Bisbee daily review., 1917-12-16

Tell me a Christmas story. ser.
seant." urged the newspaper man OF
Sergeant BIinman OF the Canadian
army. who Is in Bisbee at this time
seeking British subjects as recruits
for the British forces We simply
have to have one for our Christmas Is
sue"
The sergeant. trim built sandy com
plexiOned, blue eyed. modest and a
hardened veteran of the great war.
smiled. L don't know any Christmas
stories." he said.
Where did you spend last Christ
mas?" asked the newspaper man.
In the hospital" was the laconic
reply, spoken with a smile.
And the Christmas before?"
"-Sniping Germans" And Sergeant
Bllnman smiled again
And the Christmas before that?"
In the trenches al the training
camp in Salisbury Plain. England;
that was the worst of all" And this
time the sergeant did not smile
why the worst?'
Mud" was the simple, brief, but
expressive reply.
Here was a man who had spent the
three preceding Christmas days in
camp. field and hospital and held the
English mud TO be worse than the
Boches or the surgeons knife or the
bed of pain And yet he did not
know any Christmas stOries Ye gods,
The newspaper man pCt certain
adroit and subtle and leading Ques-
nd AA -A
warmed up i little and began TO talk,
laughing like boy when he spoke
of the stern and terrible drama in
which he had played part for nearly
three years.
Trained at Salisbury
He trained at Salisbury Plain with
the first OF the Canadian contingents;
was in the first battle OF Ypres when
the English held the Germans with
rifles and courage alone and were
gassed for the first time; was in the
great Somme offensive and carried
German bullet but of that place of
death in his body; was in the Messines
Ridge battle
We had a good Christmas dinner
at the Salisbury Plains camp" said
the sergeant reflectively. but the
bloody mud spoiled the day. The Eng
ltsh folks we're mighty nice 10 us all
the time we were over there No. /
don't remember anything particular
about that Christmas except the mud
and the big dinner
Hunting Snipers on Xmas
The next Christmas / was in Kem-
mel. little town in Belgium where we
had just taken some trenches from
Fritz and were consolidating them
right up under his nose. / remember
We had beans and bacon for breakfast
that day and beef stew for dinner We
dug trenches all morning and hunted
German snipers all afternoon We
didn't get our Christmas dinner until
New Years day. when We were relieved
and sent to a billet behind the lines
Had a regular splendid dinner that
day.
What do ! mean hunting snipersT
Why, those beggars were annoying Us
shamefully while We tried to dig, so
we went cunning for them Cragled
out into No Mans Land In the fog
and mist and sniped the snipers. Only
the b2rbed wire kept US from coming
10 hand grips with them.
We we're tired and wet and hun
cry and sore that Christmas night in
the trench, but We were rather happy,
too, for we had been lucky in our lit
tie hunt for snipers- The major gave
US a toast that night with a cup OF
weak tea and condensed milk in his
hand To the ladies, God bless them,
he said We would all be happy to-
r = 81
US. and I'll be dashed if you don't
look happy. anyway
New Kinds of Gifts
Christmas last year was pretty
rough. In the hospital. you know
They left the lead in me Christmas
present" And Sergeant Blinman
laughed again Then he frowned But
they won't let me 50 back on account
of it." he said sadly. 'and l call that
a pretty tough present from the Hun.
Now, if it had gone on through might
have been all right"
Sergeant Blinman was a member of
the 29th battalion of a Canadian regi-
ment known as "Tobin's Tigers"
They went into the war 100 strong
and now the sergeant is one of the 20
men OF the original number left
alive.
Lively on the Somns
yes, We had a pretty lively time on
the Somme," admitted the sergeant
when pressed closely. The Dutch
fought there mighty hard at first be-
fore we had pounded the fight out Of
them We had to fight day for
foot OF ground there in the begin
ming. Our regiment came down there
from the north and they put -ds right
to work. We took every trench We
set out to. and We held them. too. II
was easy compared to that first scrap
at Ypres Why. we had no artillery
there at all to speak Of. and then they
Rassed us there for the first lime Ou-