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

e Act VI otHeT men III the camp, bOth
 British and of the other allied nations, who were dependent on the prison diet
 and his aunt forthwith decided that this should not be longer if she could
 help it.
 T had bit of money saved up," she said, as we talked in her packing room one day this week. land I utilized part of that in sending out parcels to the other men and meanwhile set to work
 to interest my many friends and their
 friends in making a regular business of the thing. A lot of them volunteered as workers at once and others prom ised to adopt certain prisoners and to arrange that these should be sent a substantial parcel of food and clothing once fortnight So the thing has gradually grown until we are now sending to men in upward of 20 diff ferent camps. including Ruhleben and 1 are averaging about 200 parcels a we elk. You can judge how welcome ] they are when I tell you that some of the recipients of our parcels, for | whole year, have lived entirely on l what we send them and have not even so much as tasted the regular camp rations.
 At present" she added. i've are sending out our special Christmas par cells which will total about 400. As you see (taking up one), they are | very carefully packed and have on the outside complete type written list i of the contents, as well as the name of the donor"
 l l read the list mentioned with curi- osity. It was as follows Plum pud- ding, sausages, meat dried fruit rais- ] fns, figs and dates. chestnuts, mixed vegetables. sweets. cocoa, milk and sugar" Not half bad Christmas i Tspread!" And the name of the donor, l in this case. was "Her Excellency | Madame de Chary,' whose husband is a member of the French embassy in London
 We have also sent out 30 cases of apples" said Mrs. Humphrey, Can adian ones. which were presented to us by Col H. F. Reed, the Canadian agent-general here Last Christmas we sent out over four tons of apples, each one wrapped up separately, and, judg- ing by the letters of thanks we re- ceived, they were warmly welcomed We were talking in the midst of a scene of industry that would not have disgraced Leggetts in New York or any other big American wholesale gro- cery house From the floor to the cell ing of Mrs. Humphreys packing
 room" were shelves filled with all
 kinds of foodstuffs-sardine tins, cases
 of shredded wheat (presented by their
 American manufacturers). jars of honey, cases of raisins, boxes of dates, cocoa, sugar. coffee, condensed milk, goodness knows what notl The spicy,
 savory smells from all these made one's mouth water.
 The packers" on that day num-
 bered about dozen, all obviously "gentlefolk." They were all women
 save one and he was a grey-haired ex- colonel in the British army. He was tying up parcels as fast he could work
 The rest, likewise, were slogging away
 like the proverbial beavers. But this
 is really rather a slack day." de-
 clared the genius of it all Tuesdays
 and Thursdays are our big days, and
 on them we usually have as many as
 30 people working here. No, am
 afraid there are no title among us at
 all We are all quite humble, but many
 prominent people are assisting us in
 our work. The thing about it that am .proudest of is that every stroke of it
 is voluntary. We haven't even paid
 typist. All our typing is done by q
 girl at the war office who works at it after her regular hours"
 To the prison camp at Gefssen, where her nephew is confined, Mrs. Humph- rey sends at regular intervals, besides food and comforts" an ample supply of art and sketching materials. oil paints, crayons. brushes and other es- sentials, as well as frequent consign- ments of English and other art jour- nals. This because, at Geissen, an un- usual number of artists and designers, some of them men of exceptional gifts, are prisoners. Before Mrs. Humphreys enterprise came into being they were practically without any materials whatever to enable them to beguile the tedium of their captivity by prac-
 tioaing their craft.
 These artists number 20 in all of various talents and qualities, from theatrical scene painters to 'Beaux Arts" masters of color and line Four of them are British. One of these, A. Nantel, was formerly on the Montreal Standard anotherl Alan Beddoe. for merly an art student, comes from Ot- tawa; the third is Mrs. Humphreys nephew, Lewis Renateau; and the fourth by profession a decorator, be- longs to an English regiment. The rest are Frenchmen and Belgians, one Of the former, Raphael Drouart, being well known in the Parisian art world.
 Now that they do not lack for ma terials. the whole lot devote practi- cally all their spare time to their art and never lack commissions. albeit the fees that their fellow prisoners are able to pay are not exactly princely. A recent photograph. taken in the Geissen studio" shows a group of these captive artists working with an Algerian fellow prisoner as their model. The commandant of the camp, to whose humanity the prisoners glad ly pay tribute. has also sat for his portrait and apparently was vastly pleased with the result.
 To say that these men and the other ally prisoners in the hands of the Ger mans who receive the bounty of Mrs