Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-12-12
SENDING CHRISTMAS GIFTS
TO SOLDIERS I'm TRENCHES

RUST how many tons of plum pud-
III ding, Christmas cake, marmalade,
jam, sweet chocolate. cigarettes
and articles OF clothing, as we'll as old
nUfs ard carpets. are being sent from
the various warning nations to the
trenches Will be hard to determine. Eu-
rope and her colonies cannot fill the
vacant chairs at their Christmas tables.
but everywhere mothers, wives, sisters,
sweethearts and friends have been at
work preparing and sending that part
of the home Christmas which is to be
enjoyed by the soldiers.
Holiday gifts. too, have been provid-
ed for the armies, but this year the
idea of utility has been uppermost in
considering just what to send in the
Christmas box. Last year the dis
patches of basket to the front was
a frolicsome novelty. but this yuletide
war is an old story.
Somewhere on the high seas there
are now about eighteen tons of plum
pudding being taken to 2I.0e0 Aus
traIiar soldiers in the Ga!lipoli PENN
sula from the Lady Mayoress' Guild OF
Melbourne From numerous other sec
tions of Australia bills OF fading read
1000 pounds of plum pudding. 1000
pounds of Christmas cakes. 1000 tins
of cigarettes. one gross of pipes. forty
tins of biscuit, forty pounds of cheese,
Red Cross at sydney 10000 comforts
for the New South Wales men, prob
ably in Egypt.
AS Australia is perhaps the greatest
distance from the roar of cannon, her
gifts were started in October. SO that
they might reach their destination i'll
good time. Christmas at home for the
Australian is a season of sunshine and
flowers and SO it was not the most
natural thing for the women of that
island continent to pack warm com
forts for their compatriots spending
the winter in the Gallipoli peninsula
In that climate snow rarely fails
more than half a dozen times year
and the weather is seldom severely
cold. but mud. slush and dampness
make January. February and March
most disag reeable. Fortunately FOR
her fighting men. Australia is rich IN
sheepskin. If this commodity mad peeh
scarce, the sale of old silver thlmpies
and iewelry collected would not have
netted sufficient sum to purchase
enough skeepskins to make vests ana
to buy warm socks for the men living
in companies and battalions.
Regardless of the fact that Egypt
religion does not include Christmas,
that nation is doing her part at TINS
season by providing KNIT scarfs ana
knit caps for her frontiersmen guarding
the Suez canal. Along with the neces-
stiles for which Serbia is asking she
has expressed a Christmas wish for
fat and butter as well as cocoa and
chocolate.
Oriental soldiers entrenched near the
Persian gulf are enjoying especially
the gifts of sugar in addition to their
supply of comforts and wooden articles.
one feature about this holiday sea-
sou at the front is the noticeable alb
sence Of the large. unmanageable in
diyidual hampers such as were sent in
such abundance last year to the men in
the English and Canadian lines.
Instead of sending gifts in such bulk.
England and France are responding to
the requests of the men for portal Bile
coutriyances which center upon smok-
inr writing, warmth and cleanliness.
consequently many women of these
countries have practiced systematic
economy in order to be able to pur
chase canned meats, soups and jams to
mack in the Christmas boxes. Appar-
emily all of the soldiers appreciate the
small tins of biscuit, cheese and honey
which they have already begun to re-
ceive.
They say that such food can be easily
carried to help them in their long night
watches and not left behind In the