there were unusual movements in the German lines, less than 200 yards away. Fearing that an attack was impending, the major went out to have a look and saw a strange sight. Across the muddy, , expanse of No Mans Land little triangles of light were twinkling all along the German front and increasing in number every minute. Ordering his men to stand to arms but not to open fire until he gave the word, the major waited. Suddenly out of the darkness came a voice with a German accent: English soldier! English soldier! We no shoot, if you no shoot! When the major demanded an explanation, the reply was that this German soldier was acting as an ambassador of peace for his comrades. They wanted to cease hostilities during Christmas eye and Christmas day and proposed that the English soldiers join them in celebrating the holiday by singing Christmas carols. He also explained the object of the twinkling lights they to represent were intended Christmas trees. Still suspecting a trick, the English major told the German soldier to return to his trenches and begin singing. There were a few moments of tense silence then . 1 . from across No Mans Land came floating the voices of Stille the German soldiers. Nacht, Heilige Nacht (Silent Night, Holy Night), they sang. When they had finished, from the English trenches came the strains of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing. And that night in that particular sector the guns were stilled, no flares were lighted and a strange peace brooded over the intervening desolation between the German and English lines. It was broken only by the strains of such songs as While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night, O, Little Town of Bethand Lead Kindly lehem, Light. The next morning a fog drifted in and enveloped No Mans Land. Again the sergeant came to his major and reported a strange sight out there. Soldiers of his battalion had gone over the top, but not with guns in their hands and hatred in their hearts. Instead, they were out there in the fog - wrapped territory between the lines fraternizing with the enemy. Putting aside his firearms the major made his way toward the voices. laughing chattering, There he found British and German soldiers in friendly groups, talking together and exchanging gifts. In recalling the incident he says: One German gave me a cigarette box, in which I noticed with deep interest details of his address and the unit opposing my battalion. It was numerically identical with my own unit! The number of the battalion, the brigade, the division, and the army corps of the two opposing units I had corresponded exactly come into the trenches on Christmas eve loaded with gifts of food. Discovering that the German officer had no such goodies I sent a messenger to ask if he would care to share my parcels with me. So it was my pleasure to unpack puddings, cakes and fruits from home and share them with my unseen enemy. This unofficial Christmas armistice, inaugurated by these two opposing units, spread to others in this sector. It continued for a week. Through the offices of the chaplain cf an English guards regiment, the truce was extended to include New Years day. During this time the guards and the Germans opposite them joined in burying the dead between their lines. And then they climaxed the whole strange affair by playing a football game in No Mans Land on New Year's day! I had good cause to do some deep thinking when I saw a onetime battlefield turned into a sports stadium with the onlook-in- g ranks of soldiers swollen by sightseers from behind the lines, says Major Cabuche. for-It was an event never to be gotten." And to that statement he added this challenging question: Do the masses ever want war? On earth, peace; good will to men. Why must that be rewritten to read: On earth, war; hatred to shell-pitte- d and of Jtograph stions, tamps By of SCOTT WATSON ELMO or cc EARTH, peace; good will toward men. 'e.. New What an ironical sound that uase must have to the man the LUs frb, on December 25, finds ie fcfiwJWself wearing the uniform e people soldier and ljl the common Let w, ingaged in war! fill of the ' Honor on Perhaps, somewhere arth" there is peace. But, e tells himself bitterly, it snt here where he and his JjjWades in arms are demonstrating their good will ojrard men by trying to last the spark of life from hose men across the lines, ho happen to be wearing a he to erent uniform and holding nth and iur energy t ilegiance to a different flag. 3r this pav ie Needlecr Yo si lose of course, that he hate those fellows over an(j that he is doing noth-- 1 He realizes, : to lose f too promm ight to mernakev Jj,e-- e al and v at it But iy and see ' get a butts Take f Pax-i- n, in the Army speak for all i Them! Yank, tad 'to tores. tai all have a cough over here, there s no Bayin' which wUl run us the hole first, the cough or your ets. Tie snow stlU fell, keen winds, raw fierce, cut to the bone. It was God's J-s- t in Gods forlornest, of ground, that Christmas the Rappahannock, a half-'- e below the town of Fredericksburg, come, pick up your prostrate pluck, shivering private. Surely there is weather, weakest spot lv of '62 on 'jgh dampness around without add-to it with your tears. bets laugh, boys. Hollo, Johnny." Hello, yourself, Yank." erry Christmas, Johnny." Same to you, Yank." , aY. Johnny, got anything to trade?" Parched corn and tobacco the size ur Christmas, Yank." All right; you shall have some of and sugar and pork. Bos, 3i eofTee the " P , , ilfuIU er Such boats boats I Some Yankee, desperately hr tobacco, invented them for the Johnnies. They were 'aY under the banks of the river successive relays of pickets. got out the boats. An old d ,k , for a sail. Wa loaded Hb coffee, sugar, set the pork, . and watched them slowly creep to other shore. 