The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-15
Bertha Hampstead Expects To
Be in Topeka Xmas.
In France and Balkans for Y. M.
C. A. Several Months. ~i
WANTS TO SEE SUN SHINE
'NOthing Else Matters if You
Live in U. ST. She Writes.
Bohemia Living on Geese
Without Steaks or Eggs.

Bertha Hampstead, former society
reported and special writer for The
Topeka State Journal, who has been in
France and the Balkans for several
months. is homeward bound. and ex-
poets to arrive in Topeka in time for
the Christmas holidays.
Miss Hampstead, like all others who
went from this land of plenty to
crowded, sordid and hungry Europe.
consumes much of her letter in speak
ing Of the poor food there and the
good things she is dreaming of upon
her arrival in Topeka Miss Hemp
stead went TO Europe for the Y. NJ
c. A and for several months she has
been in Bohemia. The letter received
today comes from Prague, Bohemia
She says in part:
Il am feeling like a human being
today for the first time in six or eight
weeks, because tomorrow I am going
back to Paris, and two days after that
l am going to drag my luggage aboard
some sort of a tub and go home.
You see, 1 hate to admit it the
worst way. but this forsaken place has
all but finished me. My doctor has
told me that if I expect to survive the
winter 1 had better dust out of here,
and the sooner the quicker. Now.
naturally. one has personal reasons
for wishing to survive the winter; SO
I broke down and confessed myself a
gutter of the deepest dye.
Where Sun Don't Fade.
IT want to get to the place where
the sun shines once in a while at least
and where you are not kept in a
furry of fear that it's going to dis
appear il you leave off worrying
about it a second want to get back
to the place where 1 don't have to eat
black bread, with no butter, no eggs,
no milk, no steaks. no coffee.
The fact is, I am famished, abso-
lutely famished, for something decent
to eat. The Germans and Austrians
took everything out of this country
that was worth having, until some
times 1 think they left nothing but
geese. At every meal they offer you
roast goose, and I now have arrived at
the point where I jump in my sleep
whenever neighbo-ing goosery sends
over a quack.
Yes. sure, they keep geese in the
city, and where L live the servant girl
has a pair of chickens in a little cubby
place next to the kitchen and every
morning one of them-I don't know
which-crows and wakes the family
up. and one of them-again 1 don't
know Which-lays an egg once q year.
Everything that goes wrou- is
blamed onto the Jews. from a "
day to n scarcity of table linen. Al ,ut
a. fourth of the people one sees appear
to be suffering from mal-nHtrition..
and that, 1 am bound to say. is easy
enough to understand. I'm suffering
from it myself. I guess.
Keep Warm by Law.
''In addition to this famine stricken
condition it is so cold here that
I have not been warm since I came.
The government does not allow heat
ing fires to be built before the last
part of october. and when the fires do
al last get kindled, there isn't enough
coal to keep them going. Nobody
seems to have furnaces or any sort
of heating plants-not even offices.
In some of the rooms of the houses
and business places there is a stove in
one corner, usually of white or pale
green tile, very ornamental and not
worth a tinker's cuss to give any heat
Il have discovered a coffee house
where they have an American base
burner in one corner of the room
Maybe I don't haunt that place. I
national laws of Bohemia will permit,
and spend the best part of my time
trying TO make out the Russian and
Austrian funny papers that happen to
be stacked up near the stove. and the
rest OF the time 1 watch the busy in
habitants play chess and guZzle beer.
You can imagine how entertained I
am and why 1 begin to want to go
back.
Everything by Permit.
''I tried this morning to buy some
French money with the bushel basket
full of Bohemian so-called currency
that 1 had been paid off with. But
no, The bank wouldn't sell me francs
without a special permission. You
can't cross a bridge without paving
toll, and you can't anymore than turn
twice around in this place without q
special permission. It is very irritating
to anyone who tells the world where
IN when jOterferos y-ith g
liberty.
'If you ever have any streak of
thankfulness in your nature, and
really mean it. spend your energies be-
ing grateful that you live in America
As a matter of fact nothing else
L u m II int1I afffnrnr,r,n