SOLDIERS FIRST THIS CHRISTMAS Even Children Take Second Place in This Year's Yuletide It's the soldiers' Christmas this year. Even the children will take second place. Christmas is going to come not only to every soldier in an encamp ment or cantonment in the United States, and to every sailor on ship-' board or in port, but also to every man in a prison camp, and to every man in uniform, somewhere in; Krance, or anywhere else in the ser vice. They will all celebrate Christ-: mas, through the efforts of the Y. M. i C. A., in co-operation with other organizations. Not one will be left j out on Christmas. There will be Christmas trees, not only in every Y. M. C. A. building 1 in the United States where men in uniform come, but in the base camps > in the training zone in France, and i even behind the trenches, where the: improvised angels on the top boughs! shake with the reverberations of the! German guns, and carols are sung | to the accompaniment of exploding j shells. There will be gifts, wrapped as daintily as if they were intended for somebody's best girl, for many of the men who haveg't gotten any from home, when they come into the Y. M. C. A. huts on Christmas Day. And men coming wet and cold from the trenches will warm them selves around real Yuletide logs in the fireplaces in the Red Triangle huts. Scrubby Christmas trees with carefully saved bits of tallow candles as their only decoration will bring the holiday spirit for a time even to the prison camps in Siberia, where the Bethlehem story will be read in Y. M. C. A. huts, and an orchestra made up of the prisoners of war will play "Holy Night" on instruments of their own making. Secretaries will greet men who speak no English with "Merjy Christmas!" and they will understand. No children, in the United States are more excited over their Christmas preparations than the prisoners of war over theirs. Thousands of packages addressed merely to "Some Soldier, Somewhere in France," left the Atlantic porta on the early November boats. The movements of the troops over there make it unlikely that some of the personally-addressed presents will get to the men by Christmas Pay, but as far as possible the Y. M. C. A. will see that none of them are without a gift. The soldiers and sailors who are still In the United States will be equally well looked after by the holiday spirits. Not more than approximately one-third of them will be allowed to leave camp on December 25, but those who can't go to Christmas will lave Christmas brought to them, hy the Y. M. C. A. The people of Maryland will act as St. Nick for the Maryland men at Camp Meade, Md„ and Camp Mc- Clellan, Ala. They have raised a fund which makes it possible to spend about a dollar and a half I'or the Christmas present of every Mary land man in uniform. Two thousand soldiers at Camp Meade would be real Christmas out casts if it were not for the holiday kindness of their comrades. There will be no trees for them, no celebra tion in the Y. M. C. A. buildings, or visits from the home folk, for they are the victims of something as old as Christmas, itself—they have all| been quarantined with the meifeles. They will not lose the holiday, en-1 tirely. however, for a choir organiz-l ed under the auspices of the Y. M. I C. A. will march through camp sing-1 Ing Christmas carols, pausing in; front of the barracks where these | men are isolated to cheer them with all the Christmas hymns in their rep ertoire. Large Increase in Marriages Result of War London, Dec. 20.—"Crudely stated the war has resulted in 200,000 peo ple in the United Kingdom being! ma tried between August, 1914, and j June, 1917, who in the ordinary j course would not have married," says Bernard Mallet, president of the Statistical Society. The loss of potential liv#: to the belligerent countries by the decrease in number of children born, was per haps the most important effect upon vital statistics produced by the war, he said. In births the Unfted King dom had suffered far less than Ger many and Hungary, the United King- | dom having lost 10,000 per each mil- I lion of the population. Germany 40,- 000 and Hungary 70,000 per mil lion. The infant mortality in the sum mer of 1917 appeared to have been very high in