American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1917-11-02


/ spent Christmas day Of 1914 in the
trenches just south Of Ypres. Christ
mas Y was a beautiful night, and the
Germans who held the trenches oppo-
site left us very much alone the entire
evening. We didn't bother them either.
There was a beautiful moon, and
with everything so quiet and peaceful
It was hard to realize that there was
a war on. During the evening the Ger
mans started singing. and l heard
some of the most beautiful music l
ever listened to in my life. The song
might start just opposite us, and 1t
would be taken up all along the line,
and soon it would seem as II all the
Germans In Belgium were singing.
When they had finished we would ap-
plaud with all our might, and then we
would give them a song In return.
A regiment I'm the trenches started
MY Old Kentucky Home" The men
were getting well along with it when
some n I'm the German trenches join
ed the singing In just as good English
as any of us could speak. 1t was beau
tiful. but 1t made me awfully home
sick. After they had finished the same
German voice sang Dancing Around"
and. believe me, that fellow could sing
ragtime. He was applauded uproari-
ously, and then WI sang some more
popular songs for them, and so It went
until the wee small hours of the morn
ing.
During the night a couple Of u
chaps crawled up almost to the Ger
man parapet, and with them they took
a photograph and a record. They
wound up the machine, put on the rec
ord and attached a piece of string to
the starting lever. Then they crawled
back. unwinding the string as they
anne The next morning they pulled
the string, and it started the machine
playing the song which was so popu-
lar In England at that time, "When We
Wind Up the Watch on the Rhine"
You can bet that that photograph was
filed full of lead in short order.
During the few weeks directly after
Christmas l was In the trenches Just
south Of Ypres most Of the time. When
on duty in the daytime it was not so
bad, but the nights were awful. The
Germans had the advantage over us
I'm that their trenches were on higher
ground, and they drained all the water
down into our own. We had only
buckets to bail with, and it was very
slow work. as we'll as dangerous.
Then. too. the cold weather increased
our troubles.
/ notice in my diary. which l kept
from time to time. that l entered an
incident which shows our state. I will
quote you just what l wrote:
Dec. 81. 1914. - Was talking with
two boys of the Royal Scots today.
They have just come down from the
Hollebeke trenches, and they are in ter
rible condition. Their casualties dur
ing the last engagement were light. as
they lost only four killed and nineteen
wounded. but forty-two died from ex,
posture.
"One poor devil tells me that he has
three brothers and fifteen cousins in
his battalion. Two of his brothers
died during the past two weeks. One
stopped a bullet, but the other one
drowned right by his side in the
trenches. and he was unable to aid
him.
"A lot came in on their hands and
knees. and many anne dragging them
selves on their stomachs through the
mud. 1t was terrible"
One of the saddest things / have
ever seen is the last roll call Of a reg
iment which has been cut to pieces
I. saw one regiment go into action fol
the first time.
l watched them so up singing and
shouting and in high spirits generally
They were LOO strong going into &C
ton. but two days later they came
out. and there were only twenty-thre'
of them to answer the last roll call
1t was a heartbreaking sight and i'm
possible to forget.
One day l went to some trenches on
division had just taken over. The wa
ter was above our knees, and there wa
also about a foot of soft mud. In feel
ing around for a irmer foothOld m.
foot struck something more solid thai
the ground around me. l starte,
stamping and kicking about but
couldn't seem to make it give way. BE
ing curious, one of my comrades and
dug down with %intrenching tools
What we unearthed was the body of
dead F~renchman. Heaven only know
how long he had been there. but b
was as black as a derby hat.
At this time the Dickebusch-Holl'
beke road was alive with snipers. l
some way they would get through gu
lines and secrete themselves along tn
road. where they could pick off indiviC
/, uals without much fear of being seer
I noticed that there was n place
, particular where we always heard
bullet pass too close to be comfortable
It was a little wooden bridge. and
don't think | ever crossed it withor