s
trying to read a service for soldiers wounded in battle."

The letter ends with a reference to the failing light and the roar of
the guns. It was found at the dead officer's side by a Red Cross file,
and was forwarded to his fiancee.--_From "The Daily Citizen," December
21, 1914._

* * * * *

CHRISTMAS, 1914.

_Letters from the Front (from the Daily Press)._

"Last night (Christmas Eve) was the weirdest stunt I have ever seen. All
day the Germans had been sniping industriously, with some success, but
after sunset they started singing, and we replied with carols. Then they
shouted, 'Happy Christmas!' to us, and some of us replied in German. It
was a topping moonlight night, and we carried on long conversations, and
kept singing to each other and cheering. Later they asked us to send one
man out to the middle, between the trenches, with a cake, and they would
give us a bottle of wine.

"Hunt went out, and five of them came out and gave him the wine,
cigarettes, and cigars. After that you could hear them for a long time
calling from half-way, 'Engleeshman, kom hier.' So one or two more of
our chaps went out and exchanged cigarettes, etc., and they all seemed
decent fellows."

* * * * *

"We had quite a sing-song last night (Christmas Eve)," says one writer.
"The Germans gave a song, and then our chaps gave them one in return. A
German that could speak English, and some others, came right up to our
trenches, and we gave them cigarettes and papers to read, as they never
get any news, and then we let them walk back to their own trenches. Then
our chaps went over to their trenches, and they let them come back all
right. About five o'clock on Christmas Eve one of them shouted across
and told us that if we did not fire on them they would not open fire on
us, and so the officers agreed. About twenty of them came up all at
once and started chatting away to our chaps like old chums, and neither
side attempted to shoot."

* * * * *

"I suppose I have experienced about the most extraordinary Christmas one
could conceive. About seven o'clock on Christmas Eve the Saxons, who are
entrenched about seventy yards from our trenches, began singing. They
had a band playing, and our chaps cheered and shouted to them. After
some time they stood on the top of their trenches, and we did likewise.
We mutually agreed to cease fire, and all