'i1 Johnnies? Jo see them crowd ? n Bnd Push and scramble to be id to seize the boats, going Into the ef. and stretching out their long Then when they pulled the boats nd stood in a group over the hear their exclamations, l, Jit1 f'Y Jmg with t handker-n,were- I M rvfhK0r hKl' iuns-An- bl -- LD I lollop lit Say, that's not roast-,- " genuine coffee." SmcU It, sugar, tool" 'py divided the consignment, i Bshed and Shouted. k "Reckon Rood ,0 this Christ-i- t ,?n Yan1'Then they put parched n (T rlr,e Persimmons, Into the Sal, .bafc t. !v,nd 80nt them back to us. And ,the Psrched com. smoked Vrglnla leaf, ate persimmons, they. weren't very lilting, at contracied our stomachs to the 6 our Christmas dinner. bu.t ho between the lines, swapping coffee, of which the Union soldiers had an abundance, for tobacco, with which the Confederates were well supplied; exchanging newspapers, bartering "hard tack" for corn cake, conversing pleasantly, or bantering each other with references to their local peculiarities. Sometimes two opponents would sit down for a friendly game of cards. A fine sense of honor prevailed In the general recognition of the sacredness of these informal and tacit truces. Men would not fire at each other, at the close of one of these seasons, until both parties had had time to settle down to business again. If, on any occasion, an officer seemed to lack consideration d 'So oot ' approval-ver- inth A soldier, writing from his camp near Fredericksburg, narrated the following, which occurred while he was on picket duty with his company: It was Christmas day and after partaking of a Christmas dinner of salt junk and hard tack our attention was attracted by a rebel picket who hailed us from the opposite side of the river. "I say, Yank, If a fellow goes over there, will you let him come back again? Receiving an affirmative answer, he proceeded to test the truth of it by paddling himself across the river. He was decidedly the cleanest specimen of a rebel I had seen. In answer to a question, be said he belonged to the General Burnsides hosts back down the .ody slopes of Fredericksburg hh such fearful losses. It is jknstmas day, 1862. private Paxton is speaking now "through the pages of Charles Drum- leton Coffins book, sat of the Nation.) He says: have tB 1860-186- hurled this is war. And I am out here to that lean, lank, coughing cadaver-- 4 e of sn over the looking butternut fellow t of Imnf' r. So this is WAR; this Is being a roducing icier are you . what . . Hello, Johnny, jt remove 3 to?" h is to wdw Tie river was narrow but deep and to function i lit. It was a wet cold, not a freez-- f tS retertoo cold. There was no Ice, too swilt bodyide & that. CKSOfdlU Hello, Johnny, what you coughing so lime, pti" ;r" nervous, i id, Yank, with no overcoat, shoes full of ,(dcs, nothing to eat but parched corn iruinf puST , of ludus s ltJ'keetobacco, and with this derned snow a foot deep, there Is noth-- a left. NOTHIN' but to get up a oper lw'" gh by way of protestin elpthdsa' against this oJernal us body of the body. We- bad do kidneys to ik is to kp .rrK Nor were Private Paxton and his comrades the only soldiers A man on one side or the other would up prominently a white handkeralong the Rappahannock who hold or a sheet of white paper, as a thus kept Christmas in 1862. chief, a desire for a tacit or Informal of sign In Frank Moores collection of truce. If it were responded to by a simisign on the opposite side and was Anecdotes, Poetry and Incidents lar not at once forbidden by the officer In of the War; North and South, command It was accepted by all as bind5 , (published in 1866) you ing. Often at such times the men would will find a story headed A Singu- Jump over their rifle pits, or embanklar Incident, which reads: ments, and meet each other peacefully E. Lees Confederate army sch, only two weeks earlier, d i; 00 As the war dragged on its weary length, such armistices, inspired first by the spirit of Christmas in the winter of 1862, became increasingly common. This was especially true during the siege of Petersburg in the winter of 1864, as witness the following from H. Clay Trumbulls War Memories of an Army Chaplain": com-snder- j 0 Night came on and those not on duty lay down on the frozen ground to dream of other Christmas nights when we knew not of war. The th Ml a quick trip across the Rappahannock. men. Army of the Potomac, by its many defeats ad the s, incompetency of its is resting upon the Fal-jt- h hills in Maryland. Across a Rappahannock is Gen. Rob-- rt otk moci? t entle exerc led the ttrtf yourseif a? pie isant wa' also ie ou n have prest 12 alth's $ M chen Sa i the word rings do not y satisfy yo Private John R. let a boy in blue the Potomac, tch you ft e. ... !ar . . , tion andu last du-- e A in trying to kill them. And t A. somehow on Christmas urge for rk a p'eac. U than his