Part 2

The excavation for the new underground railway under Friedrichstrasse was dug out by women, and half the gangs that work on the railroad tracks are women. They fasten bolts and saw the iron rails. All the stores have women elevator runners, and most of the large department stores have women checking umbrellas, packages, dogs, and--lighted cigars! Most stores have women floor-walkers. Most of the delivery wagons are run by women, and they carry the heaviest packages.

All the newspapers in Berlin are sold by women, and they wheel the papers around in baby carriages. Around the different freight stations one can see women loading hay and straw into the cars. They wield the pitchfork with as much ease as a man and with far more grace. Many of the "brakemen" on the trains are women, and some of the train conductors are women. Most of the gas-meter readers are women, and other women help to repair telephone wires, and still others help to instal telephones.

There are a few _Frau Schornsteinfegerin_, or "Mrs. Chimney Sweep," but the job of being a chimneysweep doesn't appeal to most women. These women wear trousers and a tight-fitting cap. They mount the house tops and they make the soot fly, and the cement rattles down the chimney. They carry long ropes with which they pull their brushes up and down.

_Frau Klempnermeisterin_, or "Mrs. Master Tinner," repairs the roofs. Of course she wears trousers to make climbing easier. Most of the women who have these odd jobs are those whose husbands had the same before the war. Many other women work in the parks cutting the grass and watering the flowers. In the market places women put rubber heels on your shoes while you wait.

Most of the milk wagons are run by girls, and women help to deliver coal. They have no coal chutes in Germany, and the coal is carried from the wagon into the house. This is really terrible work for a woman. A few women work on ash wagons, others are "ice men," and others build houses.

Nearly all the munition workers in Germany are women, and they are paid very high for this work. Most of them get from $40 to $50 a month, wages before unknown for working women. The strength of some of these women is almost beyond belief. Dr. Gertrude Baumer, the famous German woman writer and settlement worker, told me that shells made in one factory weighed eighty pounds each and that every day the women working lifted thirty-six of these shells. Women are also employed in polishing the shells.

The women workers in munition factories are very closely watched, and if the work does not agree with them they are taken away and are given other employment. The sanitary conditions of these factories are very good, and they are almost fire-proof, and they have no horrible fire disasters. Indeed they have very few fires in Germany.

They have in Berlin what is known as the _Nationaler Frauendienst_, or the "National Women's Service," and it is an organization to help the poor women of Germany during the war. Dr. Gertrude Baumer is the president of this organization, and she is also one of the strongest advocates for the one year army service for German women.

This society finds employment for women and gives out work for women who have little children and cannot leave home. Women who sew at home make bags for sand defenses, and they make helmet covers of gray cloth. These covers keep the enemy from seeing the shining metal of the helmet. If a woman is sick and cannot work the society takes care of her until she is better and able to work again. They also have food tickets which they give to the poor.

Pension schedules are being made up by different societies, and it is not yet certain which one the government will adopt; at present every woman whose husband is in the war is given a certain amount for herself and children. For women who are now widows the pension is according to the rank of the husband. For instance, the widow of a common soldier gets 300 marks a year. If she has one child she get 568 marks and so on, increasing according to the number of children, for four children she gets 1072 marks. The widow of a non-commissioned officer, a corporal or a sergeant, gets a little more, and the widow of a lieutenant gets over twice as much as a common soldier's widow. The widow of a major-general gets 3246 marks a year. When she has children, she gets very little more, for when a man has risen to the rank of major-general the chances are that he is old and that his children are grown up and able to take care of themselves.

These schedules are also controlled by the number of years a man has served in the army, and they are trying to pass a new bill which requires that pensions shall be controlled by the salary the man had before the war. If the dead man had worked himself up into a good position of 1000 marks a month, his family should have more than the family of a man who could only make 300 marks a month.

The schedule as it now stands for wounded men is that a private who has lost his leg gets 1,368 marks a year; a lieutenant gets 4851 marks a year; and a general 10,332 marks a year.

They have in Germany a "votes for women" organization of 600,000 members, but it will be years and years before it ever comes to anything, for German women are very slow in acting and thinking for themselves.

GERMAN "SPARSAMKEIT."

When the blockade of Germany began, no one believed that she could hold out without supplies from the outside world; that in a short time her people would be starving and that she would be out of raw material. During the few months before the blockade was declared, Germany had shipped into her ports as much cotton, copper, rubber and food as was possible. After the blockade started much stuff was obtained from Holland and Scandinavia. From the very first days of the war Germany set to work to utilize all the material that she had on hand, and her watchword to her people was "waste nothing."

