Evening star., 1918-08-05
SHRAPNEL
Sidelights on the War
BY
OLIVER OWEN KUHN.

People Of Germany begin to suspect
that the kaiser is mad on the sub
ject Of inspira lion.
Wounded soldiers invariably are
plucky even in the face Of great SUI
fering. A nurse, taking bread and
milk through a hospital ward, ap-
preached one wounded man:
Sorry. nurse, can't hold it. I've
got one arm in a splint and I left
the other In France"
You poor SOUL"
What makes me wild 10 that lost
my gold ring with it!'
Peculiar English accents are being
lost by the soldiers who are associ-
ating with the Americans on tho
western front This has been COM
mented upon widely in England.
American slang has been taken up
with vengeance. Recently a SOL
der returned from France was asked
a question which he did not quite
understand. He said:
Snow again, kid. I don't catch your
drift"
Two soldiers were talking at the
II can." said one. marry a rich girl
for whom 1 do not care, or q penni-
less girl whom I love dearly. I am in
great doubt What shall 1 do?"
Follow the dictates of your heart.
old man." was the prompt response.
and be happy. Marry the poor girl.
And, say. er-would you mind intro
ducing me to the other when We get
back to Blighty."
There has been a flood of war mar
riages in London. Describing the sit
| tim Tnndnn PIar0vnnan Gafd.
Il suppose 1 should be ashamed to
own it, but when you marry people
by the dozen a wedding tends to be-
come just part of the days work. You
so beforehand. to get the registers
n1led up in readiness-which Is lille
gal. but we all do 1t. Then, more or
less to time. the verger looks in with
All ready. sir You put on your
church. and begin 1t is only when
you hear a strained voice saying,
I will that you realize that this is
deadly serious for somebody"
Conditions in the prison camps Of
Germany are frightful according to
but who recently was released and
permitted to return home. In discuss
ing the situation he said:
God knows how you can live on
UuI you Cdu- LII IHoBc odyo
we were famished and frozen. With
a cold below zero Fahrenheit, tho
Germans gave US two cotton rugs
and a sack full of straw: and farmed
out our rations to a Jewish contrac-
tor at 60 pfennigs a day-Sd or ID
a person. You will know from THE
that We were starved"
It was on the bridge over the river
at Compeigne that Louis XIV await
ed his bride, the fll-destined Marie
Antoinette. 1t was in Compeigne that
The sniper on the western front usu-
ally uses armor-piercing bullets.
Few distractions can withstand them,
most certainly not the German he'll
met
On the whitewashed walls Of the
cell the confined Tommy, with the aid
of the priceless stump of pencil, ex-
presses his views of life and matters
generally. Some do 1t pictorially,
others in prose, many others in verse.
and not few in clever French idioms.
Could these "clink thoughts" be COL
lected from, say, a score of military
prisons and published in book form
the result would be a work embracing
pathos. tragedy. comedy. drama, phi
losophy, Solomon-like wisdom, biting
sarcasm. and the striking of the hu-
man note to an almost tear-raising
extent.
The big guns Of the average battle
ship are walled in by twelve inches
of steel.
Here's Jingle written by soldier
at the front:
There is a little Hun,
And I hold little gun
Right close to the middle of his
forehead.
For when he is dead
He is very, very good,
But when he's alive he is horrid.