The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-01-12
HUNG Y GERMANY

4
srv for food and when one is hungr!
for food it does not require much VI
an imagination to tell of that one S
condition.
Miss Madeline Doty, who speahs
! the German language fiuently' mas
been through Germany with her eyes
open and her ears unstopped, ana her
letters if true are revelations. Her
letters are printed in the New 1orA
and Chicago Tribunes.
The fact that she sympathizes with
the German people would, to say the
least. give a semblence of truth 10 her
statements.
For example she says
ITO an observant person tnre@
things are everywhere in evidence
telling an unmistakable story Inc
! fiat stomachs, the endless Sign q
rent and the empty chocolate 5lolS.
The German race is surely slipping
into decline What shall the World
do? Shall it stand idly by, or shall
it stretch out a hand Of sympathy ana
understanding to these troubled peo-
pie and help Thorn free themselves
from the domination OF military
group they begin to despise? The PEG
pie do not wish to b. ugly. iheF 10
not believe in Won TirpitZ submarine
policy. but if England insists on
smashing and crushing the German
nation. where is their h0pe2 What
is left but ugly retaliation? We are
not yet angels.
Miss Doty does not say that the
German people are suffering from
the effects of acute hunger but she
does say that the whole nation is I'M
derfed.
She manages with her passports to
enter Berlin and for several days she
wanders about the city letting impress
sions sink in. She finds activity but
it is listless activity. the activity of
by gone days or country town.
Prancing horses or new, shining taxis
are nowhere to be seen.
She says:
"Tha taxis are the refuse from the
front They toss and bump you about.
The carriages have been reSurrected
| from the past. The horses are chiefly
valuable as a study in bone anatomy.
Poor things, | often looked in their
| dinner pals They never had any
thing but chopped straw
The people. especially the middle
classes and the very poor are getting
to be like the horses.
AS Tor the peou,e there is a som
Der grayness about them. They are
thin didn't see q girth anywhere.
Germany is stOmachless 1t isn't that
people have nothing to eat. but all eX-
cept the very rich have too little. The
food they have isn't the right kind.
! During the summer there seemed to
be plenty of vegetables, fruit, and
fair supply of black bread. but this
without grease. sugar or meal does
not satisfy digestion. It's like trying
to run a wagon without oil II begins
to creak."
Sooner or later there must come a
crisis The German race, this keen
eyed observer says. begins to creak
The soldiers at the front may be well
fed, but those at home, soldiers as
well as civilians. are noticeably thin
and emaciated. They are pale. weary
and without life. They have no stom
achs.
There is popular saying among
them, Miss Doty says, in German verse
as follows:
"Dorrgemuse.
TrOCken Brot.
Marmelade.
Helentod."
A translation makes it read: Dried
vegetables. dry bread, marmalade
and a heros DEATH
Miss Doty tells of a trip to the rail
way Station to see big detachment
of troops leave for Wilma.
There are no huzzas. Before the
train moves off the soldiers sit around
in groups, talking very little, perhaps
not at all. All the German esprit de
corps have fed.
Miss Doty describes the farewell as
heart-rendering:
Here is young boy saying good
By to mother and three aunts. He i
all they have-their whole life. Here
father is saying farewell to a wife
and three sons under seventeen. Or
a mother in deep MOURNING taking
leave OF her son. or young wife with
a baby in her arms giving a last EN-.
brace
AS the train moves out of the sta
ton there are no shouts, no cheers
no words of encouragement. Instead
there is deadly silence. The men
lean out of windows stretching des-
pairing hands toward loved ones. AS
the train pulls away the little groups
break into struggling sobs. They are
shaken as by a mighty tempest. par.
oxysms of grief rend and tear them
They know the end has come. A
man may go once into battle and re-
flIFO nut moi fUioo