Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-02-13
Meat About Only Food Showing No
Advanee-cheese Not to Be Had at
Any Priee-Turkey Selling $1.32 Per
Pound - Lack Of Oils Becoming
Serious Menace, Says Correspond dent.

reduced to ten ounces ana tnaC elmer
q shortage of flour or disordered dis
tribution of it among the bakers had
resulted in long queues of buyers
standing for hours in front Of the
bakeries.
Prices Still Low.
Maximum prices of foodstuffs con-
trolled by the government are still very
low for potatoes and bread, and COM
paratively low for meats. Potatoes
cost only ~ cents, the standard bushel
of sixty pounds and bread a little less
than 81 cents pound
But the potato allowance is insuffi-
cient for persons who have little but
bread and potatoes to eat.
1t has been hoped to allow one egg
to each person in two weeks in greater
Berlin, but the last one egg allowance
was made some five weeks ago and
another is not promised until February
When the correspondent left Berlin in
August. 1t was still possible to buy
cheese.
No Cheese.
Since the end of August there has
been no cheese on the market. 1t is
said considerable quantities are being
imported from Holland, but it goes APP
parently to the front except for small
quantities allowed the restaurants and
hotels. Another serious reduction OF.
available foodstuffs has been the ex-
preparation for control by the govern
ment Of all canned vegetables.
-Four or five weeks ago the dealers
were permitted to sell fractional part
of their stock, but only two cans on
each bread card. Permission to sell
further part is expected to be granted
again soon, but the dealers are to be
selling it, SO as to force the buyers to
consume it at once and not hoard it.
Oils Are Scarce.
The weekly allowance Of meat of
all kinds in the greater Berlin mu-
inequalities runs from 5A to SIX ounces.
The cheapest varieties cost about so
cents pound the dearest Is cents.
One of the most serious results Is
in the lack of oils. The weekly allow
ance of butter and margarine together
is a little less than three ounces a
person. Oil is so expensive that it is
out Of the reach of the great majority.
The Associated Press correspondent
paid 1910 for about two-thirds Of a
pint of hazelnut oil to be used for fry.
ing. Goose fat costs $3.S0 can of
17% ounces, the only fat, except veget.
able oils, that can be bought without
a card.
This deficiency of fat in the daily
rations shows itself in an almost con-
tinuous feeling of hunger The corre-
"a h;ooc in
the first days of his visit, remarked
on it.
Soldiers Complain.
II feel hungry all the time" SAID
the person addressed.
Extending his investigations, the
correspondent heard similar express
sions from all sides. The most bitter
complaints came from soldiers at
home. When the writer last visited
the front in July, the mems rations
were ample In every respect, and there
is no reason to believe the same is
not true today. The soldiers at home
thus notice the deficiency more kecnly.
There is no real coffee left Some
tea at high prices still is to be had, but
the poorer people drink brew of lin
den blossoms, raspberry leaves of
leaves of other shrubs or trees.
Turkey $1.32 Pound.
Fish takes the place of meat on 9th :.
err days, unless one can buy goose
at $1.56 pound (they cost 50 pound
just before Christmas), duck at $l.44
pound, turkey at $1.32 pound, o.
hen at s1.oS to sl.20 pound. Com
paratively little game comes on the
markets, apparently going to the hotels
and restaurants.
Supper Is the problem in the aver
age household. Generally there are no
potatoes left over from noon, and ii
there are there is no fat in which to
fry them. There Is no meat, no
cheese and no sausage, no butter on
sour or five days Of the week, no more
bottled beer, and many saloonkeepers
refuse to sell beer to be consumed off
the premises. The beer, however, is all
but undrinkable.
Rifle Fish Most Costly.
There remain, then, only bread anu
fish, fresh, smoked, dried, or canned.
And here the problem Of cost is added
to that of monotony The writer paid
in Berlin $3.50 pound for ordinary
lake trout and "a cents pound for
small fresh water bass. Dried sailed
fish costs IS cents pound and smoked
eel 81. az TO $40.
Smoked goosebreast costs So to $3.50
pound and boiled shrimps are ~
cents. Once in every four or 1--we
weeks, the city authorities place on
the market small tins Of sardines, one
of which may be bought on presenta-
ton Of the municipal provision card.
Each family, no matter Of how many
members, has only one OF these cards.
Pepper IS.
The sardines thus sold may be hal
for about As cents for the small tins.
In the open market they cost from 81
cents for sardines in tomato sauce TO
. cents for sardines In oil. One
smoked herring. from six TO eight
inches long. cost 90 to % cents. can
OF alleged shredded veal, bought by thr
correspondent was more than half gel
atine and cost q cents Its gross
weight was pound.
Pepper. costs So IL pound and small
rais.iis S10s Sacchaline dissolved In.
vat r has, taken the place of sugar for: