The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-15

fat--so think what most household cookery is like.
 Bread is as bad as ever: real cof- fee is almost a forgotten thing. You sec people staring curiously at a piece of toilet soap in a shop window-you can imagine, therefore. how general health must suffer. Goals are indeed black "diamonds;" gas must be hus- banded with the utmost care. Prices on the whole, think, tend to rise.
 And though all parts of the country do not suffer equally is bet ter off than Berlin, Hamburg endures more hardships than the capital matters are bad enough everywhere to produce one general effect
 Beaten far more completely than the outer world even yet believes, Germany, with about one-third of the food she had before she let war loose on the world, is a nation broken not only physically but mentally. She is hanging on" with a sort of desperate patience. but it will be long, long years before she recovers; her conval- essence will not be over fin one gen eration-
 WeII-tO-Do Sufferers.
 Conditions, tell, then, in deadly fla shion on the working and middle classes, especially on the women, chill drcn, and the aged
 But among the weII-to-do the phy- sical and m ental strain has it's serious effects. Not many weeks ago a we'll known member of the National As sembly called to see me Instead of taking the lift to the third floor of the hotel in which l was living. he came up by the stairs. A robust-look- ing man in the prime of life, fairly wealthy (and, therefore, able to buy "extra food), he was only able, on reaching my room, to gasp out a re- quest to be allowed to lie down on the sofa, where he lay for ten min utes before he could speak with ease.
 That is only one of the very similar cases within my own experience. It Is often dangerous, indeed, to argue with people, for the mild excitement in ed may easily prove too much for them! The mental fatigue of the peo- pie in general is such that, as a rule, they simply believe the last thing they hear or read. have been to many meetings where political subjects were discussed; the whole audience would applaud one speaker, and then just as heartily cheer the next, though he took an exactly opposite attitude. Germany is suffering from a bau men, tai breakdown.
 From Famine to Plenty.
 came out of Germany through the occupied region. It was like reach ing an oasis from a desert. In the Fatherland the countryside is stripped bare of cattle, though the crops look fairly good. Hour after hour the train rumbles along, often slowing down to a halt, and waiting till the ancient engine gets up sufficient steam again to pull train of creaking car ria ges. Hour after hour, and not a goods train passes.
 Then the cheery people of Cologne, the white bread, the plentiful food, the weII-filIed shops-it was all like the sunlight again after a terrible dream. And after only about rive months in stricken Germany, I find Cthough I was favored in the way of food by the kindness of the British Red Cross Mission) that. London, with it's noise and its busy life, is al most too much of a strain for me!
 Everything, says a German proverb, takes its vengeance in this life. The Tatherland has proved that truth up to the hilt. The vengeance has been terrible-and swift-and it will be se- verely felt by other ages than by merely this one.