The first collection of material in Germany was a metal collection, and it took place in the fall of 1915, just after I came to Berlin. This collection extended all over Germany and took place in different parts at different times. Every family received a printed notice of the things that must be given up to the State. It was a long list, but the main thing on it was the brass ovendoors. As nearly every room in Germany has a stove with two of these doors about a foot wide and three quarters of a foot high you can get some idea of how much material this collection brought. Since this collection the doors have been replaced by iron ones that are not nearly so pretty. All kinds of brass pots and kettles were collected, but with special permits people were allowed to keep their heirlooms. Everything was paid for by the weight, artistic value counted for naught. Vacant stores were rented for storing this collection and the people had to bring the things there.

In some cities the people willingly gave up the copper roofs of their public buildings. Copper roofs have always been very popular in Germany. In Berlin the roof of the palace, the cathedral and the Reichstag building are of copper, and in Dresden the roofs of all the royal buildings are of copper.

A friend of mine who is a Catholic went to church one Sunday just before I left Berlin. Before the service opened and just as the priest mounted the pulpit the church bells began to ring. When they had stopped the priest announced that this was the last time the bells would ever ring, for they were to be given to the metal collection. The people began to cry as the priest went on, and before he had finished, many were sobbing out loud. Even the men wept. My friend said that it was the most impressive thing that she had ever witnessed.

In that first copper collection they got enough metal to last several years, but if a second collection is necessary they can take the brass door knobs which are very large and heavy. All the door knobs in Germany are made of brass and this would make a vast amount of metal.

In April, 1917, they took an inventory of all the aluminum in the empire. People had to send in lists of what they had. The ware was not collected but it was to be given up at any time the government wanted it. The aluminum is to be used in making money. For a long time they have had iron 5- and 10-pfennig pieces, and now they have 1-pfennig pieces made out of aluminum. In Leipsic and Dresden they have 50-pfennig pieces made out of paper, and Berlin will soon have them too. Before the iron money was made in the winter of 1915, small change was very scarce. The store-keepers would rather you would not buy than give you all their small change. At that time in Turkey also small change was so scarce that the people stood in line by the hour to get it. The reason for the scarcity in Germany is that the German soldiers have carried it away to the conquered lands where German money is used as well as native money. In Germany we used, and they still use, postage stamps for small change, but this is very unsatisfactory as they get very dirty in the handling.

The collection of old paper never ceases in Germany. All over Berlin they have places where this paper is accumulated and sold, and women work all day bringing it in. Every kind of old paper is bought, books, magazines and newspapers. Everything must be brought in flat, and a good price is paid for it.

Another collection that is always going on is the fruit stone collection. They collect cherry stones, peach stones, plum stones, and apple and pear seeds. These collections take place in the public schools and all over Berlin you see pretty posters, "Send the stones to the schoolhouse with your children." The seeds are used for making fat and oil.

Everybody wondered what they were going to do when they advertised that fourteen marks would be paid for every load of common thistles. But the thistles are being made into cloth. Hair is also made into cloth. Coffee grounds are also collected, but it has not been decided how they shall be used.

When the clocks are changed in the summer, it saves a great amount of gas, and since the first of January, 1917, all the stores must close at 7 o'clock instead of 8. All electric light advertisements are prohibited, and all theaters and public places close earlier.

In the city of Hanover, on account of the scarcity of water, the water is shut off from the bath rooms, and no one can take a bath. In Copenhagen there is also a scarcity of water, and when I was there the water all over the city was shut off between two and four o'clock in the afternoon.

This coming winter people will be urged in every way to save coal, and if possible to heat only one or two rooms. They have plenty of coal but no way of delivering it, and last winter people had to go down to the freight yards and fetch the coal themselves. I often saw fine-looking ladies wheeling coal in baby carriages. Baby carriages are used for hauling everything, and they are very practical.

In every way paper is being saved, especially wrapping paper. Every woman has her bun bag, and when she goes to the bakery shop to buy buns she takes it with her. I have seen men buying buns in stores, and they nearly always have their own paper bag with them. Bread is just wrapped in the middle of the loaf, and if you don't take your own bag with you for eggs, you will have to carry them home in your hand.

