JOTTINGS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 34, 11 February 1915, Page 7

JOTTINGS.

The Russian soldier lias always been passionately fond of songs. He composes songs himself, in which he lauds his sweetheart, his village, his home, his favorite horse, and general. Singing in the .Russian tanks is encouraged '.v uie A chief singer (says

‘■.Musical America”) marches at U.c front of each company, and gives the lines of the words of each verse to bo sung. The Cossack songs arc said to be particurlaly lull of life and vigor.

It is difficult to imagine the consternation of many English ladies if they were ordered to destroy their pet dogs, This, however, is being done in Berlin, according ito a statement in a letter which a Herman young lady at Torquay has received from her father. The reason given is that the people may have the food that these animals would eat.

Our troops, always cheerfully ready o treat the grimmest terrors lighticartedly, have coined another name >r the Herman shells. This particular dekname is for the particular type

f shell which makes a noise like a i. olonged sigh. And so “Sighing jarah” is the new title. “It really s a most annoying and extraordinary ioiso,” says one at the front, “and iometimos it keeps us awake when ve try to snatch a little sleep.

Some time ago it was mentioned hat an old lady in England had seven sons serving in the Navy and Army, but a Shropshire woman, who has sevMitcon sons in the Army, surely holds he record. The Westminster Gazette ays;—“Our best respects to Mrs Davies, of Church Stretton, Shrophire, the mother of seventeen sons ;erving in the Army. Twelve are in he King’s Shropshire Light Infantry the regiment of their father, a ser,eant who died in India—two are in he Welsh Fusiliers, two in the New Vrmy, and one in the Army. Service lorps. Of the seventeen, fourteen are *n active service. This is a remarkable hmily record which must surely be unequalled.”

There was a quaint scene near the far-away end of Edgware road recently (states the London Daily Mirror). XCar by the flying ground there is a ugh and extensive hoarding, which s made the very most of by various dvertisers. The other afternoon an •Id gentleman drove up in a small notor-car and stopped facing the marding. From the hack of the car 10 removed a small ladder, and from lie interior a hig pot of red paint. To then proceeded, with the aid of} the dder, to paint in huge Icttorcs over •rtaiu of the advertisements “Made >. Germany.” An admiring and grow, •g crowd cheered him at the finish f his strenuous labours, when, thoraghly satisfied and beaming, he drove •If again.

The French soldier is nothing if mn igenious,’ Some time ago, in the Vos,es, our Allies had mounted a number if quick-firing guns on a ridge behind

screen of rocky eminences which •oinmandcd the pass.'Suddenly a hundred Teuton helmets appeared on the read below, and the little battery got •usy. For a time they did splendid •xecution, and then they slackened. ‘Oil! oil! for the love of Heaven, oil!” ’.limited the lieutenant. Alas! there as none nearer than four miles in be rear, and before it could be procur'd the enemy would be upon them. The >;uns stopped tiring for lack of the prenous fluid. Then from one of the “pioupious,” known as “the Parisian” in his section, came the joyous cry, “I know what you want! My sardines ’ll do the trick!” In a moment he had his haversack on the ground, two boxes of sardines were fished out and ripped open, the oil dropped into the nachiuo guns, and fifteen minutes later he enemy’s column was in flight.