OCR Text |
Show GRAPHIC LETTER 1 wm mm Correspondent of Salt Lake Artist Tells About Second Winter of War. FOOD PRICES ARE HIGH Predictions Made by the Writer in December Have Come True. Tne subjoined letter, received by Albert tjalzbrenner, Ihe artist, fjives a graphic picture of conditions in Germany about a mouth ago. The writer, who is el distinguished dis-tinguished oi'flcer and the recipient of several orders for services to his country, coun-try, sins merely his first name. The letter la, in part, as follows: Lille, France, Dec, 15, 101.".. It has been a lom? time since yoil hen j'd from me last, but I know that lfi' will realize that the duties of a aptain, or, for that matter, of any of our officers, are so manifold that there is little time left for private correspondence. I know your first question will be and always has been aVjut the ,var and condi tions in Germany, in general. gen-eral. I can only repeat that it is to mv deepest rt-gret that you cannot be w(th us, lo se our fatherland in all its jflnry. Really, Albert, these are the most glorious " times a man can over hope to live t h rnngh. "Iron" aie t lie 1 1 ii ;ts. and s.ul for ma ny thousands, yet to see this- determination determina-tion of old or young-, high or low, this supreme confidence, this absolute abso-lute readiness fur any sa:rine and, above ail, lids undreamed-of strength, thut must and ivill win, is so wonderful, wonder-ful, its a revelation so inspiring, that words cannot express U nor can (lie human mind gra.p it in all its gran-den gran-den r. No Luxuries Indulged In. Though thf-re is more ready cash on hand than ever before, people are so very i-ons.iuus of their own big or hub responsibilities as Germans, that nu fri ulit its, no luxuries are indulged in-dulged in. No dancing whatever, though we are by no means sad or down.' ast : no indulgence in expensive dinners and wines, though we could well enough afford it (you are invited to a "Kriegsbutterhros' ') ; no evening clothes, not even in the royal opera house everybody realizes that tins is not the time for such things, when our brothei s are lighting in the trenches ! All a re working1, princess and beggar beg-gar girl, each according to their means and abilities, each helping those that are in need. One lady of my acquaintance is making personally, person-ally, twenty baby outfits for poor mothers, another one is three times daily feeding twelve poor women, another an-other works ten hours da'ly In the hospital, another at the office where people get Information about their dear ones in the field, and so on. Extols the Kaiser. I suppose the English -American press is still feeding you with horror-tales horror-tales about the kaiser's doings, "how the war lord ordered this attack, how he commanded that fortress to be taken at aiy cost," etc. ? The fact is, that the emperor shows his real greatness by putting the right peopie in the right place and by not interfering inter-fering with them or their plans. All these silly stories, emanating from the same source, that coined, with malicious intent, years ago, the word "war lord," an utterly and wilfully wrong translation of our word,. "Kriegsherr," which means commander com-mander in chief. I should judge that perhaps CO per cent of the American people "do not give a damn one way or the other"; the re?t are about equally divided between pro-British and pro-German, with a continuous increase of the pro-German sentiment. senti-ment. And why should this not be so? The American people are. above all, very fair, and, quite naturally if two fellows are attacked by seven they take the part of the two, of the underdog, particularly if that underdog under-dog puts up a splendid right and licks the others. The "Belgian atrocities" do not work any more ; it has been overdone and the people in general begin to realize that they have been fooled and that the only Belgian atrocities were committed by Belgians, Belgi-ans, by which I will not say that among an army of many hundreds of thousands, as everywhere among a big crowd, are not some rascals, who are liable to do anything. But, believe be-lieve me, If found out, they were most severely punished. As an instance in-stance of the thoroughness with which the officers in command acted, take my brother's report in his diary about the first civilian prisoners they made in Belgium; how they took them along for several days because at the first court-martial the evidence was not sufficient to warrant any action. Talk about the destruction of the Belgian towns. I have during the last few weeks been in Lou vain, Liege, Brussels, Lille, etc. Of course, whole streets have been, destroyed in the lighting, but you should see our towns in Kast Prussia, where no righting took place, where no shot was fired, and- where not a house remained re-mained intact. You should have seen the railroad trains, which we took from the retreating Russians full of household goods, pianos, pictures, etc. Almost unbelievable! Even now, In secluded spots in the forests, they find occasionally the corpses of murdered mur-dered women! Predictions Realized. Was not the drive against Serbia wonderuflly arrange V Maekensen's troops crossed against Serbian expectations ex-pectations the Danube at the niost difficult and dangerous point! Serbia taken, Montenegro will be taken (poor, fooled Italy: J. The allies will have to give up the Dardanelles enterprise (what a blow to English prid and, above all, to English prestige !) and will be thrown out of Salouikl. The English will be beaten in Mesopotamia; Mes-opotamia; then, Suez canal and iEgypt! What happens in India no-bod.1,' no-bod.1,' knows, but things do happen there. An English journalist told me the other day that in Colombo alone 2000 natives were thrown into prison why. wonder? Verily, the English empire is tottering; they bit off a piece too large for them, to chew ! The most amusing thing Is that they keep proclaiming their victories on all theaters of war let us hope that they will continue gaining such victories ad infinitum it suits us! To what means they have lo resort to kef P their poor, Ignorant people fooled is really pitiful ! However. French and Belgians are beginning to see that they are nothing but England's Eng-land's toots that England is perfectly per-fectly willing to fight to "the last French soldier." I believe we will some day ha.vc to help the French to throw the English out of Palais; they have leased the territory ior a num- her of years, rented quarters for a period of years, are building stone barracks, and the French have to have English passports to move In this part of their own country! Poor French. We admire and respect them as enemies. They are splendid fighters; fight-ers; the prisoners are, as soldiers and men, far superior (o the English, for whom they ruined their lovely country! Bexlin Little Changed. Berlin Is the same as of old. No denying that you see less young men on the streets than in peace time, or that the prices have gone up. A good example offers Kempinsky's famous restaurant. You remember, as far back as fifteen years, one used to pay 90 pfennig (IS cents) for that famous lunch; well, now It has been, by degrees, de-grees, raised to 140 mark (-2 cents). My wife, with two children and maid, pays for two lovely hig rooms, with all modern conveniences and five meals per day. S30 marks a month; that is. at the present rate of exchange. ex-change. $66. And they try to make themselves and the world believe that we are starving! Prices are higher, yes, but not higher than in any neutral neu-tral country and lower than in the United States. What they possibly, or wilfully, take as a sign of starvation, star-vation, namely, our systematic taking care of all supplies, is simply a husbanding hus-banding of our strength, with a view far ahead in the future. Nothing Is being overlooked. We have copper enough for ten years, and if we cannot get a thing we like to have, we Invent a substi-tu substi-tu t ! Our country is wonderful be yond ords in Its sUgnt and determined deter-mined strength, and the longer our enemies foot themselves and others into the belief that then can ever beat us, the more terrible will be their awakening in the end. HANS. |