In the markets nothing is wrapped. Every German woman has what she calls her _Tasche_. It is a black bag with handles and it is used in preference to a basket. Everything that is bought in the market is put into this bag unwrapped. If you buy anything that is too large to put into the bag you have to carry it home in your hand unwrapped. Rhubarb is carried in this way. Meat is first wrapped in a thin piece of wax paper and then in a newspaper. Wherever it is possible, newspapers are used for wrappings. We were never fussy about carrying a newspaper bundle in Germany, we were glad we got the newspaper. One night a friend of mine, an American girl, came to stay all night with me, and as we had only two quilts, she had to bring her own quilt with her. She had no paper big enough to wrap the quilt, so she just carried it in her hand. The people on the street car and on the street did not even stare, they merely thought that she was a good German woman who was sparing of paper for the Vaterland.

In the department stores they do not use string on small packages, and on large packages they tie the string only one way around. If the purchase is a very small object like a spool of thread or a paper of pins, it is wrapped in the bill. Many people carry their own wrapping paper with them and it is always wise to carry a piece of string. None of the department stores will deliver anything that costs less than five marks, and notices are posted everywhere asking people to carry their purchases home with them. Only one store, Borchardt's grocery store, still wraps up things as nicely as in days of peace, and when you buy anything there you are sure that the package will not come open on the street. Now they have invented a new kind of string made out of wood. It is very strong but hard to tie.

Since the very beginning of the war no one in Germany has been allowed to run his own automobile on account of the scarcity of rubber tires and gasoline. All the automobiles displayed in the store windows have tires made of cement. This is just done to make them look better. All the tires have been taken over by the military authorities. No one is allowed to ride a bicycle with rubber tires without a permit. They have invented two kinds of tires for substitutes. One kind is made of little disks of leather joined in the middle, and the other kind is made of coiled wire. Both these tires are advertised, and the advertisements read: "Don't worry, ride your bicycle in war time. Get a leather disk tire; then you don't need a permit."

For everything that is scarce in Germany they have a substitute and in this line German ingenuity seems to have no end. They have a substitute for milk called _Milfix_. It is a white powder, and when mixed with water it looks like milk. It can be used in coffee or for cooking. The funny part about _Milfix_ was that when it first came out everybody scorned it, but all of a sudden there was hardly any real milk to be had, and _Milfix_ was put on the _Lebensmittel_ food card, and one could only buy a small quantity of it. Then everybody was just wild to get a little bit of the precious stuff.

Then they have egg substitutes. Some brands of it are in powder form and other brands are like yellow capsules. They are very good when mixed with one real egg and make very good omelet. Then there is the meat substitute. It comes in cans and is dark brown in color. It is some kind of a prepared vegetable. It looks like chopped meat and it is said to taste like meat. They have a hundred different varieties of substitutes for coffee, and without any exception all brands of _Kaffee-Ersatz_ are very bad.

The most unique thing on the market is the "butter stretcher." That is what they call it. It is a white powder, and they guarantee that when it is mixed with a quarter of a pound of real butter it will stretch it to half a pound. We bought some of it but we never had the courage to try it on a quarter of a pound of real butter; but many boarding-houses used it.

Every day something new bobbed up on the market. One of the finest things was _Butter-Brühe_ and _Schmalz-Brühe_. It came in cans the half of which was either butter or lard and the other half was broth. It was fixed this way so it did not come under the butter card or the fat card. The cans weighed a half pound and sold for five marks. It was foreign goods from either Holland or Denmark.

Last spring there appeared on the market great quantities of "Irish stew" in cans. The Germans stood around it wondering. What was Irish stew? None of them had the slightest idea. But finally they bought it, for they said, if it was Irish it must be good. They have a substitute for sausage made out of fish. It is awful stuff with a lingering taste that lasts for days.

They have substitutes for leather, rubber, and for alcohol. They have what they call a _spiritus_ tablet, and it can be used in lamps. It is used by the soldiers in the field. As matches are very expensive they have a small apparatus of two iron pieces that when snapped make a light. As soap is very scarce in Germany hard-wood floors are cleaned with tin shavings. The shavings are rubbed over the floors with the feet, the workers wearing felt shoes.

All over Germany soap is used very sparingly. Clothes are put to soak a week before wash day and each day they are boiled a little. This plan saves all the hard rubbing, and when the clothes are taken out of the water the dirt falls out of them. They don't use wash-boards in Germany. Pasted everywhere in Berlin are posters which say, "Save the soap." They say to shake the soap in hot water and never let it lie in the water and always keep it in a dry place.

Most stores will sell only one spool of embroidery floss to one person at a time. If you want a second spool you must go the next day. This restriction is very hard on the German woman who loves to do fancy work.

