"TRAY BITS."

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 731, 19 December 1914, Page 6

"TRAY BITS."

FROM THE WAR-PLATE. Collected by W.B. On the sherd of an exploded German! shell, fired from a howitzer that: carries eight miles, and whose Bhot; weighs half-a ton, was found engraved the motto: "Mit Gott und: Vaterland"—"With God and Fatherland." This should finally dispose of : the cry that the war and its brutal- j Ities are caused by German Atheism, j or Nistzsheism, or choicely quoted by j folk who do not even know how t» i spell the name. Kaiser Wilhelm der ! Ogre only too well copies: "Sword of j the Lord and Gideon." ..-■ A French army corps was attended! [ by two clerics, a Catholic priest and \ a Jewish Rabbi. Night overtook: • them on the battlefield caring for the> \ wounded. The only refuge they could find to spend the night was a \ deserted farmstead containing only one bed, on which they laid down' \ side by side. Just before they drop- ; ped off to sleep, the Rabbi heard the: ; priest .-huckle: "An artißt should be: ! Old and New' I

After the day's engagement, some British artillerymen lost their way in a wood. It was dark. Suddenly they heard a commotion ahead, and 3UBpecting it to be Germans, halted. Presently out of the distance one yelled: "Where the hell are you going to?" "Then," says a soldier writing home, "We knew that they were out friends." i' : i Another writes:—"Some of our men have signed the pledge, because Kitchener advised them to. But God help the Germans when they get hold of them for making them teetotallers!" A Russian soldier wrote home: — "The Little Father has forbidden ua vodka during the winter campaign. But read the Bible: Man was made of dust. The job was dry. He has thirsted ever since. Surely the Little Father would not see bis children turn to dust again!" Lecturing on the stoical devotion to La Belle France of mutilated soldiers in the field hospitals, a recent visitor there says:—"A French soldier with both legs and an arm blown off was , brought in. As he and one less maimed waited their turn to be attended, the limbless one grinned over: "Par diea mon camarade. If I j had another arm, we could have a • game of cards." Some survivors of the sunk cruiser Hawke, who were saved by clinging to a rough raft, and were picked up 18 hours later, huddled together round the fatteßt to absorb his heat. "We cheered ua in our peril by singing hymns, hut the only ones we knew were "Tis a long, long way to Tipperary,' and 'They all love. Jack.' But: we pulled through alright." I "The infidel deathbed story is dy- j ing, but dying hard," writes yet ] another. "A chum showed his mate a pocket Bible, in which a bullet had bedded itself: 'You see: Saved by j the Bible my sweetheart gave me for a parting gift.' 'Chump!' snorted his mate. 'A packo cards woulda |done the same. Watcha givin us!' " 1 Overheard in the trenches: "My girl writes that the Kaiser still goes about patting his God on the back. Wish he'd bring him along h«re to see if he's the same as ourn! She says a parson over there boasts: 'Our Allies are struggling through a hail of shell 3 and bullets for the Christianity of Christ'. So they are —I don't think. What we want is to get the_ Kaiser by the scruff. Eh,