Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1917 — BATTLE STOPPED BY LITTLE BABY [ARTICLE]

BATTLE STOPPED BY LITTLE BABY

Mysteriously Appears Crawling Between Lines Where Fierce Fight ts Raging. IS RESCUED DY A GERMAN Soldiers Forget They Are Enemies and Cease Slaughtering Each Other While Prussian Carries Infant to Safety. New York.—Edgar von SchmidtPittTll.’a Prussiinrvftvairy rrfticer, wher is on the western front, has written for the German newspapers the following remarkable incident which he and his men witnessed recently: “Donnerwetter what a hellish noise!. About me shqlls are bursting and all around me is the rat-tat-tat of machine guns. “It is just before dawn, and the fog is so thick that one can scarcely see a yard ahead. All we know is that our troops during the night stormed and captured the French village over yonder. I want to see how our left wing is situated, and therefore ride to the village where the enemy’s bullets are falling as thick as hailstones during a heavy thunderstorm. The fog continues thick, but it is not cold. “I find a shelter where other cavalrymen are taking a little -rest and at once proceed to get some needed sleep myself, ordering the lieutenant to rouse me in case of necessity. —xr “Suddenly I am awakened by a peculiar. uncomfortable stillness —as is the case often where a sleeper is awakened either by a sudden noise or the cessation of noise.

Baby in Battlefield. “As I emerge from the dugout the lieutenant winks at me somewhat mischievously and points directly in front of him. Carefully I raise my head oyer—the top of the trench to get a view of things.—l "The sun had risen and the fog had disappeared. In front of us is a meadow, ami there, midway between otir trenches and those of the enemy, is—God, it is imposible; it must be a delusion'! —a Fata Morgana; but no — there in the middle of the field, crawl* Ing on hands and knees, is a little child, a happy and contented, and seems to be enjoying itself. Not a sound is tohe heard. not a shot is fired. Every man has become dumb from amazement. “ ‘A child has fallen from heaven!’ cries a soldier near me. "Well, that is about the case, for where else could that child have come from ? v “Before my weary brain can summon up any convincing reasons how that child got out there —whether some poor mother lost it in the panic due to the battle of the night before —a German soldier jumps out of the trepch “arid Tuns; to’wheW the child is crawling about. Absolute stillness prevails in the trenches, and only to our right, from which this extraordinary sight is hidden by a clump of trees, is the sound of gunfire heard. . 4 Like Peaceful Island. “And this spot, which all through the night had been a veritable inferno of shot and shell, ia now like some peace* ful Island or a cool, friendly oasis in a burning desert. ■"Over there in the enemy’s trenches we can see the helmets of the Frenchmen as they peer over the edges. No

one is any longer thinking of the enemy or the war, or of danger. All eyes are on the tall soldier and the child which he is approaching. As he up that little frightened, helpless bit of humanity and fondly takes rt in his arms, a laugh, a low, friendly laugh, passes along our entire column. The laugh is infectious, and we can feel how it is going along the ranks over yonder. And suddenly—what, are they going to shoot? —no, on the contrary, a great wave of applause with shouts of ‘Bravo!’ from thousands of French throats break the stillness. Then, as the soldier jumps back into our trench with the eiuM-safety io his nrmsroiH* ranks, too, burst into a triumphant shout which passes all along the line. “Even for some time after not a shot is fired. It is as If we felt ahained of ourselves, and no one touched a gun whtie thnt ehtld ’Was In unr midst. “When the firing did start again it was rather desultory and indifferent, and there was nothing dangerous about it. That little child had worked a wonderful change in the hearts of both friend and foe that morning.”