The Pensacola journal., 1920-02-05

P'SNNs @d'J
After drinking tea with Reinstein
I'LL pretty late, l went home, bur
fo"ed into mountain of all sorts of
clothes, and slept a little.
In the morning I succeeded in
getting room at the National Hotel.
l wasted a lot of time getting my
stuff across. Transport from one
hotel to the other, though the distance
Is not hundred yards, cost 40 roubles.
My room was perfectly clean. The
chambermaid who came in to tidy up,
quite evidently took a pride in doing
her work properly, and protested
against my throwing matches on the
floor. She said she had been in the
hotel since it was opened. l asked
her how she liked the new regime She
replied that there was not enough to
eat, but that she felt freer.
I went downstairs to the main
kitchens of the hotel, where there is
a permanent supply of hot water. One
enormous kitchen is set apart for the
use of people living in the hotel Here
1 found a crowd of people, all using
different parts of the huge stove.
There was an old gray haired Cossack,
with a scarlet tunic under his black,
1Is
decorated in the Cossack fashion with
ornamental cartridges. He was warm
ing his soup side by side with a little
Jewess making potato cakes. A spec
tacled elderly member of the executive
committee was busy doing something
with a little bit of meat. Two little
girls We're boiling potatoes in old tin
cans. In another room set apart for
washing a sturdy little Iong-haired
revolutionary was cleaning a shirt. A
woman with her hair done up in blue
handkerchief was very carefully iron
ing a blouse. Another was busy
fstewing sheets, or something of that
kind, in a big cauldron. And all the
time people from all parts of the hotel
were coming with their pitchers and
pans, from fine copper kettles to dis
reputable empty meat tins, to fetch hot
water for tea. At the other side of the
corridor was sort of counter in front
of long window opening into yet an
other kitchen. Here there was a row
of people waiting with their own
saucepans and plates, getting their din
ner allowances of soup and meat in ex-
change for tickets. On paying for my
room at the beginning of the week |
was given a card with the days of the
week printed along it's edge. This
card gave me the right to buy one
dinner daily, and when [ bought it
that day of the week was shipped off
the card so that l could not buy an
other. The meal consisted of a plat of
very good soup, together with a second
course of a scrap of meat or fish. The
price of the meal varied between five
and seven roubles.
One could obtain this meal any time
ta-1Ex
grily through the morning, at two
o'clock I used to experience definite
relief in the knowledge that now at
any moment [ could have my meal
Feeling in this way less hungry, 1
used to then postpone it hour by hour,
and actually dined about five or six
o'clock. Thinking that I might in
decd have been specially favored, I
made inves legations, and found that
the dinners supplied at the public
feeding houses were of precisely the
same size and character, any differ
ence between the meals depending
not on the food but on the cook.
A kind of rough and ready cooper
ative system also obtained. One day
there was a notice on the stairs that
those who wanted could get one pot
of jam apiece by applying to the pro-
VlSlonlng committee OF the hotel. / got
a pot of jam in this way, and on a
later occasion a small quantity of
Ukrainain sausage.
Besides the food obtainable on cards
it was possible to buy. at ruinous
prices, food from spectators, and an
idea of the difference in price may be
obtained from the following examples:
Bread is / rouble 20 kopecks per pound
by card and 15 to 20 roubles per pound
from the spectators. Sugar is -