Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-02-14
A NEAR-KIPLING
KILLED IN TRENCHES
His Letters Have Been En-
joyed BY All
England.
A UNIQUE TRUCE
Enemies HobnObbcd To-
gether on Christmas
Day
BY u, NJ. SARI,

BY p. NJ. SARL,
| Omitted Press Staff Corresponding.
LONDON, Jan. 3o-(By .maiS to
/ New York; England lost a near.
! Kipllng when German shrapnel
burst over uhc British advanced line
Of trenches in the vicinity of Ypres
and numbered among its victims Cape
tain Robert Patrick Miles, Of the
Shropshire Light Infantry, attached
10 the Irish Rifles. OF all the letters
/ from the front printed in the English
newspapers none had breathed such
a spirit of optimism nor portrayed
with such humOr and intimate detail
! the life in the trenches as those OF
this officer. Hitherto they had APP
peared anonymously. The last he
wrote was "A description of the ama2-
ing Christmas truce, arranged by the
soldiers themselves after the pop"
had failed TO induce the beliigerent
governments officially to enter into
such an agreement. II did not reach
| England until after his death,
we are having the most eXtraor-
dnary Christmas day Imaginable"
wrote Captain Miles. "a sort of un
arranged and quite unauthorized, but
perfectly understood and scrupuously
observed truce exists between us and
I
ders peace. The thing started last
night soon after dusk, when the
Germans started shouting Merry
Christmas, Englishmen" to us. Ot
course our fellows shouted back. and
presently large numbers OF both
sides had left their trenches. un-
armed, and met in the debatable,
shot-riddled, no-man's iand between
the lines
,rT-,- .,,a ,,.,lo,,,a,,t ~ ~, tJoir
OWn-Came TO be made that We
should not fire at each other until
after midnight tonight. There was
half moon and the ground was
covered with hoar-frost and one
could see dim shapes wandering
about OF standing in groups, EngIish
and Germans, whore II would nave
been death 10 have shown u Whiskcr
an hour or so before. The men were
all fratorni2irg IN the middle 1--WE
naturally did not allow them too close
TO our lineb and swapped C,EaretS ana
lies in the utmost good fellowship.
Not shot was fired all night.
To-day 7 took the opportunity or
getting Il close view of their wire enc
tanglemcnts. and upon my word, ] am
sorry I did. was not half SO en-
thuslastic about charging them as !
was. There is to start with, about
twenty feet of low wire 10 stumble
through. then con reflection, had
better not go into details about this
or the censor will sit up and take
notice.. The details are revolving
Anyway, there are several rows of
trenches. each of them swept from
the flanks by machine guns, and each
with horrid looking sort of eXag-
gerated crinolinc of barbed wire in
front of 1t. Charging that little lot
under heavy fire Will be a very pleas
ant business. Confound the fellow
that invented barbed wire. At the
best. one will tear ones only pair of /,
trousers. and at the worst one will get !
hung up in IL while they shoot you in |
the more tender portions Of your an
atomy.
THE only real consolation I got
out of my trip was that their trenches
seem to be muddier. If possible. than !
ours. / was disappointed TO see such |.
a CHEEKY lot OF fellows. as | had hoped |
to see collection OF living skeletons
half covered with Tags-animated /
toast-racks in uniforms. The funny /
thing is that while we are fraterniz- /.
ing here, swapping bully beef for
bread, and fags' for most exercrable |
cigars Iperhaps the gift of box of /
these Is symptom of hate). one can I
hear the dull booming of guns and a
certain amount Of rifle fire going on |
I'm the same old sweet way on our right |
and left. We neither OF US know If |
our respective artillery behind will re- |
spect our little arrangement and alb /
stain from taking advantage of what /
must be a very tempting mank, but /
hope for the best, as we are all mixed |
up in the middle.
1--WE had heard some awfully in
tereisting latest news-made in Ger
given out to our friends in .
front, and which they implicitly be-
leve. The main items ares
1.-The Germans have taken Mos
COW.
Russian casualties in the re-
treat, three and one-half millions.
"3.-General Joffre is dead.
british fleet Is practically de-
stroyed.
"5.-The allies have sued for peace,
the terms of which have been agreed
to and will be published in fort
night.
"Saturday.-The peace, which was
supposed to terminate at midnight, /
sull continues willynilly The beggars
simply disregard all our warnings to I
get down from off their parapet, so
things are at a deadlock. We can't /
shoot them In cold blood--and II we
fire shot over mans head as i
warning. he simply turns around, n
waves his hand to us, and goes on |
with whatever he is doing. / cannot II
imagine a more extraordinary state of II
affairs. / cannot see how we are 10 II
get them to return 10 business Our II