We have seen how the chaplains spent their Christmas Day. How did the Christian men spend theirs? Perhaps one picture will suffice. Our old friend Sergeant-Major Moore shall draw it for us. On Christmas Eve he was occupied nearly all day giving out Christmas presents to the men. His regiment had come out of the trenches on the 23rd, and the men were, many of them, in a terrible condition. They had been standing in the water for days and numbers were frost-bitten. But how they appreciated their gifts! It was indeed good to see a cart-load of gifts, all of them sent direct from the homeland to this one Christian sergeant-major for distribution. Christmas Eve was spent in a barn, and as the sergeant-major spoke to the men, at least one soldier gave himself to Christ.
Christmas morning broke fresh and clear, and the staff-sergeant had a splendid menu for the day, provided so far as extras were concerned by friends from the homeland. Breakfast—Tea, sugar, and milk (the last a great luxury), bread, English butter, ham, tinned sausages, and cake. Dinner—Roast-beef, potatoes and cabbage, plum-pudding. Tea—Tea, sugar, milk, bread and butter, ham, honey, sardines, shortbread, Christmas cake, and chocolates afterwards.
Not a bad menu that for men fresh from the trenches! Let it not be supposed, however, that all fared so well. The Rev. A.D. Brown, chaplain with the Indian Cavalry Division, mournfully records: "We spent Christmas Day on the trek. My Christmas dinner consisted of bully beef and bread and butter."
But these men of the King's Own Yorkshire L.I. fared well, and the sergeant-major finishes his characteristic letter by saying: "After tea I had still a few parcels of comforts, chocolates, &c., which you so kindly sent me, and with a few tracts and Christmas letters, I visited the barns to find out those lonely ones who had not received a letter or parcel from the homeland, and before I left for my billet again I had the joy of knowing that, as far as I knew, every lad of the battalion had received a parcel of cheer, and many were the thanks, and 'God bless you, sir,' that night. Yesterday being Sunday we had three services in barns and a few hymns and prayers in a fourth, there not being time for more. It would cheer many a mother to hear her boy out here singing the old gospel hymn she taught him in his childhood days. Again, on the part of the men, thanking you for your splendid gift. Good-day! 494!"
IN THE TRENCHES.[ToList]
It is now time we got nearer the firing line and asked how our soldier lads in the trenches spent their Christmas. It is a strange sight which meets our gaze. I confess that when I first read the stories of that Christmas truce I thought that the reporters were romancing. But there was no romancing after all. Truth is stranger than fiction, and this was truth.
The French do not seem to have observed Christmas Day as did the British. The French Eye-witness records: "On Christmas Day the Germans left their trenches shouting 'a two days' truce.' Their ruse did not succeed. All were shot down." It is evident, however, that on some parts of the field there was fraternisation between even the French and the Germans.
The British soldiers took the law into their own hands, and unofficially themselves proclaimed a truce. In some cases the initiative lay with the Germans, and in others with the British; but in nearly every case, all along the line, the informal truce was accepted, and British and Germans fraternised. The Angels' Song was heard again, this time over the blood-stained trenches, and the bursting of the shrapnel ceased, the whizz of the bullets was heard no more, and, instead, the sound of Christmas carols dominated the firing zone.