The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1915-02-13
ENGLAND LOSES
A NEAR -KIPLING"
By P. n. sarl


LONDON, Jan. 30 (by mail 20 New
York England lost a near-Kipling
when a German shrapne1 lrst over
the British advanced line of trenches
in the vicinity of Ypres and numbered
among its victims Captain Robert Pat
rick Miles, of the Shropshire Light In
fantry, attached to 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 init
mate detail of life in the trenches as
those of this officer. Hitherto they had
appeared anonymously. The last he
wrote was a description of the amaz-
ing Christmas truce. arranged by the
soldiers themselves after the Pope had
failed to induce the 5elligerent govern
ments officially to enter into such an
agreement. 1t did not reach England
until two weeks after his death.
Owe are having the most extraor-
dinary Christmas Day imaginable, -
wrote Captain Miles. "'A sort of un-
arranged and quite unauthorized but
perfectly understood and scrupulously
observed truce exists between us and
our friends in front. regular sol
diers peace! The thing started last
night soon after dusk when the Ger
mans started shouting "Merry Christ
mas, Englishmenl to u.s. OF course,
our fellows shouted back, and present
ly large numbers Of both sides hal left
their trenches unarmed. and met in
the debatable, shot-riddled, norman s.
land between the lines
Here the agreement-all on their
own-eame to be made that we should
not fire at each other till after mid.
night tonight. There was half
and the ground was covered with hoar-
frost, and one could see dim shapes
wandering about or standing round in
groups, English and Germans, where
it would have been death to have
shown a whisker an hour or so before
The men were all fraternizing in the
middle 1--WE naturally did not allow
them too close to our line) and swap
ped cigarettes and lies in the utmost
goodfellowship. Not a shot was fred
all night.
''Today 7 took the opportunity of
getting a close view of their wire en-
anglements and upon my word I am
sorry did. was not half so enthu-
siastie about charging them as I had
been. There is to start with, about 20
feet of low wire to stumble through
then Ton reflection I had better not 90
into details about this or the censor
will sit up and take notiee). The de-
tails are revolving Anyway there are
several rows of trenches, each of them
swept from the fianks by machine guns
and each with a horrid looking sort of
exaggerated crinoline of barbed wire
in front of it. Charging that little
lot under heavy fire will be very
pleasant business Confound the fell
low that invented barbed wire. At the
best, one win tear ones only pair of
trousers and at the worst one will get
hung up in it while they shoot you in
the more tender portions of your anat-
omy.
''The only real consolation got out
of my trip was that their trenches
seem to be muddier, # possible, than
ours I was disappointed to see such
CHEEKY lot of fellows; I had hoped
to see collection Of living skeletons
half covered with rags-animated
toast-raeks in uniforms. The funny
thing is that while we are fraterniz-
ing here, swapping bully beef for
bread, and 'fags' for most exeerable
cigars (perhaps gltt OF box or tnese
is symptom of kate), one can hear
the dull booming of guns and GER
tain amount of rifle fire going on in
the same old sweet way on our right
and left. We neither of us know If our
respective artillery behind will respect
our little arrangement and abstain
from taking advantage of what must
be very tempting mark, but hope for
the best. as we are all mixed up in the
middle.