The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-09-28
IN THE FATHERLAND
INTERESTING BITS OF NEWS
FROM THE GREAT GERMAN
EMPIRE.
WHAT'S DOING In OLD HOME
Summary of the Most Important Hap
penlnss in the Land Of the Kaiser
Timely Items for the German
Readers.

nGd0CF6s
Frankfort's largest barracks are
bullt around square perhaps 500 feet
square-a square large enough to &C
commodate easily dozen or a score
of groups of soldiers. There is the
customary marching, exercising in sa-
luting, bayonet duel work, setting up
drill and dummy shooting practice.
One corner of the parade ground is
reserved for the playing, chiefly such
simple games as blind mans buff, tug
of war, leap frog and the like The
favorite game is one in which a score
of soldiers form circle, while two of
their number, blindfolded, attempt to
catch each other in the center. 1t Is
all absurdly simple, and interesting to
watch for a moment, but experience
has shown that it has great value in
relieving mental strain. The soldier
coming out from under fire has about
two desires-to sleep and to eat-and
after he has done these no amount of
reading or conversation will make him
forget himself as well as physical ex-
ercises that relieve cramped limbs
and make him laugh.
German sweethearts and German
wives write so many letters to the
men at the front that the German pa
per factories are compelled to work
day and night. The German post Of
flee is taxed to the limit of it's capac-
ity. Sew raj official warnings have
had to be published in order to curb
the writing fever somewhat Accord
ing to statistics just published, the
German post Office handles 25,S00,000
letters every day on the average. This
is an increase of 81 per cent COM
pared with the last peace year, 1913.
There are 16,400,0O0 letters sent or
received from soldiers in the field ev-
cry day. This is more than the Ger
man post office handled for the whole
empire in 1913. .yyass., -, 4. ,t,,-s1.,s.e
Now if the bread card was such a
huge success from the standpoint of
an commissioning the word in ma
tional or social sense-Germans ask
why not extend the system. If the sys-
tenn works well in times of war, why
return to the old slovenly methods of
extravaganza and happy-golucky lack
of systems in time of peace? This is
the way the subject is discussed in
Germany. While most of the sons of
the fatherland are at the front fight
ing, those who stayed at home are
discussing how to fight another kind
of an enemy to the human race, name
ly, waste, extravaganza, unproductive
labor, needless energy. And they are
tracking this internal enemy in the
good old-fashioned, scientific, thor
oughgoing German way.
Few cities in Germany have more
bravely defied the reactionary and de-
structive effects of the war than Leip-
zig. The famous old city, for decades
the center of the fur trade and book
business, though hard hit by the con-
f1ict, nevertheless is attempting a
building program that would easily be
considered ambitious in peace time.
The largest railway station in Europe
is gradually nearing completion at
cost of more than $G,000,000 It's con-
struction has only been slowed down
by the shortage of workmen, and some
time this fall it will be entirely fin
ished
Princess Adalbert, wife of the third
son of the German kaiser, gave birth
to daughter September IL. The child
died less than an hour after it's birth.
The condition OF the princess is re-
ported satisfactory. Prince AdaIbert
and Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meinin-
gen were married August 26, 1914. A
month later the prince was reported
killed at Brussels, but the rumor
proved unfounded. LII March he was
promoted to captain in the navy and
major in the army.
A decrease of approximately 25 per
cent IN the birth rate or Berlin for
July over the same month in 1914, is
reported in a dispatch from Amster-
dam. Official returns show that while
1870 children were born in the Ger
man capital in July, 1914, only 2,520
were born in July, 1915. The number
of births for May, June and July of
1914 was 10000, while it was only
Z ,523 for the same quarter this year
The Berlin Vorwaerts reports that
owing to some cases of typhus fever
having been discovered in the western
district of Berlin, the police have eau
toned the public against the use of
lnboiled milk