Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-24
MIRACLE Is WROUGHT
BY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
IN HOSTILE TRENCHES
Wars Alarms Are Stilled
at Yuletide and It's Hor-
rors Wane for a Brief
Space as Foemen Meet in
Amity.
By PHIL RAIDER


Copyright, 1915. by United Press)
| LONDON, March A-There were three
Americans in that marvellous Christmas
truce in my part OF the trenches, Eugene
Jacobs. OF Pawtucket. r. l.; Victor Chap
man, Harvard man from New York,
and myself we belonged to the Foreign
Legion which had been made UP in Paris,
of men of all natlonalItes. and we had
been in the trenches for 20 consecutive
days before Christmas dawned. For 20
days we had faced that strip of land 40
feet wide, between our trenches and that
OF the Germans that terrible No Mans
Land dotted with dead bodies, criss-
crossed by tangled masses of barb wire.
That little strip of land was as wide and
as deep and as full of death as the At
lantlc Ocean; as uncrossable as the spaces
between stars; as terrible as human hate.
And the sunshine of the bright Christmas
morning fell on 1t as brightly as II it
were lovers lane or the aisle I'm some
grand Cathedral
/ don't know how the truce began i'm
other trenches, but In our hole, Nadeem
began it--Nadeem, a Turk. who believes
that Mahomet and not Christ was the
prophet of God. The sunshine of the
morning seemed to get into Nadeem's
blood. He was only an enthusiastic boy,
always childishlv happy, and when we
noticed, at the regular morning shooting
hour. that the German trenches were
silent, Nadeem began to make joke of it.
He drew target on board. fastened
1t on pole and stuck it above the
trench, shouting to the Germans: See
how well YOU can shoot"
Within a minute the target had been
buls-eyed. Nadeem pulled 1t down,
pasted little bits of white paper where
shots mad struck and held it up again
so that the Germans could see their
score. In doing so Nadeem's head APP
reared above the trench and we heard
him talking across the No Mans Land
THE MIRACLE OF NOEL.
Thoughtless, ! raised my head. too.
Otner men did the same. We saw hun
ireds of German heads appearing. Shouts
illed the air. What miracle had hap
'ened? Men laughed and cheered. There
vas Christmas light in our eyes and 1
tnow there were Christmas tears in mine.
There were smiles, smiles, smiles where
II days before there mad been only rife |
'arrels. The terror OF No Mans Land |
ell away. The sounds of happy voices |
Illed the air. We were all unhumany |
appV for that one glorious instant in |
which we all-English, Portuguese, Amer
cans and even Nadcem, the Turk, and .
hat. savages as we had been, cave men |
s we were, the awfulness of war had |
ot filled the corners of our hearts where
oye and Christmas live, | think Nadeem
'as first TO sense what had happened.
lie suddenly jumped out of the trench
nd began waving his hands and cheer
49, While he was doing this a ponder
us German, with a happy smile tnat eX-
osed two rows of glittering white teeth,
limbed out OF the trench and shouted:
Lieutenant Schroeder presents his
ompliments to your lieutenant and de-
Tres to know II he will select four mon
nd come to the middle of the neutral
erritory to arrange for a truce for bury
lg the dead
our lieutenant agreed in an instant. |
as one OF the four men he selected,
nd | shall never forget now 1 felt as
e advanced to meet the four German
'ldiers and their lieutenant. who were
'ming toward us. We felt as If we
anted to throw our arms about these
en-; they told me later in the day that
lie same desire was upon them. The
aired of war had been suddenly with
avn and 1t left vacuum in which we
imam beings rushed into contact with
'ch other. You felt their handsha'xes-
'uble handshakes-with both hands-in
our heart.
The truce was arranged, There was