Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-12-20
SOLDIERS FIRST
THIS CHRISTMAS
Even Children Take Second
Place in This Years
Yuletide

It's the soldiers Christmas this
year. Even the children will take
second place.
Christmas is going to come not
only to every soldier in an epcamp-
ment or cantonment in the United
States, and to every sailor on ship
board or in port, but also to every
man in prison camp, and to every
man in uniform, somewhere in
France, or anywhere else in the SER
vice. They will all celebrate Christ
mas, through the efforts of the Y. NJ.
c. A, in cooperation with other
organizations. Not one will be left
out on Christmas.
There will be Christmas trees, not
only in every Y. NJ. c. A. building
in the United States where men in
uniform come, but in the base camps
in the training zone in France, and
even behind the trenches, where the
improvised angels on the top boughs
shake with the reverberations of the
German guns, and carols are sung
to the accompaniment of exploding
shells. There will be gifts, wrapped
as daintily as If they were intended
for somebody's best girl, for many
of the men who haven't gotten any
from home, when they come into
the Y. NJ. c. A. huts on Christmas
Day. And men coming wet and cold
from the trenches will warm them
selves around real Yuletide logs in
the tireplaces in the Red Triangle
huts.
Scrubby Christmas trees with
carefully saved bits of tallow candles
as their only decoration will bring
the holiday spirit for n time even
to the prison camps in Siberia, where
the Bethlehem story will be read in
Y. NJ. C. A. hutS, and an orchestra
"a nf tho TNr{cnnnrS n will
play Holy Night" on instruments of
their own making. Secretaries will
greet men who speak no English
with Merry Christmas." and they
will understand. No children. in the
United States are more excited over
their Christmas preparations than
the prisoners of war over theirs.
Thousands of packages addressed
merely to Some Soldier. Somewhere
in France" left the Atlantic ports
on the early November boats. The
movements of the troops over there
make 1t unlikely that some of the
personally-ad presents will
get to the men by Christmas Day,
but as far as possible the Y. NJ. c.
A. will see that none of them are
without q gift. The soldiers and
sailors who are still in the United
States will be equally we'll looked
after by the holiday spirits. Not
more than approximately one-third
of them will be allowed to leave
camp on December 25, but those who
can't go to Christmas will have
Christmas brought to them, by the
Y. NJ. c. A.
The people of Maryland will act
as st. Nick for the Maryland men at
Camp Meade, Md, and Camp Nc
Clellan, Ala. They have raised a
fund which makes it possible to
spend about a dollar and half for
the Christmas present of every Mary
land man in uniform.
Two thousand soldiers at Camp
Meade would be real Christmas out
casts If it were not for the holiday
kindness of their comrades. There
will be no trees for them, no celebra-
ton in the Y. NJ. c. A. buildings, or
visits from the home folk for they
are the victims of something as old
as Christmas, itself-they have all
been quarantined with the measles.
They will not lose the holiday, en-
tirely. however, for a choir organiz-
ed under the auspices of the Y. NJ.
c. A. will march through camp sing
ing Christmas carols, pausing in
front of the barracks where these
men are isolated to cheer them with
all the Christmas hymns in their rep
ertoire