A COMEDY OF THE WAR.
For comedy there is an episode of Canadian history — only a few days old — which began when a sprightly young Dados (he's the fellow that gets all the chaif from the Divisional Follies) startled a respectable old lady behind the counter of a milliner's shop in a French village by demanding 100 ladies' "nighties" ("chemises de nuit", lice ailed them) of the largest size. The village heard the ' story of this shoping expedition, listened to the old lady's shrill cackle of laughter, and wondered what joke was on among the Canadian troops. It was one of those jokes which belong to the humours of this war, mixed with blood and death. Up in the Canadian trenches there were shouts of laughter as over their khaki a hundred brawny young Canadians put on the night dresses. They had been tied up with blue ribbon.
Some of the night dresses, which were so clean and dainty when they came out of the shop, were stained red before the end of the adventure. And Germans in their dugouts caught a glimpse of these fantastic figures before death came .quickly, or a shout of surrender. The Pierrots went back with so^ne prisoners in the moonlight, and Canadian staff officers chuckled with laughter along telephone wires when the tale was told. The Germans tried to-.play the- same trick and failed because their white ghosts wore 'caught under machine gun fire. '
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GRA19170516.2.24
Bibliographic details
Grey River Argus, 16 May 1917, Page 3
Word Count
240A COMEDY OF THE WAR. Grey River Argus, 16 May 1917, Page 3
Using This Item
Copyright undetermined – untraced rights owner. For advice on reproduction of material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.