The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-11-07
6ess II nothing worse.
TO buy new clothes Il ID necessary

6ess Il nothing worse.
To buy new clothes Il II necessary
TO secure a certificate from the gov.
eminent to the effect that you are alb
solutely In need Of clothing, and, even
then, you are compelled to give up the
suit you are d%iscarding.
Branch Offices for investigating the
necessity Of replenishing ones ward
robe have been established all over
the cities and they are always crowd
ed. Women are in charge and they
seemed thoroughly to enjoy their au-
thority and their power to deny an
application for new clothing.
When 1 left Berlin the law permit
ted a man just two shirts, two collars,
two pairs Of socks, ETC., a year. Since
soap had disappeared from the mar
ket so many inadequate substitutes
had been tried that ones laundry in
variably came home full Of holes.
In November, 1917, I paid 500 for a
suit Of clothes which If it had been
made out Of cloth Of good quality
would have been worth about $35. AS
1t was, the tailor frankly admitted
that the goods was made of revoked
yarn, and because of the lack Of cotton
thread, the seams were worked with q
material which looked like paper
string.
This paper string was In general use
at that time, the department stores all
displaying notices warning customers
not to carry their parcels by the string.
Many purchases were no longer
wrapped, to save paper, and no pur-
chase amounting to less than s. was
delivered.
Before I left Berlin, artificial silk
was the principal fabric obtainable for
! ladies' wearing apparel. Almost every
woman in the land, princess or maid,
was attired In art taffeta. It sold for
so a yard. In normal times 1t would
have been worth from rs cents to 81.
In the fall Of 1917, a cloth suit was I'M
obtainable for less than $500. It would
have been worth $25 in normal times.
All fur skins we're needed for SOL
diers' wear and the few that were still
+, oDtainable for home use in the form
Of fur sets sold for $1,000 up.
Through spectators, we obtained
some imitation soft soap at 81 per
pound. People said 1t was made from
human corpses, but 1t was the only
thing available outside Of the substd-
tutes which were soap only In name. 4
small cake Of toilet soap easily brought
IS. A servants plain wooden ward.
robe, formerly costing SIS, was unob
tainable for less than $50. We paid
as high as So a pound for butter, from
q Spectator, and my last Christmas
dinner In Berlin consisted Of q small
goose, just enough for one meal for
three persons, for which I paid $25.
One Of the things the people missed
most, Of course, was their beer. While
1t was put on sale at 8 p. m. every
night, only a limited amount was avail
able and as soon as it was disposed
of, only coffee or tea substitute, with
out sugar, milk or lemons, could be
had.
The scarcity Of metals required 70:
munitions was evidenced early in the
war when the interiors and exteriors
Of houses throughout the country were
thoroughly ransacked and everything
In the way of copper, brass or alu-
minum fixtures or cooking utensils that
wasn't absolutely necessary was
seized.
Horses were gradually disappearing
from sight when I left early this year.
One saw them lying about the streets
where they dropped from exhaustion,
and what disposition was made Of their
corpses can well be imagined. 1t is
quite certain that no part was wasted.
Dogs, too, nearly vanished from city
life. A man I know, who had kept a
fine Newfoundland dog, told me that it
had disappeared one night and the
next day its skin was found hanging
on the fence with q sign reading:
"Died for the fatherland."
One Of the principal articles Of fresh
meat to be seer in the butcher shops
consisted of black crows. They were
selling at rs cents apiece. There was
1 oO1uCL4AAlS luuAC1OuS LII Iuc 1lOuSuL VI
the Germans being compelled to "eat
crow" but there was little to laugh at
In eating it oneself.
To obtain oil, prizes were offered to
the school children to collect fruit
seeds, from which it could be extract
ed, and veritable mountains Of the
seeds were thus obtained.
The last meal I had in Berlin was
on January Fl, 1918, when I dined at
the Hotel AdlOn. It consisted Of one
! sardine, three thin slices of cold
| smoked salmon, soup which was hard
~ more than hot-salt water, two small
boiled potatoes and as a substitute for
cornstarch pudding. No butter and no
sauces of any kind were served. Black
bread I took in my pocket. The check
for this elaborate table d'hote meal
amounted to $3.50.
To sum up the situation as I was
able to observe 1t, living conditions In
Germany in January of this year were
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