HUM IDEA OF A JOKE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10135, 25 November 1918, Page 8

HUM IDEA OF A JOKE

» TliUB NATOEE EEVEALED. in 131 G I was one of a number of soldiers detailed to ruard a captured Gerznan airman (says a writer in an English journal). He was a dapper ted affable prisoner, and amused us by the description of bis capture. "I so upi in a brand-new Fokker, 1 ' ha explained. "I fly over your lines, and pay machine is too fast for you to ,'atch. Over Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne I so; then I should tturn. back. But the sun shines, the sky is very blue, and 1 forget. . Too late I remember "and turn back. The wind is against Sae and anv petrol nearly gone. Soon petrol ia finished, hut I can see the trenches and I try to get back. Lower and lower I elide, and I have not far to go, when Bnglish machine-gnu tuttuOtut. Then I ani finished!'. Ho shrugged expressively. "And only two kilometres from home I" He laughed good-hurnouredly, and we who were guarding joined in. All, that is except one man, a trench. veteran whose face wa3 disfigured by a tear. "Our Hun is a sportsman." I remarksd of this man. "lie treat* the whole aflair as a joke." "Maybe," my comrade drily comments ted. 'but I don't joke with the Hun now. That," indicating his disfigurement, "is a Hun 'joke'! "It w&3 in 'l-4, when there were countless minqr scraps and trenchenatching episodes." he proceeded. "One day wo were pestered by a Hun «ap, no at nightfall we went over and bagged it. Like many another place, 'it was easier to take than to hold, and at dawn the Huns counter-attacked and drove the remnant of us back to our old position, distant some l 75 yards. "We had some rations in our hole, but we were out of cigarettes. Prosently a Hun shouted, 'Hi. English! You were in such a hurrv to leave that you forgot your cigarettes. Wo like jam, and if you have any wo will give you the cigarettes if you throw the jam over first.' "One man, VYllson. called out, 'Done!' and threw a tin of jam over. There was a delay, and we could hear the Hud« coughing. We began to fear they would not keep their part -f the bargain. l'heii oris stood up and threw a tin of 'GoldfUke.' Wilson hold out his hands . to catch it. Tho tin exploded as ho caught it' 'Poor Wilson! I can still see his t-tro (landless stumps outstretched and Weedin?. I caaght a fragment of the tin in mr t-j/ZQ. 'That, my lad, i.? a Hun 'joke,' and r-lflo the reason I don't joke with the Hun now. It is only by bitter experience that one learns tho true nature of the beast."