South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-12-07

and we had il for Marie Brown.
my birthday dinner" third would
tell to the envy of the rest
Americans may thing this is ex-
aggerated. but, until you have been
on a slow starvation diet for months,
YOU cannot realize what intense in
terest the subject Of food has for
you.
Ever since have come home. it
seems to me food is one paramount
object OF Importance.
The first thing / did when / got 10
where i could get IL. was to- buy "A
pound Of candy and sit down To eat
IT, But cGIIdn't. My stomach
simply would not recognize an ar
ticle IL had not known for 50 long. 1
S1t down before white bread and
plenty Of butter. for which l had
longcd during weary months. and
could not eat il. I had To- learn To
eat real food gradually, and even
now my system has not recovered
from the indignities IL had 20 suffer
in Germany.
We had substitutes there for ev-
erything Substitutes were used for
tea, coffee, sugar. milk. eggs, honey,
buildings. The substitute for milk
was a powder which you stirred in
water II looked as though chalk
had been stirred in.
Substitute for Eggs.
For eggs the substitute was lit
tie yellow disk, about one-fourth OF
an inch thick When put into food.
il gave a yellow color and thickened
70 a little as egg would do.
The artificial honey was good. al
though / have no idea of what it was
made The substitute for pudding
was "A substance which looked like
glue. You stirred il into water and
il became pink, and thick and pasty
1t didn't taste bad, but you had to
be hungry to eat il. There was no
eelatine 10 be had.
We did have lots OF barley. but
barley without meat and with no
salt soon gets tiresome We had
lots OF onions, too. Every night, al
most. / would eat a boiled onion on
Il piece of bread. II was nOurishing.
but il. too, grew tiresome.
Since I have come home, barley,
onions. spinach and lettuce are or
by menus. I had enough OF them on
the other side.
OF course we never get any cakes.
The macaroons of which the Ger
mans are so fond and which usually
are so plentiful have become very
scarce. You can buy them. but they
are $3.50 a pound.
-H.s-s- g.
there. but il is as good as nothing. 1
don't know what it is made of. but
it doesn't flavor at all.
Making Dumplings.
one thing we did make that I
liked. our bread cards entitled us
to so much bread or flour. which
ever we wanted-we could not have
both. Sometimes we got -four
black -four Of course. that is all
there was. We would get an egg,
and make a dough from the flour,
water and egg. Then we would put
a bit OF meat and an onion in wa
ter and boil It. When it was boil
ing hot, we would drop the dough
in By spOonfuls and make dumplinRs
This dish was a great luxury though
for II took our allowance OF meat
flour and egE all at once. but il GER
tainly was good
Cheese was a rarity. Once in "A
lGng time, we would be told that we
could have a portion of cheese. /
have stood FIVE hours I'm line waiting
for mine. IL would be less than one
NTH of a pound when l got IL. and
often hard and stale, but did value
il for il was little bit different
from the eternal samencss of the
things we usually had.
When we got vegetables. we rare
Is got them fresh-or fresh fruits
They always were evaporated. and
very hard. We would soak them in
water all night and cook them for
over an hour. sometimes for two or
three hours the next day They
never tasted like fresh vegetables or
fruits. They were rather insipid and
tough
II we could have secured good
quality OF the things we did have 10
eat. II would not have been so bad.
But they were things that. ordina-
rily. at home. we would have thrown
out
How the very. very poor lived.
don't know / heard that the gov
eminent kept them
Government Kitchens
For the middle class. the people
who were not beggars and yet who
could not afford 20 pay the regular
prices for food. the government es-
tabhshed great kitchen IN differ
ent parts OF the city. 1 suppose the
same was done ali over Germany.
am familiar only with what was
done in Berlin.
In this kitchen were big kettles
and into these kettles were a collec-
ton OF the poorer qualities OF veg
etables the tops Of garden truck,
and all sorts OF scraps. All this was
made into a stew and twice day
the people who could not afford TO
buy a. the stores came here and