The Germans are suffering intensely from the cold. In every town which they occupied they carried off all the available winter clothing, furs, sheepskins and leather coats. At Lodi and Shiradow, where there are great cloth factories, they commandeered the whole of the stocks and kept the plants working day and night providing materials for export to Germany. They failed, however, to bring away much of this owing to the destruction of the railway bridges by Polish guerillas, whose activities are acknowledged to have contributed to the Russian success. THE BRIGHTER SIDE. Life in the trenches appears by no means to be the irksome and dreadful thing it is reported to be. According to soldiers just back in Paris from the firing line troops that are supposed to face each other grimly across a fire-swept space only a few hundred yards wide are not the bloodthirsty fellows we all took them for. They carry chivalry into their work, and certain conventions, all making for comfort, have been tacitly established between them. For example, toward midday both sides suspend fire in order that they may eat luncheon in peace. They would undoubtedly oblige each other when the evening meal is due but for the unhappy fact that the dinner hours of the contending armies do not tally. Obviously, says a facetious Frenchman, it is somebody's duty to see that the meal hours of the opposing forces synchronize exactly. The soldiers entertain each other with music, the trenches on either side furnishing items turn and turn about. HOW THE RUSSIANS PAY. "Oh, yes, the Russians pay for what they take," exclaims the Koenigsberger _Zeitung_, and adds: "The inspector of a great farm, who was riding a fine horse, his saddle and bridle ornamented with silver, encountered a troop of Russians. "'We need that horse; dismount,' ordered the Russian commander. 'But to prove to you that we Russians are not so black as we are painted, I now pay you for the horse.' "So saying he handed a ruble (51.5 cents) to the inspector, who discovered later that the piece was coined in the eighteenth century and is not current now." KAISER'S CLOSE CALL. Further details are now at hand of the Kaiser's narrow escape from death from bombs thrown by an airman attached to the allied army occupying the line from Nieuport to Ypres for five days. The Emperor was present at the operations on that front, and it was because of his presence that the enemy made such persistent and vigorous attacks on the Allies, regardless of the enormous sacrifice of life. The Kaiser, with some of his aides, arrived by motor car at a tavern at Thielt about 5 p. m. Apartments had been reserved for the Emperor. Dinner was ready and his personal baggage had already been deposited in the bedroom prepared for him. He was in a hurry and did not dress for dinner, but immediately sat down to dine.