We saved everything. When we boiled potatoes we saved the water for soup or gravy. It had more strength than clear water. We never ate eggs out of fancy dishes with grooves in them, as too much of the egg stuck in the grooves. We served everything from the cooking kettle right on our plates, so that no grease would be wasted. Many restaurants also did this, and what you ordered was brought in on the plate that you ate from. A great many people used paper napkins for every day. This saved the linen and the soap. We never threw out our coffee grounds but cooked them over and over. We weren't used to strong coffee, and these warmed-over grounds were much better than _Kaffee-Ersatz_.

Some people cooked rhubarb tops in the same way you cook spinach. It makes a very good vegetable. We took the pea pods from the fresh peas and scraped them and cooked them with the peas. These are really fine. It is a well-known Polish dish. The first year we were in Berlin we could get corn starch, and we used this for thickening food instead of flour.

One of the funniest things was that you could not buy an orange unless you bought a lemon. This worked two ways. The oranges were saved and the storekeepers got rid of the lemons. I have never seen anything like the quantity of lemons in Germany--millions of lemons everywhere. Lemons, radishes and onions were three things that you could buy any time without a card and without standing in line.

Since the war, hundreds of war cook books have been printed. They are generally very practical and give excellent recipes for making cakes without butter or eggs or even flour, using oatmeal instead. They tell how to make soup out of plums, apples, pears, onions and fish. And they contain menus with suggestions of things to have on the meatless days. They save the puzzled housewife's brain much worry.

Last Christmas in Germany was known as the Christmas of a single candle, and most of the Christmas trees had only one light on the top. One has no idea of the tremendous sacrifices these people are making for their country.

THE FOOD IN GERMANY.

In Germany I sometimes had to go to three or four different stores before I could get a spool of silk thread. Leather is so expensive that only the upper-class burgher will be able to have real leather shoes this winter; and starch is twenty marks a pound. But after all, no German will go to work with an empty dinner pail.

The German Food Commission is the most uncanny thing in all the world. Like magic it produces a substitute for any article that is scarce, it has everything figured out so that provisioning shall be divided proportionately each week, and just what each person shall receive, for everybody does not receive the same amount of food in Germany. For instance, a man or woman who does manual labor gets more bread than a man or woman who works in an office; people over sixty years get more cereals, and sick people get more butter and eggs. These people get what they call _Zusatz_ cards, besides their regular cards.

Every one in Germany is getting thin, and the German dieting system proves that much worn-out statement that "we eat too much," for nine out of every ten Germans have never been so well in their lives as they have been since the cards have been introduced. You feel spry, active and energetic, and the annoyance is mental rather than physical, for one is constantly thinking of things to eat.

The ones that are really hurt by the blockade are the growing children, and the thing that they lack and long for is sweets. Before the war, one never realized what an important role candy played in the game of life. The food commission recognizes this, and very often chocolate and puddings are given on the cards of children under sixteen years of age.

While food prices have been soaring all over the world, prices in Germany are almost down to normal level, for anything that you buy on the cards is extremely cheap, and everything that is any good is sold on the cards. Everything that is sold _ohne Karte_, or without a card, is either not good or so expensive that the ordinary person cannot afford to buy.

When I first came to Germany in October, 1915, there was only one card, and that was the bread card. This card was divided off in sections with the numbers 25, 50 and 100 grams. At that time the whole card was 2100 grams for each person each week. Later it was reduced to 1900 grams, and on the first of May, 1917, to 1600 grams. This last reduction was a courageous thing for the bread commission to do at this time--one of the worst months of the year before the green vegetables come in--and in Berlin a couple of thousand workers from a factory gathered on Unter den Linden. They stayed two hours, broke two windows, and then went home pacified at a pound of meat a week more and more wages.

On the bread card it takes a 50 gram section to buy a good-sized roll, a whole card to buy a big loaf of black bread, and half a card to buy a small loaf of bread. After the bread card was reduced no buns were allowed to be made in Berlin, although in the other cities they have them. Instead, they had what they called white bread, but it was almost as black as the black bread, and when buying one had to ask, "Is this white or black bread?" I thought that the bread was very good, and it was of a much superior quality to what I got in Sweden where the bread card is of a less number of grams than in Germany. At the bottom of the German bread card is the flour ticket, and it allows one the choice of either 250 grams of flour or 400 grams of bread. I came out very well on my bread card, for even when I lived in a boarding-house I kept my card myself and I took my bread to the table with me. When people are invited to a meal they always take their bread and butter with them.