The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-24
Wonderful Story of That Fa-
nous Christmas Truce.
ARMS AROUND EACH OTHER
Germans and French Buried
Their Dead and Visited.
In Evening Band Played Tunes
i'm the Trenches.
(By Phil RAIDER, Member French
Foreign LegiOn.)

Foreign Legion.)
Copyright, 1915, by United Press.)
London, March There were
three Americans in that marvellous
Christmas truce in my part of the
trenches; Eugene Jacoba, of Paw
tucket, r. l.; Victor Chapman, a Har-
ward man, from New York, and my
SELF We belonged to the Foreign Lee
glon which had been made up in
Paris, of men of all nationalities, and
we had been in the trenches for TWEEN
ty consecutive days, before Christmas
oaWned- For twenty days we had
raced that strip of land, forty-five feet
WIDE, between our trenches and that of
the Germans, that terrible No-man's
land, dotted with dead bodies, crisis
crossed by tangled masses of barbed
wire. That little strip of land was as
wide and as deep and as full of death
as the Atlantic ocean; as uncrossa BILE
as the spaces between stars; as ter
r1ble as human hate.
And the sunshine of the bright
Christmas morning fell on it as bright
aisle in some grand cathedral.
| don't know how the truce began in
other trenches, but in our hole Ma
deem began it-Nadeem, a Turk, who
belives that Mahomet and not Christ,
was the prophet of God. The sun
shine of the morning seemed to get
into Nadeem's blood He was only
an enthusiastic boy, always chi1dishly
1dppy5 anu Wnen we hOllC0U, at the
regular morning shooting hour, that
the German trenches were silent, Ma
deem began to joke about it,
| He drew target on a board, fas-
tened 1T on pole and stuck it above
the trench, shouting to the Germans:
See how we'll you can shoot"
Within a minute the target had been
bulls-eyed. Nadeem pulled it down.
pasted little white bits of paper where
shots had struck, and held it up again
so that the Germans could see their
score. In doing so, Nadeems head ap-
peared above the trench, and we
heard him talking across Norman $
land. Thoughtlessly, 1 raised my head,
too. Other men did the same. We
saw hundreds of German heads ap-
pearing. Shouts filled the air. What
miracle had happened? Men laughed
and cheered. -t.f
There was a Christmas light in our
eyes and know there were Christmas
tears in mine. There were smiles,
smiles, SMILES where in days before
there had been only rifle barrels. The
terror of No-man's land fell away.
The sounds of happy voices filled the
air. We were all unhumanly happy
foc that one glorious. instant in which
we a1l-English, Portuguese, Ameri-
cans, and even Nadeem, the Turk,
cave men as we were, the awfulness
of war had not filled the corners of
our hearts where love and Christmas
live.
sense what had happened. He sud
denly jumped out of the trench and
began waving his hands and cheering
While he was doing this a ponderous
German with a happy smile that ex-
posed rows of glittering white teeth
climbed out of the trench and
shouted
Lieutenant Schroeder presents his
compliments to your lieutenant, and
desires to know if he will select four
men and come to the middle of the
neutral territory, to arrange for
truce for burying the dead
Our 1iutenant agreed in an instant.
I was one of the four men he selected
and L shall never forget how felt
as we advanced to meet the four Ger
man soldiers and their lieutenant who
were coming toward US. We felt as if
we wanted to throw our arms about
these men; they told me later in the
day that the same desire was upon
them. The hatred of war had been
suddenly withdrawn and it left
vacuum in which we human beings
rushed into contact with each other
handshakes, with both hands-in your
heart.
The truce was arranged. There was
to be no more firing for one hour and |
the men from both sides were to |
come and bury their dead. The SOL |
diers focked from both trenches. |
They rushed at each other and shook |
hands.
Il want to have your photographs" |
said the German lieutenant to our |
party. He sent back for his camera |
and we enemies stood with our arms |
about each others shoulders in horse
shoe formation while the lieutenant |
his camera.
IF I don't have a chance to send |
you the prints before the war is
over" he said, Il shall see that you
get them afterwards. And he took
our addresses.
AT last the bodies were buried. The
hour of truce had passed. But the
men did not go back to the trenches.
strip of no-man's land the Germans
and the legionaires sat talking or
playing cards, exchanging tobacco and
cigarettes and joking and laughing.
Don't blame u.s." was the burden
Of the Germans talk. 1T isn't our
fault that we are fighting. We don't
know what it's all about. We have
wives and children and we're just
the same kind of men that you are.
We're damned fools and SO is every
body who is fighting
And our talk ran the same.
1t wasn't until the sun began to go
down that the groups broke up.
We're to have band in our
tonight, and we want you to
babe US goodbye and as we shook the
hands that might STAY us on the NOR
row.
After supper we heard a sudden
blast of music that thrilled us A
little German band had crept into the
German trenches and announced it
self with a grand chord. Then came
he unexpected strains of the Mar
The Frenchmen went al
most frantic with delight. Then came
our turn when the band played It's
! Long, Long Way to Tipperary."
Seorge Ullard our negro cook, who
,ane from Galveston, got out a mouth I
organ and almost burst his lungs play I
ng Die Yacht am Rhein-' The ST I