The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-02-28

crate and even suicidal fury.
 heard; then I understood the secret, the very deep secret of the reason of the German peoples forebearance.
 It is very simple, but nevertheless, 1t is deep secret, but I anNuncover it in this report in a very few words. They bear, and they will bear still more and intensely, because they do rot know a way whereby they can avoid privation.
 The German people have suddenly become fatalistic 'en masse.' They complain, they curse, they are angry, but they never speak of a program or scheme whereby they can stop this slow-dying process that has the whole nation in its firm grip. From week to week they subsist on smaller ra- tions because they know and believe that there is no way out of it. There is no food in the country, so while they curse the government they are not, in the deep recesses of their heart of hearts, blaming their rulers for not providing them with food.
 Why They Stand It All
 But the prime reason of their fore bearance lies still deeper. From one day to another they expect to hear l that their enemies will give in. I have heard from the lips of intelligent highly intelligent, German men and women, the statement such as this that has almost become stereotyped ''It is true, we are suffering, but il will soon be ended. Just think how much more our enemies must be suf. fering. They will soon yield and i will be all over!'' They will make these statements to you and while your better knowledge of the outside world tells you that your friends ar; l laboring under a great delusion, they | expect that you will confirm these l false ideas that have been inculcatet l in them by their rulers. As often as i became my opportunity, I disillusion ed my friends on this subject. I tolC them that although it is true tha their submarines had destroyed enor nous tonnage of shipping, yet severa thousands of steamers were entering and leaving the enemy ports eacl week. It was strange news to hun dreds of Germans whom I tnterviewet Ito hear that America had voluntaril,
 adopted food rations in order tha
 they could provide their allies witt
 sufficient food.
 What They Were Told
 told my friends in many NortI
 German cities that America had al ready landed a force of - me
 to take their places along with tn
 },-
 formation regarding the number c
 the men was correct as had learne
 from friends who had recently visite
 Switzerland from France.
 My friends awakening was eS
 tremeIy rude, and they became down
 cast They had been fed on studio lies, lies of all kinds. They had be
 come ignorant of every event that wa
 transpiring both abroad and at homt They seldom believed in their govern , ment bulletins but the constant, peI sistent, insistent and methodical repe tition of those studied lies had finall
 convinced the German people. M
 readers would understand the foo
 situation in Germany better if te < them that pure butter has sold Berlin at 50 marks per pound. Coffe and tea unadulterated is practical : impossible to procure, and when it , possible to procure it, the price varis E from so to as high as 80 marks pt +N pound. (The present value of tT I mark is 16 cents in American none while in pre-war days the mark W.
 equal to A cents.)
 l The Misbehavfng War Bread
 The price of bread is not very hig
 but that food commodity has cease
 to be bread any longer. During u
 early days of my arrival at Berlin
 could not eat the war bread as serve
 at hotels or public restaurants, ar
 this is even somewhat better ths
 what they serve at average home The war bread has a dark brown co or, very unwholesome odor, al , weighs in your stomach as heavy i a slice of it weighs in your hand . The taste is sourish, and as you ma l ticate it, it becomes larger and larg ) in your mouth until you feel compeI ed to remove it, but prudence pr : vails. You feel thAI the very ne ' mouthful will behave similarly, CO
 sequently you swallow it with a bi 2 | ISI 1eSl1ilS. IlS WAT pISdu r be eaten without the accompanime 0 of some liquid matter, like soup, j. hot drinks, which masquerade und any names, but which are in reali # colored hot water. My first expe, | ence with the war bread was pittf n indeed. On breaking a portion fro D the slice before me I became hor s fled to see a thousand strings cling 7 the two parts that I had just separ l, ted. They clung until my hands h .0e parted nearly the widths of the pls l. before me. I can describe it bett l- i if I say that the object before me h
 the appearance of two telephone DO, D. loaded with fnnumerable wires [, miniature. I have seen people bre 'l the bread. and, holding the smaI IT portion, twist the oozing substar : around the other until they had q , connected the parts.
 Y What Became of the Dogs sx While in Switzerland I had hea
 line freoUent remarks aho1Jf fha ur