The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-03
SIDELIGHTS FR0M LONDON
 0N THE WORLD'S WAR

theatre managers, inpresarioss the theatregofng public. actors, music hall singers and the thousand and one members of that more or less peripa- tetie crowd that makes up the body theatric<eI are wondering which will finish first, which will win the race for extinction, the war or the drama
 Lowered lights. restriction of h- censing privileges, closing of all bars restaurants and public houses at 10 P M stTingency of the money mar ket which de1etes Stock Exchange members, who are great patrons of the drama; the plungfng into mourn ing of so many of our best faTni1i es, tions prevent the usual theatre low ing public of London from indulgng ; In their usual panaeea for worry.
 The result is that the great conn munity which ranges itself under the banner Of Thespis is in a parlous state& Many attempts have been made to grapple with the situation, attempts have been made to srevolutionize the theatre by playing six matinees week and only two nights; some thea tres have tried the experiment of commencing the entertainment at PM. instead of the usual or 8:SO P M. but a, conservative public has not responded to the innovation, and the managers as a body are in despair and are falling back on the revival of
 
 the current
 Tn the provinces, with the aid of the communal system things are 3. trihe better, but even the profits are woe fully small. The one bright spot Tn the entertainment world is the Xii nefna theatre. Here plenty of pie tures sfakeds or otherwise and above all cheap prices have enabled the proprietors fairly to hold. their own The fact is that the prosperity of the, T,. AT1 71 prosperityI, and when trade is de- pressed the theatre suffers in conse- quence.
 The delay in the appearance of the casually lists, has caused some com. plai1ts, bat the reason given is good one The War Office rightly takes a very strong view that the near rela- lives of those killed and wounded at the front should have the news brought to them personally in the first instance, and not be exposed to the shock Of reading the names sudden Iy on opening the newspaper.
 The method Of breaking the news varies, but with the Guards regiments this sad off7ce is often undertaken by a well known ex-of1lcer. who has now had many times to take the news of the death of a close friend to his. own to widows and mothers. Tn many cases the regimental officers at the front themselves have sent the news home to the relatives of their men killed in action. Here is an instance of letter written by g lieutenant to the widow Of a private (Grs. Lucas. IS WyeIffe, road. Battersea9, which may be given, in full as 9 model of such letters:
 sDear Madam: deeply re-
 gret to inform you that your hus-
 band was killed in action on the night of the 18th Inst He was hit ss in the leg while. in the trenches
 by a piece of shell, and was leav-
 ing the trench to make his way to
 the stretoher party when another
 shell burst close by. from the eff
 fects Of which he died almost i'm
 mediafely. We buried @him the
 same night fin a secluded position
 in the rear of our trenches. His
 grave is edged round with stones
 and a cross has been. placed at
 the head.
 You will understand that we
 cannot give you the exact posi- ton of it now, but it will be told
 to you later, when military condi- s.tions allow it.
 with deepest sympathy from
 the officers and men of his com
 pany, I beg to remain.
 The recipient of this letter was a poor charwoman. and the difference it made to her in getting such a h1- man message, with the details of her husbands burial in the place of a short War Office announcement was very great It must have been writ tens too, under terrible conditions in the trenches by the brave and hu- mane officer who sent it.
 In the Crimea, to the Russian Gen erals inquiry with reference to the ki1ted Scottish regiments, Does any mortal ken whsther they're wild beasts or men ?'s Colin Campbell re- piled that the ki1ted lads were just tour horsemen's wives in Sunday c1oes." In the present war the ktl- ties are known as .ssThe ladies from hell-''
 The German cat is playing its part in the campaign. Although it has not yet been brought into the fighting line, as the Kaiser prophesded would eventually occur, it is employed to keep rats and mice from entering the military stores and provision quar- ters- Each of the animals wears a little collar with the letters K. M K. (Kaiserliche Militar Katze) engraved thereon. Each cat is provided with an allowance Of two marks a month each cat fills an allotted place and each cat has to present itself regular ly at the quarterly inspection
 They are known as Fort Katzen'' {garrison cats).
 A Belgian officer, now in London tells the following story of his exper- fence among German wounded:
 noticed that every second or third German soldier in one of the hospitals where was confined be fore T got away via Holland suffered from deep wounds in the back gof the head, and I made inquiries as to tfei1 natures since they could not have been made by either bullets or splin. ters or swerds
 made by steel tipped gloves worn bs German army officers The tips are about half an inch long and as sharI as needles When a man turns to re. treat or seeks to hide from bullets