WAR JOTTINGS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 169, 22 March 1915, Page 3

WAR JOTTINGS

THE GERMAN PRISONERS. He lay in a small ward by himself, Willi a shattered shoulder. His eyes lit up when a visitor in gentle tones began talking in his native tongue. Near Strassburg he had a little land and one or two cows when war broke out. Hi s wife conducted the village inn. He had to join the colours, and was wounded and captured near Ypres. From under his pillow he produced a photo of his wife and bonnie little baby, and the tears welled up as he said that for months he had not had a word from home, though since he had been a prisoner in English hands he had been allowed to write once a week. Another scene, An officer of his Imperial Majesty's Prussian Guard, a young man of hiejv connections, torn from the arms of the bride of a fortnight: He had received a dreadful wound during the great attack of his corps, and had lain for weeks helpless as a baby. Now he was to be sent to England, and he cowered and clung to the nurses who had tended him. He feared to leave the hospital, feared that his new custodians laad some terrible fate in store for him. What caused this once proud Prussian officer to be so unmanned? Was it s ome prick of conscience? Perhaps the nurses knew. THE X-RAY WORKER. X-rays had eaten like fire into his flesh. By day he worked unceasingly—a slave to the passion for curing others —while the ecfjrs upon his hands were like living coals burning in a draught. By night every moment of his dreams was an hour ot agony; but not even in his sleep did a sigh coma. And by day he went on working-—curing. "We must take that hand off to-mor-row," said the surgeons. "Well, if you must, you must,'' was the ansv. er. "I must go on working" with one." And he smiled. "Then at ten to-morrow. Tall your wife to " "Tell my wife?" said the man. "I daren't do that. She thinks I am growing better My God! a husband with one hand!" WICKED GERMAN HORSES. "Wicked devils, those Germna hcrses, sir. Do you know, the other day we were just getting one of them, a big black chap, out of the van, when he ! went for three of us. "Well, we got him out all right,when he caught hold of the collar of an A.V.C. man with his teeth, and gave him a nasty shaking. For a prisoner of war, you see, sir, it was. absolutely agin rules. So we didn't give him another chance " >•-,. - "' '**

"Why? Did you court-martial him?" "Well, we shot him. They're treacherous ,those German horses." IN AN ENGLISH VILLAGE. Nine me-. Lave goim from r.ur v* I Inge to take part in the war. Some of them have left families behind them. One of them has been married for only two or three months. His wife is expecting letters from the South of Prance. She i s so affectionately tearful that I (says a writer in the "Westminster Gazette") do not dare to explain to her that the South of France is certainly not his destination, and that must nu expect to learn from what place it is that he writes home. The servant-girl at the farm understands the situation much better than the ne'wiy-made wife. Her "lad" is in the Marines. If you ask her where he is, she says "Somewhere in the North Sea," The' post-card that comes to her, with a blotch where the postmark would ordinarily be, tells her nothing more definite than that; but she is satisfied and cheerful, a pleasant contrast, to some other women in the village, who have been so much alarmed by feverish lecal preparations to receive the wounded that they are expecting tho Germans to land every day. ANGLO-FRENCH COMEDY. "Do you speak French, sir? Well, I wish you'd explain to these Johnnies that we want to take them to the Base Commander to fix things. You see,we're their prisoners, and they're our prisoners in a way, too. In fact, it's a bally funny go.'' A big A.S.C. driver, he stood laughing beside a decided novelty in motor cars. Encased in steel, one or two inch. es thick, warranted to keep out stray shrapnel and rifle bullets, it reminded one of the mediaeval warhorse masked from head to knee against the deadly arrow. ( i>ly just arrived from England it had been given a trial run. but at one of ihe numerous barricades which block the reads in the war zone the d;*i / r and. his companion were, chalknged. I-;\?rg no "iaisßer-passer" for fiis car, they were technically arrested l-y ihe French s°i tinels. 'lhe latter proved i-c dull of crrrprohei. f.ion that the men in khaki bundled two ct them •nto the "living-rcom" ot the car rifles ami b&yiinct!i pi:J a !, and brought them at a spanking r.ace to their starting phice. Hue the French soldiers were far f'om harpy £ 1 out It, aid demanded to be taken to their own commandant. I: explained to the gesticulating pioupious that the proper authority in this matter was tbe British commandant, and off the four of them drove to his head- f quarters.