The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-04-13
HOW FRENCH ARE AFFECTED.
Though Prices of Food and Fuel are
High, There is No Complaint.

VI luo WAL Tie NEWS anu courier udS
had the privilege of publishing let
ters received in Charleston from an
American woman we'll known in this
country, but for number of years
a resident of France, where she lives
with relatives by marriage. Another
such letter, dated February 25, and
written from Dijon, has recently been
received. Parts of it will be read
with very general interest because of
the light which they shed upon con-
ditions in France She writes:
81 have two letters to thank you
for, one dated the 18th of December
and the other the 18th of January.
They both reached me safely and
gave me much pleasure. 1 am glad
the gloves did not go astray and am
sorry I did not remember your num-
Der. French numbers are smaller
than English and American ones, but
I will try another year to send you a
pair of 6. I usually send 6 IA when
l am not sure, as it is safe size, but
on account of the war they were
short of that number, so took six
and half for several friends. In
Dijon the supply of everything is
short and even in Paris it has be-
come very hard to get what one
wants, so much of industrial France
is occupied by the Boches, and all
the men from 10 to 4S are under the
colors, so little is being made, and
one can only get just what is left
over. All the necessities of life have
gone up so much that they are out
of the reach of the poor, who get on
as best they may without word of
complaint is all done for France.
so they suffer in silence. Fortunate
ly bread is still four cents a pd.
Git is regulated by law)-but coal va
ries in the different cities from $24
to s36 a ton; wood is $50 cord,
eggs are seven cents piece, chick
ems SO cents pd., soup meat 35
cents, a pd., and good broiling beef
80 cents per pound. When you add
to this that sugar, milk and cheese
have doubled and ham is dollar a
pound, you can see that the poor have
little to rejoice with-bread, wines,
radishes, some vegetables, principally
potatoes, chocolates, milk for the ba-
bies only, and the fruits that are per-
ishable and cannot be sent away,
make up their diet. think they suf-
fer more from cold than anything
else-oil is hard to get and very high,
as are coal and wood; they use a
great deal of coke, sold to them from
the gas houses, and gas, which is now
the cheapest heat to be had in France.
Leather is so expensive that many
have taken to sabots and galoches,
which have wooden soles and leather
tops. The sound of these shoes is
now heard in the streets, and yet with
all this the people stand in line to-
buy the governments bonds. They
are certainly a saving, self-sacri6cing,
abstemious, hard-working, uncom-
planning nation. Ready to suffer, to
work and to die for France. The
more you know them the more you
admire them. If France needs more
money her people will give it to her,
and what is more, 1 feel they will
pay the interest of their debt.
II do not know what has become
of the book of short stories I prom
ised to send you just before the war
came. The mobilization and all that
has come to us since has put it quite
out of my head; however, I will go
to the book store here and see if I
can get a copy, otherwise shall have
to ask you to wait until we return to
Orleans, where it must be. 1 know /
read it in Paris, but as we had not
been week in Orleans when Austria
sent her ultimatum to Serbia, l do
not know if it were unpacked, as we
had expected to move from Orleans
to Moulin when the war came; my
cousin commands the 36th regiment
of artillery, which belongs to Moulin,
and the 9Th army corps. We stayed
on in Orleans as he was not in Mou
lin, and we had lived so long in
Jeanne dare City that we were fond
of it. My cousin stopped belonging
to the 9Th army corps when we went
to Paris for him to follow the centre
des hautes etudes in December, 1913.
What will become of us after the
war We do not know. We have TAX
on an annartment hero which was