New Britain herald., 1919-05-21
PLAINVLLLE NEWS CONDITIONS NOT AS
 BAD AS PICTURED Gage Kent Also Says People Do
 Not Feel Vanquished CLEANUP CAMPAIGN HERE
Stolen Gar Is Rccovercd-Church Members Will Go to Farminaton- Other Interesting News Items About Town.

o'llel li'e 'o'iis News Items About
 Town.
 Gage Kent who has but recently returned from France disclaims many
 or the stories appearing in print of late Whlch deal with the terrible con-
 ditions existing in Germany. The To-
 cal boy was overseas for 15 months and of that tune about three to four months were spent in the interior of Germahy Ill section near the gen
 eral headquarters of the American army. Recent reports from Germany tell of the people paving so many marks for suit of clothes, for food.
 beer, etc. The articles all take the mark at it's old worth instead of at it's greatly deprecated value of the present date. The mark was for merly worth 23.S cents and the local boy says that when he left the coun- try it was worth possibly eight cents. The prices of the necessities of life have risen so high in Germany just because of the decrease of the value of the money in circulation. Thus when the cost of suit jumps a hun dred marks the people in this country thlnk the people over there are paying terrlble large sum while as a mat ter ot tact they arc paying a sum which because of the low value of the
 mark appears to the people of tbis country as fabulous. The same condi-
 ton exists throughout the entire conn
 try and the Germans are not nearly
 so fiat on their back" as the people
 in this country are made to believe
 by the many reports coming from
 overseas.
 The Germans arc not downcast by the result of the war, they do not consider themselves conquered, they even laud the Kaiser and blame Hin dcnburg and his crews for the loss of
 the war, according to the local boy. They have no fear of the American soldier now as they had at first when
 they remained in their houses prob ably fearing that the American army
 was a pillasing, death-dealing mob as
 their own army would have been
 were it victorious They soon learned
 that the Americans were well dsci-
 plined and were not of a malicious
 nature and then they became more
 friendly, as far as the rules of the
 army of occupation would allow. The
 Americans found the Germans able to
 converse in the English language and
 also learned that the language has
 been on the school curriculum for
 several years and almost all the
 younger element of the country has the language learned to a conVersa
 tional degree
 Local people heard that the Ger
 mans were drinking soup which was
 nothing but dirty water, that the Ger
 mans did not know what a good meal
 of meat was that sugar was unknown, butter unheard of, etc. The same
 soldier boy says that the Americans
 never found shortage of any of the
 above named things. The soup was
 fine and contained many vegetables as we'll as plenty of meat Sugar was
 purcha sable and butter was had in large quantities by those who would pay the price for it. In fact the time following the signing of the armlstlce found the Germans having fine time instead of in an almost exhausted and crippled condition. The cafes were opened, the streets became infested
 with mobs of pleasure seekers. The American soldiers were not allowed
 to fraternize with the people but the
 were treated with much courtesy A2 respect when the opportunity alloWr The members of the army who co" speak German and had oppottunit to talk with the natives fOun6~tho! a most fiCkle crowd. They would laN;,
 the work of the American soldiers in the territory occupied by the Ameri cans while they criticized so severely the work of the English and French and other allies. They would tell the Americans that they saved the other
 ,,Ti
 of pride and jealousy against the AL lies who claimed as much credit for the final results. In other parts of Germany where the other Allies had soldiers the conditions were vice versa and the Americans and d few others were slandered> as the fellows who "butted in and thought themselves the only fighters" Not a word of what the people spoke could be be- lieved by the soldiers as they changed their conversation at every possible moment.
 The local boy asserts that the Germans have plenty of clothing and in fact their wooden garments are better for material than the clothes obtainable in many parts of this country The price of clothing is no higher there than in comparison with American prices. The Germans were naturally forced to pay war prices but the people of this country, in the opinion of the soldier, paid just as much war prices as did the Germans. They have leather and stories about them wearing wooden and paper shoes are malicious lies Ap his opinion. Ho saw German people, peasants of tha very poor class, with better leather anoes than some of the soldier boys wore. And beek it was not at all as described by bmc Americans as browned water, was as plentiful as air. It was real good beer too, and the Gerr1ans wanted the America ne,