several German cities, and the all through re mained at some 50 per cent, higher than in England. An alteration in the sex ratio of birth appeared to be established by the figures of the United Kingdom, the. proportion of males having no ticeably increased. Contrary to ex-1 pectations the war had produced no effect on the figures of illegitimate births. §' ""giveH EYE GLASSES If you wish to make your father, mother, sister or brother a Christ mas gift that will give real pleasure and enjoyment, a pair or our Eve glasses are just the thing. We will make a careful examination and < guarantee satisfaction. Eyesight Specialist S# KOHTH THIHL) STREET Nchlelaaer Building Hot Water Bottles Encased For Traveling GORGAS 16 N. 3rd St. Penna. Station, j RESORTS LAUREL HOUSE LAKEWOOD, N. J. First class American Plan Hotel. A short motor run from Camp Dlx, at Wrlghtstown, N. J. A. J. Murphy, MKT. C. V. Murphy, AMI. Sl* I THURSDAY EVENING, "The Live Store . Always Reliable" Old Santa Is "Almost" Ready lip And Indeed there's not so much time to get ready anymore—tomorrow • \w lam going to spend the whole day at DOUTRICHS buying "Shirts "Neckwear," "Hosiery," "Un- M ajamaß " " Sweaters " "Gloves," "Handkerchiefs," and other "useful" gifts that are to be had at this "The Real Christmas Store" |M| COa u X " 01d awayfromDoutrichs this year, someone asked \|S|^M ME why I didn t divide my buying more—Well you see, I can't find a very good excuse for not buying at that M'- 1 ) "Live Store" because they have everything I want in such enormous quantities and larger assortments that even if I wanted to illi'' i/JHS go elsewhere I couldn t find a reasonable excuse for doing so, then too, I have a friend in there who told me that if I would ! J| 111 spend most of my money at DOUTRICHS this Christmas they could boast of having the largest Men's Furnishing Goods De- JII I partment in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and "you bet" lam glad to see "it so " for everybody is talking about the Square-dealing and good treatment they get at DOUTRICHS and they well deserve this recognition. They are always busy at DOUTRICHS No matter when you go in or /Hi In 1 heard a man say on Saturday that he could start a small store if he only got the overflow $ 111 IIP' JB rwtttTlT from DOUTRICHS—No, No, You're Wrong! They all come back later —that's what keeps J'*sL S lf!L Jflfifi Um Ij| t"* B "Live Store" in the limelight as Harrisburg's Most Progressive Store. if III''! '' ISIIWIS 11 i '~i I l>- —Q ueß ti° n >* How near ready are YOU? Have you completed rfl all i iff HI I\ k Christmas Shopping? Probably "HE" will appreciate a nice | Pj M I Bath Robe; or House Coat J|j | Bath Robes in shades of Blue, Gray, Tan, Green and Brown, House Coats that are unquestionably good, neat trimmed ; VI | suitably trimmed with girdle cord, collar, P oc^e^s and cuffs on rich shades of Green, Wine, Blue f jMI? • and Gray, \.o\ $3.98 to $15.00 . $5.00 to $12.00 "Interwoven" and "Monito Hosiery. Neckwear Hosiery may be the last thing you would think of ou t" c^B make up your Christmas package for a gift but surely it's very important to have M : ll ' i "iMwuSSm °f, neckwea 1 r - No matter how many neckwear *tf nlpntv of crnorl j i k* *My\ A g1 " 8 you Be^ect here, they will all be boxed free. plenty of good hose. Try the good ones we have, lf 5™ have friends by the thousands you'll be able 31'L* w |AA to c^oose a different tie for each one from the iSSBBf lor JpAUU VT mammoth assortments. Better Cirades6oc and $1.15 <i . 50c to $2.50 Handkerchiefs of Linen and Cambric I - "Adler Gloves" ' Every initial from Ato Z put up in attractive boxes of half , u . - • , , iy * jW j dozen or sold in any quantity. WIU HlB fin gers warm and give a neat appearance to His Initial Cambric Handkerchiefs 15c hands the "Gray Mocha" Gloves we have this season are f Initial Lmen Handkerchiefs .... .. . .25c extra heavy weight and they will wear better than the ordinary ' . sSh xra me Qua lty Handkerchiefs 3 for SI.OO kinds—We have every other kind of a glove you can think of. "Manhattan Shirts'' "Munsing Underwear" "Stetson Hats" nImHP / II HXRJRISBURG TELEGRAPH DECEMBER 20, 1917. 13
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers