The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-11-15

NOW 1t IS 1eVer1Sn, pushing war city like a frontier town in the Gold Rush days. The mayor esti- mates the present white civilian population at 30,O0O and the blacks at around 10000. This takes no account of the thousands of troops, white and black, throng- ing the streets, passing through to the front or barracked on the red- dish, sweeping, barren hills out- side in hastily built pine sheds.
 Altitude Curbs Heat
 The town is at an altitude of T,700 feet. Even in the blazing midday sun the temperature is not uncomfortable, and at night three blankets are needed. At this sea- son there is usually no rain for months and occasional high winds sweep clouds of dust from the semi-arid countryside.
 Streets are well-paved and there are electric street lights and elec- trio lighting for houses, but the plant is SO overloaded that fail- ures of current are frequent. Most of the buildings are one or two sturied stone structures, substar1- tial and well-built in semi-Span- ish style.
 The sudden influx of about 2O0,- 900 soldiers and laborers, nearly all of whom had to pass through Asmara, created Q difficult prob- lem. The principal hotel had only S2 rooms. It built six metal-fabri- eated shacks which are occupied by war correspondents. An annex is under construction, with men working at high pressure from daylight to darkness. At some places builders are working throughout the night by light of flares. Everywhere new buildings are rising.
 Shops Virtually Barren
 tgnly 8 few score shops exist. They are denuded and the mer- chants cannot get new stocks rap- idly enough to fill their bare shelves. Most of the stuff in the shops Is Japanese. The prices (ex- ceyt on government controlled arti- cles) have leaped like startled ga- zelieS. It took me hours to find eight screws on which to hang clothes in my shack, which wns completely bare when first occupied. The simplest necessities are usually urobtainable. All transport is used for military purposes and renewal of stocks IS impossible.
 Is some enterprising trader could set 8 shipload of secondhand American cars here he could make 8 fortune. Another fortune could be made in American canned goods and American cigarettes.
 White Women Scarce
 There are probably not more than a few hundred white women in town and the appearance of a a minor sensation.
 The streets are bustling with the most assorted lot of humanity I've seen outside India. There are Ethiopian "big shots" in white ''nightgowns" (shamma), wide Etetson-like hats, black cloaks, striding barefooted with dignity or riding small mules, followed by a half dozen retainers. There are ebony Askaris, in baggy khaki pants, barefoot with legs wrapped in puttees, their slender waists swathed in foot-wide red and green cummerbunds, their heads topped by . foot-high red fez with dang ling tassel.
 There are fIindus from India in vari-colored turbans, there are So- mali servants in tight white jodh- purs, with tunic like two shirt-tails fore and aft, wearing a European vest.
 There are mixtures of Arabs, Egyptians, Hamites, pure Negroes wearing every conceivable kind of clothes and color. Threading the streets are italian officers in dozen varieties of uniforms, soldiers in khaki trousers which are baggy down to the ankle-length hob- s1aSlad alanas r1oatIv uvaarirR gIiY1-