New Britain herald., 1916-01-22

quality paper, with fibre almost the mesh of cloth, but unmistabs paper.
 "It is remarkable" said an locker, "how the Germans get up serviceable substitute as soon as t run out of any article.
 Rope and Irvine Substitutes.
 Here is another curious and si f1cant fact" said the official in cha of the gymnasium mails. He held Q large card, a foot square, on WI he placed twenty-one samples rope and twine.'
 Those show the ingenious stitutes the Germans are now us for ordinary rope and twine,' he.
 The samples were from varl mail bundles from Germany. TA ranged in size from a small-size I'd about IS inch thick to ordin string. None of the 21 samples any hemp. Most of the small stri and twines had a fine inner wire, give tensile strength, wound with per to give an outer finish and ibility. The heavier ropes were of per, with strands wound together N stout material. But the little in wire seemed the basis of strength these strange German substitutes hemp rope and cord, required enormously in ordinary business commerce.
 All about, long lines of postal i ployes were at work sorting the N dier mail--letters, packages and mol | orders-going to various oountrI Many poor people mail 8 loaf of brS daily to the son or father away at ] front or in prison. One of the wrI pings of a loaf of bread had bro1 open, and disclosed that the senl | had ingeniously inserted a copy the Paris Matin inside the bread. Done Without Malice. It was doubtless done without m 1 ice, the officials said, by some D mother who wanted her son to ge l glimpse of the home paper. Most l the package made one sad to see, | ! were so pathetic in their meagrer and yet so full of silent love. was small remnant of a Christi tree, with some of the trinkets adT ing. Others were packages neatly vided into small sections of schocoI l tobacco, soap and other needs small Iuxuries of the men away fl 1 home.
 But the most poignant branch 1 this busy bureau was the table hea with letters and packages which co never be delivered, each bearing stamp "decede." One employee 1 binding these letters in packages ( hundred, and there were many these hundreds, with the incon vans adding to them constantly. w the letters are first received, every fort is made to deliver them, when the official record or other thoritative information shows the dier is dead the fatal black -borde stamp "decede" goes on the letter 1t Is returned to the sender. And this stamp carries into count homes daily the news which is a fir edy to each one of these household the first news, for the sending of letter showed the family thought son or father was still alive. Strange Incident.
 There was a strange incident all one of those letters," said the offit The letter was sent by a mother 1 Germany to her son in France. Eli l ing he was dead, the letter was turned to the mother, with the sts i 'decede.' But the mother. not un, standing the French word 'dece ! thought it meant the name of
 town to which her son had b transferred. And so she wrote
 again, and this time all the child Joined in the letter, and it was
 dressed to his name. at Dee France Of course there is no s place, and so again the letter W pack with an explanation why it co not be delivered.' r,.
 In other nearby rooms scores of n and female employees were at work postal orders. It needed nice caIcI ton in each case, making the
 change between French francs, c man marks, English shilIings, Russ ' roubles, Italian Iira, Austrian knont etc. The records kept by MT. Brt showed France was sending about times as much to Germany as was SC the other way, indicating more fTeh prisoners than Germans or else mo generosity. In October, for examp France sent 1000 postal orders French soldiers in Germany, totalll l 1,681,0OO francs ($336,O00), wh ! Germany sent 34,000 orders to Gt man soldiers in France, totalli 546,OOO francs ($110, ,0O0.) Russia also sending an exceptionally lar number of money orders to her s' Giers in Austria, Hungary and Gt many Since the war began, oy S5,OO0,0OO francs ($7,000,00 h been transmitted from families to s, diers imprisoned in various countri Magnitude of Work.
 MT Breny summed up the mag1 tude of this work in all classes soldier mail as follows: Each q the Swiss post office receives and fc wards an average of 219,0S4 lette and postals, 16,912 small unregister packages, 1897 registered packae and 8,32S postal orders-this is t