ANECDOTES
OF THE
GREAT WAR
E-text prepared by Brian Coe, Emmy,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
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| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See https://archive.org/details/anecdotesofgreat00case |
Anecdotes of the Great War
Transcriber's Note: This cover has beencreated by the transcriber using the title page and is placed in the public domain.
GATHERED FROM EUROPEAN
SOURCES
By CARLETON B. CASE
Shrewesbury Publishing Co.
CHICAGO
Copyright, 1916
by
Shrewesbury Publishing Co.
FOREWORD
THERE have been occasions, even in this greatestof world’s conflicts, when
“Grim-visag’d war hath smoothed hiswrinkled front,”
and stopped fighting long enough to smile.
It could not be all slaughter and struggle, thiswar, or every combatant on the long, weary battle-linewould go mad. There must be relaxation fromthe terrible tension. And there is.
Human nature proves to be much the same in timeof stress as under more cheerful circumstances, andthe lads at the front, in the trenches, and even inthe hospitals, as well as the sad-hearted folks leftbehind, are quick to catch at any incident, howevertrivial, that shall relieve the strain by a suggestionof mirthfulness; a mild paliative for the awfulness ofthings as they are.
In all wars there are amusing happenings; stillbut few are ever recorded, so overshadowed are theyby more momentous matters. And now, while shrapneland gas-bombs are still fouling the European airand tremendous events that make history for a wholeworld are being enacted daily, seems the most fittingtime to gather such material as the European press[4]affords, to exhibit the lighter side of the world’s mostdreadful war.
This is the first and so far the only collection ofits kind published since the war began. In its compilationcare has been taken to avoid all items calculatedto give offense to any. The bitterness andhatred that characterize much of the current offerings,especially of the German and British press, aregiven no place here, for reasons that must be obvious.
The absence or scarcity of anecdotes from Russian,Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Bulgarian, Serbian andItalian sources may be attributed to the editor’s inabilityat
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