The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-01-14

CT national importance" as the offi- cial phrase goes, is filling her days to overflowing instead As result her studio, where many distinguished folk
 have sat to her, and the other apart ments of her pleasant flat in Victoria street have now all the appearance of offices devoted to business, while another big room which she was obliged to add to her menage a while ago resembles nothing so much as the packing department of some fairly big grocery house, and is one of the busiest human beehives to be found anywhere
 Mrs. Humphrey is war working There is nothing uncommon in that, for so is every other British woman worth her salt who can possibly find time to do so. but this accomplished por- trait painers war work is novel and exceptionally interesting in that it Is all done on behalf of the British fight ing men and civilians who are now prisoners in Germany
 The lot of these even allowing for a good deal of exaggeration, is quite evidently no enviable one. It would be strange indeed if the "Gott Strafe- Eng land" policy were not put into pretty active practice against the helpless representatives of hated Albion in the hands of the Teutons. In some camps the treatment of the latter is unde- niably harsh, if not brutal; in others. much better. Delicate1y nurtured men are forced to do the hardest of work, surface coal mining, quarrying and even severer labor. But the worst thing of all is the food. Probably it would be too much to expect that a nation short of food because of British blockade should provide it's British prisoners with ample meals, but it seems to be undisputed that the ra- tions of the Britons In the German prison camps are pretty close to the limit in quantity and quality alike Fortunate are they, indeed, in being able to receive food and clothing from home. else it is hard to say what would have become of them
 The wholly voluntary work which Mrs Florence Humphrey and those now associated with her are doing in sending food and other badly wanted things in the way of comforts" to the British and other allied prisoners in Germany is only one of many sim liar ones, but it is probably unique in the way it started and the curious and interesting fashion in which it has grown and developed. Mrs. Humphrey herself who, as an artist, specializes in portraits of children, and has often exhibited at the Royal Academy, the International and other @"crack" Lon- don galleries. is an Englishw mar ried to Canadian of independent means who besides living a full and varied life in the dominion, served through the American civil war on the side of the south and had many re- markable adventures of which he tells with gusto. He is A. A. Humphrey, and at one stage in his career he was one or the most expert raft pilots on the St Lawrence. and ran the Lachine and the other famous rapids of that classic stream with some distinguished guests among others the Marquis of Lorne Princess Royal and the late Mark Twain. The latter. according to MT Humphreys own confession, he near ly succeeded in drowning.
 A youthful nephew of Mrs. Humph- rey, by name Lewis Renateau, and by profession ship designer in Mon treal, Joined the Canadian Highland CTS soon after the beginning of the war In due time he was sent to France and in April. 1915. he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He was sent to Geissen, one of the best of the German prison camps. and as soon as was practicable let his aunt know of his presence there and of his urgent need of better and more abundant food, though of his general treatment he had little to complain.
 Mrs. Humphrey got busy forthwith She started sending parcels of food to Geissen and had. she tells me, sent over 60 of them before she heard that even not one had reached her nephew. Even now it is never less than six weeks before an acknowledgment of parcel having been received reaches the sender, though the system has be- come so comparatively perfect that not only does practically every parcel sent reach the man for whom 1t is destined, but in eases where men have either been sent to other camps or have died or been exchanged, parcels sent to them came back from Germany to the sender.
 Mrs. Humphreys nephew reported, in answer to queries. that there were