New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-03
iude In time Of stress and was depreca-

tory.
Food Is running low at the casino.
The last portion Of klops WAS served
night before last, just after the big
smash over the grog, and we are get
ting pretty steady diet of cold
Food Is Running Short.
Everybody now begins to look back
on last week ms a time Of extraordinary
high living. Then we had soup (some.
times), hamburger steak occasionally
varied by veaD, potatoes (pretty often),
cabbage always, and then some), the
savory klops, or Dashed meat balls,
which one thoroughly relished as long
as one kept out Of the kitchen, and
coffee invariably.
Usually there WAS tea and pretty
often rum to lace it with. One even
ing there were pancakesl Those were
gorgeous days.
The petroleum has about run out.
Last night we ate In nearly dark
room, an affection which, when you
considered the state Of the table cloths,
was not without its compensations.
The tea Is all gone. II seems that at
3 o'clock last night 1000 fresh troops
were poured into the town. Hence the
shortage Of everything.
This morning a thousand Russian
prisoners were marched out toward
Germany, but that exodus does not
make the food supply any more copi-
Gus, for every prisoner was given a big
loaf Of black bread before the march
began.
The grog scandal has developed
something important, and we have glor-
ious news to-day. Not a victory, but
the announcement that a German SOL
der is coming to take charge OF the
officers casino.
The landlord overcharged the soldiers
lust once too often, and now he must
pay the penalty Of no longer being
master in his own inn. When | came
from Bolimow at nightfall everybody
was talking about this.
Il was true news about the German
soldier coming to take charge of the
inn. He is here, and all goes better
now. We have speed and system, as
well as more to eat, for with him came
abundant supplies. Grog has dropped
from so to 40 pfennigs. II was not in
his voice last Monday night.
Petroleum Brings Cheer.
And hurrah A train carrying a pc
troleum tank has come In from Posen.
We are cheerful tonight.
Well, all but one Of us are cheerful.
The exception is plaintive dame
whose status it is difficult to make out.
She is not servant-might be house
keeper or a kinswoman of the landlord
and trying to make herself important
without being useful.
She sort of muddles around and
listens to orders without taking them.
Though mature, she is by way of being
a coquette, and her manner OF flrta-
ton tends TO the lachrymose. She
looks like the departed stage favorite,
Mrs. Annie Yeamars; talks like her,
too, with the minor difference that she
speaks German with a Polish instead
Of an Irish accent.
She loves to talk and she apparently
enjoys weeping. You can't deny that
she has something real to talk about
and not little to weep over-husband
in the army and not heard from these
many weeks, his little pension as a
telegrapher cut off and she not a well
woman.
At this point she begins to weep
softly. She is profoundly interested in
herself, and so, after the manner OF
war time folk, she is interesting.
War time folk don't talk about tribes.
There are ID trifes left to talk about.
The curious thing about this old lady is
that she is absurd plaintively absurd,
to be sure, but still absurd. She was
born to be a comedenne, and here she
finds herself in her old age landed IN
a colossal tragedy.
Affairs at the inn bear in upon me
another fact in relation to the human
species which war brings out. Amid
the universal CRIME and slip-slop OF
this invested town it seems to be solely
the four-fo.ted and the winged Great
ures that keep clean and scrupulous.
The dove which dwells in the arch
way leading into this squalid place IS
spotless when she comes forth to sur
vey the sorry show of humans passing
beneath her, and she preens fastidi-
ously as she watches-like lovely
lady. 80
And the hound that goes shining
tentatively from table to table is sleek
and fine, maintaining his self-respect
while the world around him is going at
loose ends.
Copyright. 1915. by The Chicago TriouneJ