Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-01-06

whoever got one egg a month was
lucky.
other ration allowances are: Seven
pounds of potatoes week, enc and a
half pounds of sugar per month and
$50 grams of oatmeal per month.
Wurm conservatively estimated the
cost of living since the war began at
$50 per cent, but it is far higher than
that in the hotels-about 800 per cent,
above what 1t was in January, 1915,
when / was last In Germany.
Another interesting statistic pro-
yded by Wurm is that Germans are
eating from two to three times rs
much vegetable food cooked in water
as in peace time.
Just what the people do cat to keep
body and soul together was disclosed
by visit to the Volkskueche or peo-
pies Kitchen in Frankfort. 1t was typi-
cal of establishments all over the
country. Patrons of the place I saw
were Of the working class, but by no
means impoverished financially They
Wore fairly good clothes. too, and
knowing the price of clothing one
wondered how they could afford them.
Here Is the menu served them for
30 cents: About pint of thin soup,
one-half an egg floating in even thin
per gravy. and six potatoes. Unless
they brought their bread with them
they had to do without. Acorn coffee
could be purchased for cents cup.
Apple sauce or some other preserved
fruit cost the same.
The bill of for for the next night
was; Soup. noodles, onions and gravy;
and for the night after, soup, cabbage
and boiled potatoes. Some 700 per-
sons paptake of this feast nightly.
Tastes Well; Doesn't Satisfy.
The following are some of the in
gradients of the SOUP for that num-
Der of persons: Twenty pounds of
soup powder (th!s powder contains
about ner cent meat essence and
the remainder IS composed of dried
vegetables, soda and a very small
injection of faD, six pounds of po-
tato flour, eighty pounds of potatoes,
three pounds of soda powder and two
pounds of margarine. To this added
some green spinach or
cabbage. 1t is well cooked and appe-
tizing enough, but 1t leaves one with
an unpleasantly empty feeling.
Once or twice a week there IS lit
tie meat in the soup and two or three
times a month small portions of meat
are served as part of the dinner In
cidentally there IS no kind of season.
ing in the food except a little salt
Vegetables are practically the only
kind of foodstuffs that can be bought
without card. A handful Of leaves
of lettuce costs . cents. where the
same amount would have cost only
cent before the war. A tiny head of
cauliflower costs 80 cents. instead of
4 cents. The cheapest edible Is the
white beet, which in peace times was
used only to feed the cattle.
The figures quoted above were all
obtained by personal visits to the
shops and in talks with tradasmen
and their customers. Fully so per
cent of the Germans in the cities of
The industrial districts live on the
amount and variety of the food served
by the Volkskueche. The remainder
have money enough to add to their
rations by the back door route. as the
German slang terms the secret and
Illicit purchase of foods.
Money will buy an abundance of
most kinds of viands, of course, But
even the rich have trouble in getting
more than a scanty supply of butter,
eggs. flour and milk