soldierly more g to get And so the day passed. We shouted, Merry Christmas, Johnny." They shouted, "Same to you, Yank." And we forgot the biting wind, chilling cold; we forgot those men over there were our enemies, whom It might be our duty to Shoot before evening. We had bridged the river, spanned the bloody chasm. We were brothers, not foes, waving salutations of good will In the name of the Babe of Bethlehem, on Christmas day In '62. At the very front of the opposing armies the Christ Child struck a truce for us broke down the wall of partition, became our peace. We exchanged gifts. We shouted greetings back and forth. We kept Christmas, and our hearts were lighter for it, our shivering bodies not so cold. - 11 WINTER SPORT IN A CONFEDERATE CAMP Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," Courtesy, the Century Company.) for those who were on such friendly our of One boys reGeorgia Legion. marked, I met quite a number of your terms, his men were quite likely to feel that their friends, the enemy" ought boys at South Mountain." to be notified of the fact. Yes, I suppose so, If you were there, "Yanks, keep your heads under today. said the rebel, his voice growing very got an officer of the day on who sad, We left many of our bovs there. Weve wants us to be firing all the time, so My brother, poor Will, was killed there. It was a hot place for a while and wei look out. One evening at the Petersburg front, bad to leave It In a hurry. That's so, Georgia, your fellows several Confederate soldiers dragged a of our brigade Into their lines, at adman the fought well there and had all of one of these seasons of vantage, but the old Keystone boys were the close I nave truce; and they took him as a prisoner pressing you hard. By the way, Into the of his presence of their commander, a likeness here (taking it out Gen. Roger A. Pryor of Virginia. The pocket), that I picked up on the battlefield next morning and I have carried it Union aoldler protested and told his ever since. He handed it to the rebel, story. General Pryor turned to his men and who, on looking at it, pressed it to his asked If this was the truth. When they lips exclaiming, My mother! my moth admitted it was. he said quietly to out er I" Go back, then, to your own He exhibited considerable emotion at man; and he added to the captors: the recovery of the picture, but on the lines, that said of his Let him composure, go back. I don't want anyrecovery his brother had It In his possession, and thing of this sort in my command." must have lost It In the fight He then On one occasion, before Petersburg, a asked the name of the one to whom he Union regiment from Maryland, serving was indebted for the lost likeness of his with our brigade was over against a Conmother, remarking, "There may be betregiment from the same state. ter times soon and we may know each federate During one of these tacit truces, as the other better." two brigades were together of men the He had taken from his pocket a small between the lines of works, a father In pocketbook In which to write the the Maryland Union regiment met his when Alex who had taken no son, a soldier In the Maryland Confedpart In the conversation lostfairly atyelled. erate regiment. Bull it "I know that book, I The meeting was a surprise to both, Run! Thara whar I got It, Mr. Yank," but It was an amicable one. Each solsaid the rebel, and be handed it to dier had been true to his own convictions. They greeted each other affecAlex. tionately and talked together until the I am much obliged to you, Mr. Georwith It signal came for the ending of the truce, gia Legion. I would not part Confedwhen they sprang apart, each to his for the whole of the Southern own lines, and again they were over eracy." against each other In deadly conflict. I was a little curious to know something further of the book, so I asked It is not difficult to understand Alex to let me see It. He passed it to me. I opened it. and on the flyleaf was why the Union and Confederate written In a neat hand. My Christmas soldiers during the Civil war , December 25, 1600. Gift, to Alex should have celebrated ChristElla. said I. It's not often mas with an unofficial armistice. Well, Alex," one has the same gift presented to him For they were men of the same a second time." same language, the "True, Captain; and If I could but see blood, the the giver of that gift today, there s but same traditions and not infreone other gift 1 would want. quently, as in the case of the "What'S that. Alex? This rebellion plaved out and my two Maryland soldiers, bound todischarge In my pocket." gether by the tics of family reThe boys had all been busy talking lationship. So it was easy for the to our rebel friend, who, seeing a horseman approaching In the direction of his spirit of Christmas to ilfect its post, bid us a hasty good by, and made magic upon them. (From an Illustration in ... men? ! STAR DUST war? war. re I JL I 4- Movie Radio J By - y v f j Ruth 'Wyeth Spears VIRGINIA VALE is HALF of Hollywood searching for . giddy comedies, the sort that have made Carole Lombard and Irene Dunne outstanding stars. The rest of the film colony figure that the public is going to be fed up on loony antics soon, and are getting ready to delve into very serious film biographies. Garbo still wants to do a comedy, four stories