The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-03-24

received a letter from lIioHu
 London in reply to one from me- Ill which I had remarked that had been dancing at several after-dinner res taurant parties recently.
 .Dancingw he writes; "to think or it. You must be getting normal supply of ordinary food else you
 would never have the strength to do it"
 Poor souls! We over here think when we bow the head meekiy t' ~nieatless" days and "wheatless oays and .porlxless" days that we are real ly feeling the pinch of war. But am going 70 write you another screed oil things as they are in England gene' = ally and in London in particular al this time in the worlds history, ana
 then perhaps you will realize that h'e over here is paradise in comparison
 to the bravely borne deprivations of
 that 'right little, tight little island
 sitting cut there in the lonely sea,
 with all its hopes turned toward tne
 golden west, out of which comes sue
 cor in men, munitions, money anI
 fcod.
 NIGHT HIDEOUS
 The letter that I am going to quote
 is dated during the last week in Feb ruary and commences with apologies for the long space of time that had elapsed since the last letter was writ ten. Rs
 You will be able to guess, how ever," says my correspondent. who is a young girl. "the difficulties that we la fA 1of a1t in, inc o quiet moment in which to sit dow I and collect one's thoughts As you know. I am working hard in gov ernment office all day. Sometimes l scarcely have time to get my lunch (which. perhaps. is just as well, as there isn't enough lunch to linger over When I eventually arrive home late and very tired, the 'once-nightly- and twice -if-possible' visitors arrive, and night is made hideous by the bark ing Of cur guns and the dull thud of distant bombs. I am waiting for them now as l sit here by the fire with one light cn,N burning. lest a flicker of a slow should creep through crack i'll
 the heavily curtained windows. l am sorry to say that the fireworks of the last three nights have been vel ' ineffeotual in their results"
 This means that the barrage estab- FtiS' py I'll llSl guns III IJOnQOn ana along the coast have failed to bring down any of the Hun raiders
 THE MEAT RATION She then goes on to tell me of a young officer friend in the royal flying corps who was badly wounded and who is now convalescng in London. He is known l in the family as "Sonnie." and he al- ways spends his "leave'' in the little household from which my girl-friend writes.
 I Sonnie,'" she continues, ''has stayed with us the last two week. ends, and 1 both times we have had ioints Last
 Sunday a whole two and half pounds of | beef! He will come again next week. end, but after that I cannot have him l with us. as rations come in on the 25th
 These rations are going to worry me a good deal, I am the housekeeper Oi l course. the supply of margarine or but
 ter allowed per head per week is quite l all right-one-fo pound for eacl 1 person-but the meat.
 Each member of the family is giver 1 four coupons to last over a week. Three
 of these coupons only may be used fol
 butchers meat. Each one of these en-
 title the holder to pence worth (about 10 cents) of meat, or altogether,
 shilling and 3 pence worth (about 8 | cents) a week!
 "The fourth coupon may be used fol 1 12la ounces of chicken, 9 ounces of rab- bits or ounces of horseflesh, or 1 ounces of bacon--not all of these things mark you but one of them in the selec- l tion As our one and only servant sleeps out she has to bring her own ratlons to 1 the house with her We pay for them {, of course. but we cannot feed her, ] No one may eat meat in restaurant
 unless they give up one of these precious coupons which. by the way, also include
 that valuable commodity, suet This cou- l pon once gone cannot be replaced, You
 simply have to go without that partic-
 ular portion of your ration allowance at home. | Tt all looks rather hopeless and hum l gry, but if the fish supply holds out and ] the vegetables are plentiful we shall manage quite well. I expect. Of course, large families manage rather better than l small ones like our own, which only con- sists now of father and myself. If you can cooperate With six or seven cou- 1 pons you can manage to get quite re- 1 spectacle amount of meat or chicken or rabbit etc, but when it comes to buying
 a portion of one of these decimals it is ra ther difficult, Fancy having to tuy ones meat by the ounce! Stay where you E..1t -a