Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-08-15
RUSSELL PINCH IN
GERMAN SEAPORT
On U. S. Destroyer Ingraham
Guarding American Food
Commission at Port
of Hamburg.

We publish below an interesting
letter received this week from Russell
Pinch, at present with the U. S. Nav
al forces in Hamburg, Germany. Rus
sell spent his high school days in
Eagle River. When war was declared
he enlisted in the navy and was sta
toned at the radio school of the
Mare Island Naval Training Station
in California. He went to sea this
summer and is now having a good op-
portunity to see after-war conditions
in Germany. His letter follows:
q. S. S. Ingraham,
Hamburg, Germany.
July 23rd, 1919.
Dear Verne-Now don't fall over
with heart failure or anything like
that. | just happened to think that
you might be little interested in
what Germany is like, now that the
war is over.
Our destroyer, the U. S. S. Ingra-
ham, is stationed here to protect the
officials of the American Food Com
mission and to handle all shipping
coming into the port of Hamburg.
We arrived here last Friday, the 18th,
relieving another American destroyer
that had been here for about month.
Have been ashore several times on
liberty and must say that it is much
better here than had expected. The
people treat one ciyilly and even go
out of their way to help you out.
OF course, few will sheer and stare
at you, but that is to be expected.
1t is really surprising to find how
many German people can speak Eng
lish, and speak it we'll. Almost every
store has one clerk who can carry on
a conversation in the English lam
guage With my two years of high
school German have lots of fun. Do
most of the translating for my pals,
and felt quite pulled up when | heard
one German woman tell another that
1 spoke good German. Am glad the
war is over as they might take me
for a spy.
Now little about the city of Ham
burg First of all, it's location. 1t is
situated on the east bank of the Elbe
river, just seventy miles from the
: North Sea. Like Venice, it has a
network of canals running through
it affording excellent means of trans
portation. 1t is a modern city of
over million people (pre-war fgures).
Unlike Brest, France, it's streets are
wide and clean, with subway, surface
and elevated trains. The system of
transportation is poor and it takes as
much time to get any place on the
subway as it does on the surface. Due
to the shortage of gasoline and rub
Der tires there are very few automo-
biles on the streets; in fact, there is
very little traffic of any kind. 1t
seems almost impossible chat a city
this size could be so quiet, but that
! is what the war has done, and &C
! cording to what have been told by
the people themselves, it will be a
long time before the city gets back to
its pre-war standing.
The German people seem to have
plenty of money but nothing to spend
it for. Soap, tobacco, tea, coffee and
meat are not to be had for love nor
money. Every time we go ashore they
stop and ask us five hare cigarettes
or soap to sell. A bar of Ivory soap
is worth eight marks (60c); cigarettes
sell for four cents apiece. Anyone
with few cases of soap would have
good chance of becoming chief OF
of.police. Eggs cost one mark and
eight pfennlgs q4c) apiece. Milk,
sugar and butter can be procured
only by food cards.