but has turned down that the studio has submitted to her. Kay Francis is all set to launch into a laugh epic. Tyrone Power and Loretta Young have started work on Her Mas- terpiece, hoping that it will be as as their current Second 5 I i k j modernize the old walnut at the right the pieces under the arms were removed and most of the carving covered up. The padding at the back was removed entirely and replaced by a fiber board which was covered by a loose cotton filled cushion tufted like an old fashioned bed comfort except that the tied thread ends of the tufting were left on the wrong side. This back cushion was fastened in place with tapes that slipped over the knobs at the ends of the upper carving. If the knobs to hold the cushion had been lacking it could have been tacked in place along the top on the under side by using a strip of heavy cardboard to keep the tacks from pulling through the fabric as shown here for tacking the box pleated TO - Honeymoon. In the biograph- - Kay Francis ical division, there is the life of Clara Barton in which Irene Dunne will star, the life of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, In which Tyrone Power will be featured, and the life of George Sand, woman novelist, which will star the dainty Annabella. In the latest radio poll Charlie McCarthy, to no ones surprise, Is voted the most popular radio star, and by a wide margin, too. The great hit of the ventriloquists dummy and the growing appeal of Betty Lon, that imaginary character on the Vallee hour, has set radio sponsors to looking for novelties. And the next one to bid for your approval will be a talking parrot. Sketches are all written for the bird, but the feathery star itself has not been located. It seems that all the tryouts have been a failure. ruffle around the seat as at A. Every Homemaker should have a copy of Mrs. Spears new book, SEWING. Forty-eigpages of p directions for making slipcovers and dressing tables; restoring and upholstering chairs, couches; making curtains for every type of room and purpose. Making Lampshades, rugs, ottomans and other useful articles for the home. Readers wishing a copy should send name and address, enclosing 25 cents, to Mrs. Spears, 210 South Desplaines St., ht step-by-ste- Chicago, Illinois. Lasting Portrait A man would rather leave behind him a portrait of his spirit than a portrait of his face. R. L. Stevenson. It takes a long time to score success in radio, motion pictures, and on the stage, so It is a good idea to start at the age of eleven as Joy Hodges did. She is almost twenty-on- e now and can point with pride to the months when she sang on the radio with Ted Fio Ritos and Ozzie Nelsons orchestras. You will see her on the screen In Universals Merry Go Round of 1938 and she is playing the lead with George Cohan in the outstanding Broadway hit of the year, Id Rather Be Right, which spoofs the New Deal in amiable fashion. She supported herself all through her four years at Des Moines high school by singing at revival meetings and on the radio. When yon see Carole Lombard In and Barbara Nothing Sacred, Stanwyck In Breakfast for Two, you may assume that a course in boxing is a necessary part of every screen actress training. Barbara puts on gloves and goes after Herbert Marshall for all she is worth, pummeiing and swinging until you begin to fear that Marshall will have to play masked bandit roles the rest of his life. Carole doesnt stop for gloves or any such niceties. She routine just goes Into a with Fredric March with no holds slap-happ- y barred. radio hour, improving The every week, is going to be even better, because it has been decided to concentrate more on comedy. Ted Healy, who hasnt had chance really to distinguish himself in their pictures, has walked oil with all the honors in their radio shows. All inquiries about audience reaction bring a request for more Healy specialties. You will be getting them from now on. Soon R. K. O. will launch a radio hour with Milton Eerie as master of ceremonies probably late at night so that It wont interfere with your going to the theater to see their pictures. ODDS ASD ENDS Grand National bat ambitious plans to star Tex Hitler, Ken Maynard and Hulh Mix in one If hen you hear big tuperlfeslern a dog barking in the radio serial, Pepper Youngs Family , it isn't a sound effects man at work. It it the pet of ean Sothern, reguCharlie lar member of the east Farrell, encouraged by the greut come-baof hit former partner, Janet Ca) nor, is going to try a comeback too, uith Paramount , . . tleannr Holm had to swim alongside two alliarson t Revenge ." I uo gators in rifle marksmen stood by just in case . . . Latest actor to want Olivia de llaiilland to play opposite him in a iroailnay stage play it llrian Aherne, but she still tars Non , , . Voting u ill begin toon for best screen performance of the year and Charles Rover is lihtly to inn for his portrayal of Ah poleon in " Conquest . . . Mean-lula tet rral radio sponsors hate toted Atiiin Conner, currently subbing far Jeanette Mai Donald Sunday nil, bis, the best woman linger on the ... ... well-traine- k I u air. Western Newspaper Union. Retail price, 35)! pee quart. Quaker State Oil Riflning Corperation, Oil Salt Lakes Most Hospitable Hotel Invites YOU The Newhouse Hotel 400 ROOMS 400 BATHS City, IIOTIX NliWIIOISK Pa. |